User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Good Afternoon, Professor Elliot and Class
Now that I have finalized my data collection, I have been reflecting on the theoretical basis of my research project. The theoretical perspective of my final project will focus on answering the question as to what factors influence riparian vegetation abundance. The ecological processes that my hypothesis will look at includes studying predictors such as elevation and aspect and their impact on the amount (presence or absence) of large woody vegetation in a riparian area. An interesting factor came up during my on-going observations and field data collection, which is the presence of higher-elevation riparian meadows on both sides of the creek. The environmental gradient is not homogenous so I am interested to see how this influences (or does not influence) the outcome of my research.
I have found an abundant collection of literature related to my research topic, for example some topics / ideas that underpin my research include:
- Riparian vegetation in upper mountain zones;
- Links between lateral vegetation zones and river flows;
- Longitudinal- and transverse-scale environmental influences on riparian vegetation across multiple levels of ecological organization;
- High-elevation riparian meadows;
- Elevation, competition control, and species;
- Structure and composition of vegetation along an elevational gradient; and,
- Exotic and native plant community distributions within complex riparian landscapes.
Three key words that could be used to describe my study are: riparian ecosystems, elevation gradient, and freshwater streams.
