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I plan on studying the amount of paper birch in the area surrounding disturbance in my site. Disturbed areas consists of two large areas in which trees were removed in order to accommodate for housing to be developed. I plan on surveying along the edge of the disturbed area in 5m,10m and 20m intervals( this variable is classified as continuous ) . I predict that due to paper birch being a shade intolerant species it will only be found on the edge of the disturbed area due to the fact that without adequate sunlight it does not thrive. One potential explanatory variable that could affect the growth of paper birch in this area could be percipitation.
Hi ckumagai,
Interesting topic! You have a lot of good predictions and I think that clarifying a few things will aid in the development of your study. It would be helpful to clearly state what your hypothesis is, and then use that to formulate your prediction based on your statement. Additionally, precipitation can be a confounding factor, which could be an interesting topic to discuss in your research paper. However, in the preliminary stages of your report, I think it would be beneficial to clearly define your variables and relate them directly to your hypothesis, where you discuss shade as opposed to precipitation.