User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
During my observations on the field – not only on the first day of observation but numerous visits at different times of the day, the difference in animal activity between the two distinct areas fascinated me, especially with deer activity.
July 14th:
- Time: 6am – 6:30am (dawn)
- Temperature: 20C
- Weather: Sunny but partly cloudy. Humidity was 68% (quite high). Wind was ~22 km/hr.
- Seasonality: Mid-Summer
The number and frequency of whitetail deer seemed to increase the further away from the forest and into the hilly grass terrain. The forest seemed to have a lusher vegetation, a source of water from the creek, and soft earth to frolic. Yet, the whitetail deer seemed to prefer frolicking in the ecotone between the two terrains and preferring to spend their time in the hilly area. The ecotone had taller grass with a variety of tall grass species, while the hilly area had shorter grass.
Seeing as how deer are animals that move, it is impossible to log their movement 24/7. I decided to track deer activity based on findings of deer excrement (scat).
My hypothesis for this study will be that between two distinct domains (hilly area and forest), whitetail deer activity will be higher in the open, big, grassy area. My prediction for this research is based on observation of live whitetail deer in that area, and the possible underlying processes, such as:
- The soil and grass type that grows on the hilly area provides a richer nutrient pallet for the deer so they prefer to feed from this area. With a greater surface area than the hilly area has higher abundance as a food source
- The open-area of the hilly area allows for better visualization of any approaching predators
Hence, why there might be more deer activity in the hilly area compared to the densely forested area. My prediction for this research is that more deer scat, that will indirectly measure deer activity, will be found in the open hilly area. I am choosing to assume that distance away from the ecotone that divides these two terrains will not play a factor, hence deer activity should be equal from the edge to the middle of each terrain.
The hypothesis for my research study will be evaluated by the effect of the predictor variables (two habitats based on different spatial arrangements: Hilly grass area & Dense Forest area) on the response variable (if scat is present in quadrat & number of piles of deer scat present in each quadrat). By gathering data on these two variables with numerous repeats and samplings, I am hoping I will be able to determine within which terrain are whitetail deer more active. Considering that both the response and predictor variable are categorical I will use a tabular (two-way contingency table) design with equal-sized quadrats for my design.
Border dividing the 2 areas of interest
Forest Area
Hilly open grass area
Scat could be continuous or categorical as you could do plots and do presence/absence or you could count the number of scat groups within each plot if there are enough scat groups to enable that.
You mention the ecotone but how are you defining this transition area?
I initially had the thought of doing presence/absence of scat – and found for my trial run that only one quadrat out of 10 had 2 scat groups within it. From field observations, after my initial intake, that there is not enough scat groups within each plot to count more than one (rarely is there more than a single pile of scat present). But I was still planning on counting the number of scat piles within each quadrat, in case there is more than one. I was wondering if this would still enable the scat to be considered categorical? Hence, I would still be doing a tabular design?
The ecotone between the two terrains/study areas is practically non existent, it is less than one meter in width right when the border of the forest ends the open-grass hill area begins. The transition zone would have been larger and existent if anthropogenic influences (humans cutting the grass in the open-grass area) had not played a factor. I would define this transition area as long-grass topography. I didn’t think to look for deer scat in this area because it is so small. Do you think I should include this area as a third terrain for the research study?