Excel Exercise

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Drawing a graph to represent your entered data

Your excel spreadsheet should now be complete and look like this:

In order to see how all of the variables above are inter-related we need to plot all the data together. Some data is best represented as a line whilst other data is best plotted as a bar. This data will be viewed with depth, zooplankton and chlorophyll a concentrations plotted as bars whilst the data for nutrients, temperature and salinity will be plotted as lines. Follow the steps below to do this:

1. Highlight the cells A2:E8 in your Excel spreadsheet and select the ChartWizard from the toolbar.

2. Step 1 of 4 - Chart Type: Choose Custom Types, select the Line-Column option then click on Next.

3. Step 2 of 4 - Chart Source Data: shows two tabs at the top of the page - Data Range and Series. Under the Data Range tab select the data Series In rows, not columns. The Series tab at the top of the page contains information on each variable plotted and what cells the data is in. This data does not need changing, so click on Next.

4. Step 3 of 4 - Chart Options: shows six tabs at the top of the page. Under Titles enter 'Cook Inlet Transect Profiles'. Under the Value (Y) axis tab enter 'Water depth (m)'. Under Data Table click on 'Show data table' and 'Show legend keys'. Under the Legend tab deselect 'Show legend'. Click on Next.

5. Step 4 of 4 - Chart Location: select to place the chart as an Object in Sheet 1. Click on Finish.

6. Click on the graph and enlarge it by dragging the bottom and sides so you can see the complete data table.

7. Finally, double-click anywhere on the y-axis numbers and change the maximum scale value to 40. This makes the subtle changes in salinity and temperature easier to see. Your graph should now look like this:

Questions

Use all the information and data you have gathered to answer and discuss the following questions in class with your teacher:

1. what does the combined temperature, salinity and nutrient data for site-6 to site-9 suggest?

2. how does the amount of phytoplankton (or chlorophyll a concentration) change with water depth along the transect and why?

3. how do phytoplankton numbers relate to nutrients and why?

4. why do you think there are no zooplankton at site-12 where the phytoplankton concentration is highest (think about predation)

Answers

Find the answers to the questions above in the following links:

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Copyright © March 2003.

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