User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Hello Classmates and Professor Elliot,
I chose an area that is relatively close to home for my study area, it is also an area I am generally familiar with as I hike frequently in the park. The location is just north of Peachland in the Central Okanagan along the Trepanier Bench within Coldham Regional Park. I chose this study area because there is a fish-bearing stream (Jack Creek) running through the park and is a densely vegetated and largely intact riparian forest. I am interested in studying riparian areas and the overall functionality of the riparian ecosystem in relation to freshwater streams.
I visited the site to gather initial data on June 2, 2018 at 12:00. The weather was overcast, approximately 22 degrees Celsius. The site is higher in elevation, but was void of any remaining snowpack as it is in-between the spring and summer season. Jack Creek was well into spring freshet and flowing typically for this time of year. The ground was moist in most areas and densely vegetated with mixed grasses, shrubs, wildflowers, and riparian forest (e.g. cottonwood trees, trembling aspen). The area is a sloping valley with a carved-out creek ravine running north to south.
I set out with a field journal, 200ft measuring tape, compass, cellphone, Nature BC Common Plants and Animals book, 24inch flex ruler, and a 2ft by 2ft PVC pipe cut into a square. My plan was to stake out an area of interest and generally notice any trends in vegetation.
I staked out a 22 metre by 13 metre study area (286m2) using the 200ft measuring tape and tied orange flags to mark the boundaries. I then used my phone to generate random numbers which would dictate how many steps I took. I had my partner there giving me random bearings (north, south, east, west) so as not to create bias in the data.
Based on my observations, there was a large presence of wild tiger lilies (Lilium columbianum). What I noticed while walking around was that some of the lilies had multiple flowerheads on a stem, while others had only a single flowerhead on a stem. I gathered data from 15 quadrates using my PVC pipe as the quadrate area. I looked at the following criteria within each quadrate:
- Were tiger lilies present or not? How many?
- Measured the height of tiger lilies and width of petals.
- What other species are present? How many of each?
- What type of soil / forest floor is present?
- Other general observations / disturbance.
Based on my initial observations at the site, I left with the following questions which may help form my research subject:
- What causes the tiger lilies to have multiple flowerheads on a stem?
- Do the tiger lilies with multiple flowerheads show different characteristics (e.g. larger/smaller petal size, greater height)?
- There is less sunlight on the eastern side of the creek. Is the distribution of tiger lilies greater on this side?
- How common are tiger lilies in riparian forest areas? Is this a rare occurrence?
some good questions to start – is there something here that grabs you to make a hypothesis and prediction(s)?
You can also *just* wander around and formulate questions, as a method cannot be truly developed until after a hypothesis and prediction(s) with variables are established – therefore, if you want to keep looking, don’t feel that you have to measure out an area and use plots.
I revisited this post and really enjoyed reviewing the field notes!