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Blog Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives
September 30, 2019
The theoretical perspective for my field research project came from the positioning of the Hydrocotyle plant. When I was observing the lawn landscape, it seemed as though the Hydrocotyle was only found in the Southern area. The region of the landscape closer to the North side was higher in soil elevation. When I further examined the grassland on the far Southside, I noticed it had a dip in the soil, a region of lower elevation. I presumed more water would collect in this lower elevation area, and the region of higher elevation would receive more sunlight, helping to dry it out. After looking at research and botany articles, I had discovered that this genus is typically known to be aquatic. My assumption was that the soil moisture in the landscape must be over a gradient, which is why the plant would be found in this area of the lawn but not in the far Northside. I decided to test the hypothesis that there was a moisture gradient in the lawn, by purchasing a “Moisture meter” from the garden center. I used the mosituer meter to determine that the area on the Southside of the landscape did indeed have a higher mositure content. The moisture found in this area was drastically higher than on the North side. I checked the moisture levels on 3 different days. On average the South area ranged from ‘10’ (farthest Southside) to ‘4’ (on the Northern side). The moisture levels varied on the 3 days which I observed them, but all showed the South side having a high moisture level of ‘10’. I decided to test the theory that Hydrocotyle was limited by the moisture.
My research project touches on the ecological process of plant limitations on soils moisture levels. As I observed 6 different species in the lawn, the project also touches on diversity of plants in areas of high soils moisture levels vs. low moisture levels. I found more varieties of plants in the areas of high moisture level. The paper would also include the ecological process of reproduction and plant growth under soil moisture. Three key words I would use for the research paper are “soil moisture,” “grassland gradient,” and “Hydrocotyle limitations.”
