The cayenne tick is recognized as a pest of wildlife, livestock, and humans. It is distributed in the western hemisphere between 30N and 30°S latitudes. This tick has been identified as a potential vector of several diseases, but the ecology of the cayenne tick is poorly understood. The following study was conducted to examine the survival potential of this tick as a function of the saturation deficit (SD) of the environment. Saturation deficit is an index of environmental conditions that combines both temperature and relative humidity with SD increasing with temperature but decreasing with relative humidity. Thus, high values of SD are associated with high temperatures and low relative humidities, conditions that cause ticks to experience maximum water loss. Five values were selected for SD (2.98, 4.83, 5.80, 8.88, and 13.38 mm of Hg) for use in the study. The conditions were established in an artificial environment, with five ticks randomly assigned to each of these conditions. The whole-body water loss of the ticks was recorded every 2 days over approximately a 3-week study period. The water losses (mg) of the ticks are given here.
a. Display the profile plot for these data showing mean whole-body weight loss by time period for each value of SD.
b. Does an increase in saturation deficit appear to increase the whole-body weight loss for the cayenne tick?