User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Hello Class & Professor Elliot,
I continued my field observations at my chosen site (Coldham Regional Park) on June 23, 2018. I noticed that the wildflowers (Tiger lily) that I had originally observed had since finished blooming and their stems were nearly gone. One of my main observations for this trip was that the small meadow area on the western side of the creek had much less large woody trees than the eastern side of the creek. I have decided to switch my study focus and plan to study the abundance of large woody trees across an environmental gradient for my field research project.
Noting that the creek is within a shallow ravine, I decided to take three observations along the environmental gradient on the eastern side of the creek:
- Observation 1: Approx. 30 metres from the creek
– At the base of a small hill, rural private lot to the east
-Noticed a few common riparian plants (e.g. soapberry, bebbs willow)
-The soil was generally dry - Observation 2: Approx 15 metres from the creek:
-A few more larger trees, relatively flat terrain
-Noticed several spruce trees that were unhealthy / standing dead
-Mixed grasses and rocky soils
-Disturbance areas of recreational fire pits were present (burnt logs)
- Observation 3: Approx 3-5 metres from the creek:
-Top of bank from creek
-Very steep slope leading to the creek
-Larger woody trees present, holding soil and slope together
-Larger bushes more abundant
-Soil seemed dry but had more ground cover / rocks
It seems that the patterns here are that the flat meadow area had less forest canopy cover, less large woody trees and more sunlight / shrubs. The processes or environmental factors I think that may be causing this is amount of sunlight and landscape type. It appears that there are greater numbers of larger woody trees on the eastern side of the creek (western facing mountain), this may be due to aspect.
Hypothesis:If the landscape is steep and western facing, then large woody vegetation will be present.
Prediction: Large woody vegetation will be present in western facing slopes.
Response Variable:Large woody vegetation abundance
Explanatory (predictor) Variable:Landscape (gradient) and aspect
Based on my hypothesis and prediction, the response and explanatory variables are both continuous (e.g. time and temperature/sunlight). I have included pages from my field journal as supplementary material to this blog post.
