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After repeated visits to the Art Gibson Memorial Park I have decided to study the correlation between soil pH levels and the presence of undergrowth. The park is for the most part dominated by an old canopy of coniferous trees underneath which there is minimal undergrowth, but there are small areas of new growth with different species of trees where there is plentiful undergrowth. I have decided to investigate 2 plots approximately 30x50m one belonging to the old growth and another the new growth. There are many factors that could cause the presence or lack thereof of undergrowth, soil moisture, amount of shade cast by the canopy or the pH levels of soil. The park belongs to the biogeoclimatiic zone ICHdw1 which is supposed to be a typically moist so I doubt there being a change in moisture between such little distance in the two research plots. I hypothesize that there is a correlation between the presence of undergrowth and soil pH, I predict that there will be a positive correlation with higher levels of soil pH being present in the areas of new growth. The response variable should be the presence of undergrowth and the explanatory variable should be soil pH levels the former being a categorical variable and the latter being a continuous variable.
