User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My initial data collection was not difficult. The plot locations were easy to get to other than the 20cm of snow that was unpleasant, but otherwise the terrain is very accessible. The data collected showed that there were actually very few regenerating cottonwood stems, which at first glance, I thought there would be substantially more. There were also less coniferous species found than expected, but this could also be due to the fact that small stems are under the snow, or have been browsed. The amount of woody shrub cover can make plots difficult, as there are a lot of plants to maneuver around. The only modification I may make is increasing plot size from a 3.99 meter radius (50 meters squared) to a 5.64 meter radius (100 meters squared). This could improve the accuracy of the estimated density of tree species, as a larger plot may pick up more species, improving the estimated density. It may also be helpful to actually count the number of shrub species in the plot as opposed to estimating their percent (%) cover, as these plants could be the main reason as to why there are very few coniferous species establishing in the area.
