I've noticed a lot of really great experimental designs aimed at answering some important, and currently, unknown subject matter pertaining to tortoise husbandry. I thought it might be a good idea to provide general guidelines to setting up and conducting simple experiments for those that may be interested, but unfamiliar with the scientific method.
Below is a simple outline of how we might be able to address a hypothetical question. I have provided a question with an outlined experimental setup that is, by no means, meant to suggest that any substrate is inferior than others. I am also not suggesting that anyone conduct this work/experiment, it's simply an example of the scientific method.
1. Make an observation (i.e. my tortoise has chronic shell rot)
2. Formulate Hypotheses (i.e. My tortoise may have shell rot due to my use of Sphagnum moss as a substrate)
There can be multiple hypotheses, but it's often difficult to disprove a particular hypothesis if you have a large number of them.
3. Design an experiment to test your hypothesis:
There are 3 important aspects to experimental design:
a) Controls
b) Replication
c) Consistency (holding all other factors even)
a) In the example, you could set up 4 treatments - sphagnum alone, soil alone, coconut coir alone, and no substrate. The no substrate acts as our control. This isolates the effects of each of the 4 treatments.
b) Replication reduces the amount of variability within our experimental results. In this example, rather than housing one tortoise per treatment, perhaps you could house 5-10 (more is better) per treatment. This will increase your power.
c) Obviously, if you don't keep all other factors the same, your experimental conclusion (based from your results) is likely to be confounded by other factors. In this example you'd want to give the tortoises all the same food, water, light, etc. and only change their substrate.
I hope this is helpful for those looking to experiment! There is more to the scientific process than I have outlined here, but this is a good start to simple, at-home, experimentation.
-Chris
Below is a simple outline of how we might be able to address a hypothetical question. I have provided a question with an outlined experimental setup that is, by no means, meant to suggest that any substrate is inferior than others. I am also not suggesting that anyone conduct this work/experiment, it's simply an example of the scientific method.
1. Make an observation (i.e. my tortoise has chronic shell rot)
2. Formulate Hypotheses (i.e. My tortoise may have shell rot due to my use of Sphagnum moss as a substrate)
There can be multiple hypotheses, but it's often difficult to disprove a particular hypothesis if you have a large number of them.
3. Design an experiment to test your hypothesis:
There are 3 important aspects to experimental design:
a) Controls
b) Replication
c) Consistency (holding all other factors even)
a) In the example, you could set up 4 treatments - sphagnum alone, soil alone, coconut coir alone, and no substrate. The no substrate acts as our control. This isolates the effects of each of the 4 treatments.
b) Replication reduces the amount of variability within our experimental results. In this example, rather than housing one tortoise per treatment, perhaps you could house 5-10 (more is better) per treatment. This will increase your power.
c) Obviously, if you don't keep all other factors the same, your experimental conclusion (based from your results) is likely to be confounded by other factors. In this example you'd want to give the tortoises all the same food, water, light, etc. and only change their substrate.
I hope this is helpful for those looking to experiment! There is more to the scientific process than I have outlined here, but this is a good start to simple, at-home, experimentation.
-Chris
