User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
The organism I’m interested in studying is moss and its abundance in different levels of canopy cover. On April 12, 2019, I noticed that a majority of the moss in the area was in areas of shade or less canopy cover. In areas where canopy cover was more than 50%, there was moss on the trees, but little to none on the ground. In areas with less canopy cover, but still shade present, moss covered the ground. In open field, where there was 0% canopy cover, moss was present but slight.
I want to examine the abundance of moss covering the ground in three different areas where there are gradients of tree cover. Areas are divided into three different levels of canopy: greater than 50% canopy cover, less than 50% canopy cover (edge of treeline, open canopy), and areas with 0% canopy cover (open field). These ares provide a gradient of sun exposure to the moss. The underlying processes would be the balance between shade/canopy cover, and sunlight exposure. Moss need sun to photosynthesize, however, they prefer being out of direct sunlight. Too much sunlight can be drying to moss.
Hypothesis: The area with equal amounts of canopy cover/sunlight exposure, will support a higher abundance of moss. .
I predict moss will be the most abundant in areas with less than 50% canopy cover, compared to areas with more than 50% canopy cover, or 0% canopy cover.
A potential response variable would be the abundance of moss (% coverage/m^2) in each area, which would be a continuous variable. A potential predictor variable is the amount of canopy cover present which would be a continuous variable, however, I’ll be using it as a categorical variable.
