User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The last few weeks I have made repeated trips to my study area. This time of the year most trees, shrubs and grass vegetation is dormant with all the snow coverage in the park. One of the few organisms that stays around during the winter months is the black capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). They are very abundant in the area I am studying and based on initial observations I inquired to myself where these birds like to spend most of their time in the winter months. The city park I chose has noticeable environmental variances: A large grass fielded area when not covered in snow, grouped coniferous trees, and a denser mixed vegetative with coniferous trees and deciduous trees and small shrubs. (Please see attached photos below.) My hypothesis is that Poecile atricapillusspecies spend more time in realtivly dense vegetation environments to protect them from the elements and from larger birds that prey on them. My response variable would be the Poecile atricapillus.This would be a continuous variable. The predictor variable would be the vegetation environment type and this would be continuous as well. The experiment design would be regression. This experiment could provide valuable feed back to city planners when developing parks as to what kinds of vegetation lay out is beneficial to these small non migratory birds that live in the urban environment.
