Gaya clownfish project (proposal)

From BiodivBorneo09

QUESTION– Does community size influence anemonefishes’ tendency toward aggression?

HYPOTHESIS– Anemonefish living in larger communities will be more likely to aggressively defend their anemones; anemonefish living in smaller communities (or living alone) will be more likely to hide or flee instead of coming out to attack.

NULL HYPOTHESIS– Whether or not an anemonefish attacks is not based on whether or not it lives in a community; it is random, or it is based on something else.

CONFOUNDING FACTORS– By standardizing species of anemonefish, we are essentially standardizing species and morphology of anemones, because of the fact that the symbiotic relationship is often species-specific, as proven by previous studies (CITE THIS). Spine-cheek anemonefish and False Clown Anemonefish.

METHODS– Test every anemone we see. Standardize: one person disturbs, one person records, one person watches.

Dependent variable: it’s a FACTOR (fight or don’t) Independent variable: its CONTINUOUS (number of fish in a community) STATISTICAL METHODS: GLM (binomial family), Logistic Regression

likelihood to attack on y-axis, community size (amount of backup) on x-axis.