User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I have chosen to conduct my research in the forest area adjacent to my house, which consists of a heavily wooded area surrounding a rocky knoll in Creston, B.C. It is approximately 20 acres of privately-owned land (see Figure 1) with a walking trail that is used by people in the neighbourhood and their dogs. 
The research area borders a large cherry orchard immediately to the south as well as other sizable fruit and vegetable farms about 2 km to the west. Residential neighbourhoods enclose the direct west and north boundaries, while the forest continues to the east. Highway 3 runs parallel to the forest about 500 m to the east.
The forest is mostly comprised of deciduous pine and fir trees, but also has many cedars and larches. There are lots of small shrubs and bushes among the trees, varying in height from approximately 20 cm to a meter.
The composition of vegetation on the rocky outcrop in the centre of the area is mostly moss and lichen, with a few short, bare shrubs on the slope (see Figure 2).
- What causes the difference in abundance of the tree types throughout the research area? I observed that the north side of the forest is mainly bull pines, then cedars predominate in an area of lower elevation that was logged about three years ago, and finally a mix of bull pine and fir trees on the south end that is slightly higher elevation and closest to the cherry orchard (no cedars).
- Do the pesticides for the cherry trees affect the growth of other plants closest to the orchard (Figure 3)? Dormant sprays should have been applied in the fall and may have been carried by the wind to the plants at the edge of the forest especially.
- Lichen was observed growing largely on the north side of pine trees in the area. What kind of symbiotic relationships exist between the lichen and the tree? If the lichen has photosynthetic cyanobacteria in it, why does it grow on the shadier side of the tree? Is the lichen visible on the rocky outcrop the same species of lichen as on the trees, even though the rocky outcrop gets much more sun?
Field Notes for April 07, 2019
