User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
This was my first experience collecting ecological data for a study, I found it to be enjoyable but difficult. I found it difficult to decide on a research topic because there were so many options to choose from at my location! I believe I followed by experimental design pretty well, however, I did make a few changes throughout the course of my field research:
- During initial data collection I recorded which quadrant (NW, NE, SW, SE) each tree was present, I found that this was immensely time consuming and the exact quadrant location of each tree was not of importance to this study
- Elimination of Alnus rubra – My reconnaissance of the study area I realized I only observed two juvenile Alnus rubra trees, and decided that I would choose sample points which lacked these two trees. I chose to do so because it would create empty data which had no significance to this study
- After my data collection, I decided to rank the exposure levels of each area rather than referring to them as ‘protected’ or ‘direct’. I allocated a level number of 1 to the most protected areas and 6 to the most direct.
Implementing an experimental design in the context of ecology was extremely eye opening. I discovered that there are several steps to follow for accurately formulating a successful study.
