User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My hypothesis is that I believe that the Arbutus trees in this region are experiencing poor leaf health and disease as a direct result to the lack of sunlight reaching the trees due to competition with taller, quicker growing neighbouring trees who act to block out the sun to Arbutus trees and are less effected by poor sunlight than the arbutus is.
These neighbouring trees are more well adapted in a forest ecosystem than Arbutus are, and have developed evolutionary advantages over the Arbutus, and in most cases outcompete the Arbutus trees for resources and grow more quickly.
Keywords that I would use to describe my hypothesis would include competition, Forest ecology, photosynthesis, and evolutionary biology.
