User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
By using the observations made on the field and the online plant database of the website https://www.wildflower.org/, I was able to identify the four plants of the site as the following:
Crotalaria Juncea L. or Sun hemp, the two-lobed yellow flowers.
Helianthus debilis or Beach sunflower, the flowers with yellow petals and a black or yellow center of stamens.
Hepatica nobilis acuta sharp-lobed hepatica, the small white flowers with three-lobed green leaves.
Richardia brasiliensis small 6 petal purple flowers. They have long pointy green leaves.
During my observations on the field, the concept of ecotone or transitional zone is what really hit me first. The abundance of flowers seemed to be proportional to the distance a certain patch of grass was from the beach. In other words, it seemed like the farther away I walked from the beach, the more flowers were scattered on the ground around me. It also seemed like the two types of yellow flowers were much less abundant all throughout the field. Though surprisingly, those bigger flowers appeared much closer to the beach than the majority of the smaller white or purple flowers.
My hypothesis for this study will be that the natural step-cline creates a gradient in flower abundance that increases proportionally to its distance from the beach. The effect of the natural step-cline that is the beach, in this case, could be on nutrients in the soil or dryness of the soil. As observed, the soil in the area is very sandy, which is probably a result of its proximity to the beach. Very sandy and dry soil cannot support much plant life. Hence why the beach is one of the only places in the world where grass can not grow. So, my prediction for this research is that more flowers will appear as I walk away from the beach with my quadrat. No flowers should be observed in the first few meters from the beach as the soil will still be too dry and sandy. But, as I move towards the mainland, I predict that a few flowers will first appear and that abundance will increase after.
The hypothesis I will test will be evaluated by the effect of the predictor variable (the distance of the quadrat from the beach) on the response variable (the abundance or number of flowers in the quadrat). By repeatedly gathering data on those two variables along the gradient, I’m hoping I will discover a trend in abundance variation. Considering that both the response and predictor variables will be continuous data, a regression design study will be used.
This is a really interesting study! I’m curious though, if the lack of plants farther away from the beach is due to the change in soil composition or if it might be due to less disturbance in the area? Such as less wave action or tidal interference? Might be worth looking for a high water mark or other indicators. Good luck with the study!