User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My intended study area is a four hundred metre length of the Spring Valley Trail which is located in Jerseryville Park in the City of Hamilton and part of a conservation area administered by the City of Hamilton and the Dundas Valley Conservation Area. The study area is part of an irregularly shaped, mostly-contiguous protected area covering over 1200 hectares of conservation area and approximately 1500 hectares of private and crown land. The conservation area has numerous streams and waterfalls and is comprised mostly of forests with small meadows which are artifacts of previous agricultural activities and human habitation.
Soil in the area was not studied but probably ranges from clayey to clayey-loam as it was once a riverbed and this would be consistent with other similar parcels in the general vicinity.
The study area runs linearly, approximately north-south, along a formal unpaved (municipally maintained) footpath called the Spring Valley Trail which connects to numerous other trails in the protected area. The study area is bounded on the east side by Sulphur Creek which runs roughly parallel to the footpath and an irregularly shaped ridge line running roughly parallel to the study area to the west. The height of the ridge is approximately 10-20 metres along its course creating a defined boundary to the study area ecosystem. The study area itself has undergone significant human disturbance in the past and as a public-use facility, continues to undergo significant disturbance from high pedestrian and bicycle usage.
The actual study area is the disturbed area running adjacent to the public footpath. Even to an unqualified observer, the difference in vegetation is apparent along a gradient from the pathway to the forest along the ridge. The vegetation in the study areas appears to be mostly invasive species of which I am having trouble accurately identifying. Queries to online forums have yielded only a common-catchall term of “hogweed” which apparently is a common term for unidentified low-value plants. Dispersed throughout the study area are maple saplings which generally do not have the opportunity to mature due to human disturbance and the prevalence of herbivores (deer) in the area.
While walking through the area on numerous prior occasions, the difference in vegetation adjacent to the trail from the forest floor became obvious. I also noted that some areas along the trail are much more sparsely vegetated and I wondered why. Some possible questions regarding the observed phenomena are:
Is there a correlation between amount of available light and ground cover?
Are variations in ground cover due to recurring disturbances?
Are variations in ground cover due to topographical influences?
I would like to explore the available light aspect for my study.
The study area was visited on several occasions in early October to reconnoiter the area and evaluate specific study plots. The main study visit was conducted on October 11, 2018 between 2-3PM. The weather was sunny with very little cloud cover, 23°C, with very little or no wind. Data collection consisted of taking photographs and measurements. Although the floor was partially covered, it appears that the leaf litter was not due to seasonal autumn activities as most trees and plants had not shed their leaves giving the opportunity for plant identification.
