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Shannon Myles
February 3rd, 2020
By comparing the observations made on the field to the online plant database of the University of Texas (website: https://www.wildflower.org/), I was able to identify the four flowering plants of the site as the following:
- Crotalaria Juncea L. or Sun hemp, the two–lobed yellow flowers.
- Helianthus debilis or Beach sunflower, the flowers with yellow petals and a black or yellow center of stamens.
- Hepatica nobilis var. acuta sharp-lobed hepatica, the small white flowers with three-lobed green leaves.
- Richardia brasiliensis small 6 petal purple flowers. They have long pointy green leaves.
During my observations on the field, the concept of ecotone or transitional zone is what really hit me first. The abundance of flowers seemed to be proportional to the distance a certain patch of grass was from the beach. In other words, it seemed like the farther away I walked from the beach, the more flowers were scattered on the ground around me. It also seemed like the two types of yellow flowers were much less abundant all throughout the field. Though surprisingly, those bigger flowers appeared much closer to the beach than the majority of the smaller white or purple flowers.
My hypothesis for this study will be that the natural step-cline creates a gradient in flower abundance that increases proportionally to its distance from the beach. The effect of the natural step-cline that is the beach, in this case, could be on nutrients in the soil or dryness of the soil. As observed, the soil in the area is very sandy, which is probably a result of its proximity to the beach. Very sandy and dry soil cannot support much plant life. Hence why the beach is one of the only places in the world where grass can not grow. So, my prediction for this research is that more flowers will appear as I walk away from the beach with my quadrat. No flowers should be observed in the first few meters from the beach as the soil will still be too dry and sandy. But, as I move towards the mainland, I predict that a few flowers will first appear and that abundance will increase after.
The hypothesis I will test will be evaluated by the effect of the predictor variable (the distance of the quadrat from the beach) on the response variable (the abundance or number of flowers in the quadrat). By repeatedly gathering data on those two variables along the gradient, I’m hoping I will discover a trend in abundance variation. Considering that both the response and predictor variables will be continuous data, a regression design study will be used.
Your observations and attention to detail throughout your blog post are incredibly well done. I find your subject of interest to be quite fascinating and I think it could be potentially beneficial to include a drawing of the flower types, merely for visual clarification. The hypothesis you have chosen to study surrounding the natural step-cline and flower abundance is clearly laid out. The depth of your hypothesis is well done and the information you have included demonstrates that such a hypothesis is falsifiable as the step-cline may have no impact on flower abundance. One question that I have surrounds which subjects in particular you will be including for the abundance measurements. Are all flower types included in this (i.e. Sun hemp, Beach sunflower, etc.), or are you only looking at certain flower types and their abundance in relation to the step-cline? The pattern of the step-cline’s impact on the flower abundance is clearly laid out and well done. The predictor variable of the distance of the quadrat from the beach appears to be a sound choice for this experiment and will be easily measured. The response variable of the abundance or number of flowers in the quadrat studied appears to be well chosen and relatively easy to gather data on in the field. Overall it seems that your hypothesis and predictions are well thought out and constructed nicely, devoid of potentially confounding variables. I look forward to seeing what conclusions are drawn from your study.