User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I decided to create a graph illustrating the differences in mean soil moisture among P. tremuloides trees located at the bottom (n=10) and top (n=10) of Whispering Woods hill across the four times I collected data. Initially I had difficulties visualizing this graph because it required two lines on one graph: one for the means from the top of the hill trees, and one for the means from the bottom of the hill trees. I also had difficulties with the y-axis label because the soil moisture probe I used to measure soil moisture did not specify its units, thus the best I could do was treat it as a “relative” soil moisture level where 10.0 was the wettest and 0.0 was the driest. This is easy enough, but made determining the “units” for the y-axis more difficult. I decided to explain my choice in “units” in the figure caption.
The outcome was expected, as across all four data collection sessions the mean soil moisture around the trees at the bottom of the hill were higher than at the top of the hill. The data also revealed that the relative difference in mean moisture is similar, regardless of what the actual moisture ratings are. For instance, on my third data collection session, I visited Whispering Woods earlier in the morning than on my other dates, so all of the moisture readings were lower than usual due to the cold temperature. Regardless of this, the relative difference in mean soil moisture was still similar to data collected later in the day, sitting at a difference of about 2-3 soil moisture levels. This is an interesting finding that I will further explore in my literature review and final report.
That’s all!
Madeleine
