User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Hi Class & Professor Elliot,
This past long weekend I finished my field data collection at Coldham Regional Park. I set out early in the morning to beat the summer heat and it took me around 3.5 hours to finish collecting samples.
Over the past two months I have been regularly thinking about my study design and hypothesis, which I have had to revise several times. From the start, my sample design seemed sound and I did not run into any problems implementing the sampling design on the ground (other than trying to cross the creek!). I took 40 replicate samples over an area of 60m by 50m, divided into four transects, to accurately capture the riparian area either side of Jack Creek.
My prediction was that there would be a greater abundance of large woody vegetation on the eastern side of the creek that has a westerly facing slope. It was interesting during field data collection, I noticed more of a pattern that in the flatter areas on the west side of the creek there was indeed greater abundance of large woody vegetation, however, as the hillside became steeper there was typically less vegetation overall.
Another interesting pattern that I wasn’t expecting was the number of spruce trees. I had originally thought there would be greater diversity in the species of trees (e.g. pine, spruce, maple). But during data collection, spruce trees were clearly the most abundant species. Another note was that there were several standing dead spruce trees on the western side of the creek (that gets more sunlight), and healthy, taller spruce trees on the eastern side of the creek.
Reflecting on my hypothesis, I am interested to see what sort of correlations I can find and other explanations during theoretical research.
Thanks for reading.
-Brittany Lange
