User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I was happy to do this research study because reading about peatlands and being out in the field built on the interest and appreciation that I already had for them. I think that this is something I will continue to read up on. I had a hard time landing on a design and hypothesis but when I finalized my idea it was fun to execute.
If I were to do this study topic again I would want to do it in the spring or summer. It was very hard to identify plants in the winter and took much longer than I think it would have if there were flowers present.
Engaging in this study has altered my view of ecological theory development. I think my final study was void of biases but I definitely struggled to design a study that didn’t feed into my preconceived notions. I think developing theories in ecology is interesting because of how complicated the real world application is. There are so many things to account for that could influence what you are observing. I learned about so many more ecological interactions in my study than I noticed in my original observations.
