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Snow geese feeding trial. Botanists at the University of Toronto conducted a series of exp...

Snow geese feeding trial. Botanists at the University of Toronto conducted a series of experiments to investigatethe feeding habits of baby snow geese ( Journal of Applied Ecology , Vol. 32, 1995). Goslings were deprived of food until their guts were empty and then were allowed to feed for 6 hours on a diet of plants or Purina® Duck Chow®. For each feeding trial, the change in the weight of the gosling after 2.5 hours was recorded as a percentage of the bird’s initial weight. Two other variables recorded were digestion efficiency (measured as a percentage) and amount of acid-detergent fiber in the digestive tract (also measured as a percentage). Data on 42 feeding trials are saved in the SNOWGEESE file. The first and last 5 observations are listed in the table below.

Feeding Trial

Diet

Weight Change (%)

Digestion Efficiency (%)

Acid-Detergent Fiber (%)

1

Plants

-6

0

28.5

2

Plants

-5

2.5

27.5

3

Plants

-4.5

5

27.5

4

Plants

0

0

32.5

5

Plants

2

0

32

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

38

Duck Chow

9

59

8.5

39

Duck Chow

12

52.5

8

40

Duck Chow

8.5

75

6

41

Duck Chow

10.5

72.5

6.5

42

Duck Chow

14

69

7

Based on Gadallah, F. L., and Jefferies, R. L. “Forage quality in brood rearing areas of the lesser snow goose and the growth of captive goslings.” Journal of Applied Biology , Vol. 32, No. 2, 1995, pp. 281–282.

a. The botanists were interested in the correlation between weight change ( y ) and digestion efficiency ( x ). Plot the data for these two variables in a scatterplot. Do you observe a trend?


b. Find the coefficient of correlation relating weight change y to digestion efficiency x. Interpret this value.


c. Conduct a test to determine whether weight change y is correlated with digestion efficiency x. Use α = .01.


d. Repeat parts b and c , but exclude the data for trials that used duck chow. What do you conclude?


e. The botanists were also interested in the correlation between digestion efficiency y and acid-detergent fibe x. Repeat parts ad for these two variables.

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