User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I used a random sample technique to choose the 4 sites I selected. In order to keep it truly random, I threw a stick randomly and wherever that stick landed would be the area for the new plot. Once the plot was selected, I used a measuring tape to measure a 10 m x 10 m plot. A wooden steak was placed at each corner and then string was wrapped around all 4 wooden steaks of the plot so that I could clearly see the outline of the plot. Once the quadrat was set up, I walked in transects throughout the plot and recorded the data. A main difficulty I had implementing this was that it was hard to tell which trees, especially dead fallen trees, were spruce trees and not another species. I did some research to find out that in order to tell if the tree has died due to the spruce beetle, that I should look for patterned lines and wholes on the bark as that’s a sign that that tree has died from the beetles. Another difficulty is that in the denser tree cover plot, it was hard to count all the trees without losing count since there were so many trees. To try to fix this, I just made sure that I recounted the plot 2 or 3 times to ensure I have the correct number. Something I found surprising is that plot 2 (with sparse tree cover), actually had a higher amount of dead trees than the other plots. I think the technique I used works well for the area that it is and that by throwing the sticks, ensures that the plots are random.
