Stress can affect the physiology and behavior of animals, just as it can with humans (as many of us know all too well). The accompanying data on x ! plasma cortisol concentration (in milligrams of cortisol per milliliter of plasma) and y ! oxygen consumption rate (in milligrams per kilogram per hour) for juvenile steelhead after three 2-min disturbances were read from a graph in the paper “Metabolic Cost of Acute Physical Stress in Juvenile Steelhead” (Transactions of the American Fisheries Society [1987]: 257–263). The paper also included data for unstressed fish.

a. Is the value of y determined solely by the value of x? Explain your reasoning.

b. Construct a scatterplot of the data.

c. Does an increase in plasma cortisol concentration appear to be accompanied by a change in oxygen consumption rate? Comment.

Transcribed Image Text:

X 25 36 48 59 62 72 80 100 100 137 y 155 184 180 220 280 163 230 222 241 350