User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I plan on focusing on the soil moisture of three varying areas and see how this relates to the vegetation growing there.
Location 1
- Surrounded by coniferous trees, with a few leaf trees
- Weed grass everywhere
- Sloped hill, north facing
- Many varieties of mosses
- Some small mushrooms
- Soil feels very moist, a dark brown, friable consistency,
Location 2
- Area mainly consists of weed grass and sagebrush
- Slightly sloped, north facing
- A few mushrooms and different variety of small plants
- Soil feels moist, but loose consistency and is a lighter brown than location 1, the texture is silky.
Location 3
- Vegetation consists of tall cattails and various other tall grass species
- The soil is noticeably more moist as this is a marsh area
- The soil has almost a green colour to it, a firm almost clay consistency, and a sticky texture.
There are multiple processes and factors that lead to this difference in vegetation. Some including sunlight, elevation, nutrients, pH and moisture. I hypothesize that moisture level of soil greatly affects the vegetation of that area. From this hypothesis I predict that location 2 will have the lowest moisture level in the soil and location 3 will have the highest moisture level. This is my prediction based on the vegetation I saw in these areas. The response variable is the vegetation and the explanatory variable is the soil moisture.
