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For module three I needed to collect plant biodiversity data up a slope which began at the creek that ran through my site. The goal was to see how plant diversity changed as you moved away from the water source. My approach to doing this was systematic and involved taking a transect line surveying 1×1 metre quadrants in succession up the slope. I left a meter spacing between quadrant surveyed. My method was pretty straight forward and I didn’t really have any difficulty since I could choose exactly where I wanted the transect to be within the previously observed site. I do foresee an issue with access however if I take the same approach with the larger project, which will likely involve setting the transect at a particular distance from the last, if the chosen distance ends up being somewhere which takes me into thick brush. Other than that possibility, the strategy seemed to work well to gather the data I wanted, which coincided with my previous observations and prediction. The man made gravel path at the top of the slope however seems to have it’s own affect on biodiversity and will need to be controlled for in my final project. One way I’m thinking of doing this is by also surveying sites on the opposite side of the stream as well where a gravel path does not exist, and looking for patterns in the differences. This way I can determine how much, if any, effect the path is having on my predictions.
Remember to think about the activity from blog post 4 and what you learned about sampling strategies when planning your transects. You could think about randomly placing the transects somehow even though you are systematically sampling along them.