User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
For my research project, I’m studying how soil moisture affects the distribution of western redcedar trees (Thuja plicata). This touches on how abiotic factors, such as soil moisture, can affect organisms. Water is a fundamental resource required for life, so it follows that it would play a significant role in the ecosystem. If water is scarce, the more tolerant organisms will be better competitors and have a better chance at survival.
I have found that Douglas-fir trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are the most common tree in both sites with cedars and without. Douglas-firs require more well-drained soil compared to western redcedar, indicating that Douglas-firs are likely to be more tolerant of water scarcity. Therefore, Douglas-firs can be found in the sites with less soil moisture, where western redcedars can not survive.
The keywords that I would use to describe this project are soil moisture, tolerance, and western redcedar.
This is a good start and you will use these ideas in the intro and discussion of your paper. There are usually a fair number of studies available on soil moisture and tree distribution so you should have good background to work from.
Also, you touch on it here, though don’t come out and say that competition for resources plays a role.