User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Looking back at the original design of my field research, I recognized a problem getting accurate representation of the mean grass distribution. The grass was naturally distributed in clumps which meant a smaller number of samples would likely result in a misrepresentation of the cover. I made the change to add more transects after the initial collection of data, but I still feel the number of transects could have been doubled to property represent the mean distribution. Prior to taking this course, I took GEOG 3991 Climate Change. I learned about the many negative impacts of climate change on our sensitive ecosystems caused by anthropologic sources. Ecology has deepened my appreciation for how ecologists meticulously gather data which can be used as evidence of the impacts of climate change. I have a greater understanding of the processes that go into research, the time that is in involved in accurately collecting data, as well as the other confounding factors that need to be accounted for.
