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Blog 3: Ongoing Field Observations.
I plan to study the “nurse logs” that provide a place for new plants to grow.
I observed two stumps and one log that hosted new vegetation. These pieces of dead wood was in a line from the high elevation to the low elevation. This line goes from alders through the large firs and hemlocks and back into another group of alders. I would get a cross section of samples from the different groves.
All samples collected were from the large trees. The alder deadwood hosted some moss but no vascular plants. The amount and growth of vegetation differed among the three samples observed. One stump had a thick layer of moss and berry canes. The log had less moss and small trees on it. The second stump had a pair of cedar trees about 20 meters tall.
Hypotheses: Deadwood undergoes a process similar to succession. Fresh cut or broken wood hosts basic plants, like moss, before shrubs take roots, which are in turn replaced by climax stage trees.
The response variable is the deadwood which would be categorical. The explanatory variable would be the vegetation that grows on the deadwood. This would be continuous as it varies from basic mosses to large vascular plants.
Your hypothesis sounds great one variable just to keep in mind is that the moister the location is the quicker it will rot so elevation may play a larger role in your experiment. Also, certain types of wood decay faster than others so this may present different observations throughout your experiment.