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As my data collection I found 5 replicates of Arbutus trees by splitting 5 groups of clustered trees in different geographic regions, and then I assessed the health of each tree by estimating the proportion of healthy leaves on the tree.
I then took this data and graphed it producing a graph relating the % of healthy leaves vs each of the five groups to see if I could notice a trend. I then averaged each replicate (2 trees) per group to find the average of the leaf health in each group.
My hypothesis was that the poor health of the Arbutus trees along this route was primarily caused by poor access to sunlight and resources in the soil directly caused by competition with taller and faster growing neighbouring trees.
My prediction was that the regions that had more open areas, a shorter tree canopy, or niches where only Arbutus trees could easily grow (cliffs), that these regions would have the largest trees and the healthiest leaves.
This pattern was observed in the graphed data. As the landscape transitioned from a dense forest to open fields to elevated cliffs, the leaf health of the Arbutus trees did increase. The most open areas and those with cliffs had the greatest leaf health, those with the thickest forest had the worst health, and a zone in-between the two had moderate levels of leaf health, which is also to be expected.
