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Blog Post 5 – 12-02-20
Collecting the initial data in Module 3 proved to be a difficult task. I spent much time trying to ensure that I correctly identified the vegetation species in the current winter conditions. The species I selected were large enough for me to clearly identify what grouping they belonged to and once that task was complete I was able to get a closer look at them to determine what species of tree or bush they were. The sampling strategy I chose for that data collection was Stratified Random sampling. The study area of the park was divided by strata into park land, which the area was mostly comprised of, and pond land, which was a much smaller portion. After diving the two strata, I randomly selected four areas in the park land and sampled the vegetation within, finding this process to be rather difficult for the aforementioned reasons. The two pond areas were relatively easy to measure, especially as I drew closer to the water with much of the regular vegetation diminishing in these areas. The data that I collected seemed to be relatively unsurprising with some of my general expectations having been met. For example, I had made the prediction before sampling that vegetation such as the Broadleaf Cattail (Typha latfolia) would be found only in pond location quatrats. Upon sampling, it was made clear that this prediction was correct. Overall there were no unusual data collected that caused me any surprise. I think from completing this first sampling data collection, I will continue to use the same strategy of Stratified Random sampling as it appeared that this strategy allowed me to accurately find both the abundance and distribution of several species in the park.
