User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
In total I sampled 75 replicates (25 replicates from each sampling region). I created one 60 inches by 60 inches plot in each sampling region and then proceeded to divide that plot into 25 12 inches by 12 inches quadrants. The only problem I encountered in implementing my sampling design was the same as listed in blog post 5. My sampling design was quite time consuming, but I chose to continue with my design because it was the most accurate. In my hypothesis I predicted that the less shade (and therefore more sunlight) the clovers have access to the higher the abundance/frequency would be. The patterns that I noticed did support my hypothesis. When revisiting my study location, I did notice that the grass had been cut and that the grass was cut much shorter in the larger open areas of grass than the grass around the trees (likely because of the difficulty of maneuvering a lawn mower around the trees). This did make me consider that the clovers in sampling region “shade” and “partial-shade” may experience more competition than the clovers in “no-shade” because of the longer grass. I am considering that this may be a contributing factor to the lower abundance in those areas. However because my data collection was only 7 days apart and the data was very similar I do not think it had too much of an effect.
