User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My initial data collection day went as planned with implementation of my sampling strategy going quite smoothly. I came across one minor difficulty in that my home-made quadrat from cardboard, although useful, started to lose durability towards the end of the sampling intake due to the ground being moist/wet. As I took 10 samples in total, and my research project requires 20 samples in total, I will need to re-make the quadrat with cardboard and wrap it in plastic, or use a more durable material.
The data results were in support of my initial hypothesis prediction, however, I was surprising in that most quadrats did not have any presence of scat for both areas. I plan on collecting data using the same technique as it was quick, easy, good randomization, and allowed for easy visualization of any scat that was present in the quadrat.
As I commented on in your small assignment, a 1m quadrat is fairly small and the fact that many samples had no scat could be because of quadrat size and not deer presence. Something you should think about for your final sampling.
Thank you for the advice! Yes, I just reviewed the feedback and advice from small assignment #1 and #2. I left a comment on small assignment #3 in regards to the quadrat size (that I found there was still minimal scat, so based on non-official scat counting visits to the observational area, that increasing the quadrat size will not make a difference if there is minimal scat and quite spaced out anyways. On the upside, it could also be a good writing point for future research and a limitation of the current study!