User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The study site I have selected is a wooded forest area in Kluane, Yukon. It is pretty heavily forested and not much human interference in this area. It is a massive area so I decided to study an area that is approximately 400 m2. It is on top of a hillslope, and is heavily forested and has lots of animal traffic throughout it with many different tree and plant species. The forest floor is heavily covered in a thick layer of moss as well I visited the site on September 4th, 2018 at around 4-5pm. The weather at this time was around 10-12oC, and was a very sunny, clear day. There are many subjects that this project can be based on, I can focus on the tree species in the area or some of the insect species that are prominent in this area. I know that this area is severely affected by the spruce beetle, and that is why most of the tree cover here is dead. When you look at this area you can see many of the trees are a greyish colour, meaning they are dead or about to die and the main reason is due to these beetles. One question that could form based on these observations is how great is the impact that these insects have on the spruce population in this region. Another question is whether these insects are an issue due to some environmental factor such as weather or another species. Also is this species a native or invasive species which has created this immense issue?
