User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Below are the figures I created to summarize the results of my data collection:
My data was fairly easy to summarize with figures. I struggled with excel (as I don’t have much experience with the system) and creating the graphs took longer than it likely should have. However, for the most part, I think it went well.
Looking at Figure 1 above, it can be seen that species diversity increases as distance from the creek increases. This supports my prediction for the most part, however, I did expect 8 m from the creek to have a greater diversity than 6 m. Looking at my data, it appears that 6 m from the creek is where plant diversity begins to drop off. It is possible that the area right next to the walking trail usually supports a larger number of species, but that anthropogenic influences such as spraying chemicals and mowing have decreased this number.
Looking at Figure 2 A through N, it can be seen that while some species grow all over, others appear to have a preferred distance from the creek in which they grow. Besides grasses, Elymus canadensis and Trifolium repens were by far the most common species and were able to survive in all transects. Graphs F through N show that some plants had specific living conditions. None of them were present in quadrant 4 and some were also not present in quadrant 3. These plants likely do not have the adaptations necessary to survive flooding. There were also some that only grew within a certain quadrant, such as Plantago major (that only grew in Quadrant 1) and Aristida purpurea (that only grew in Quadrant 3). As I continue with my research, I will look into what specific conditions (besides flooding) make these quadrants ideal for these plants. As I continue to analyze my data, I plan to calculate and examine the correlation between distance from the creek and plant diversity.
