The source of ecological information I have chosen is the following citation: Muñoz, P. T., Torres, F. P., & Megías, A. G. (2014). Effects of roads on insects: A review. Biodiversity and Conservation, 24(3), 659-682. This paper is an academic, peer-reviewed review. The authors are affiliated with the University of Grenada in Spain, the paper includes in text citations and a bibliography of the citations used so it can be considered academic material. The authors acknowledge the feedback received from the three anonymous reviewers so the article was peer reviewed. The title of the paper describes it as a review and the paper does not include any method or results sections.
Category: Percy Hebert
Blog Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives
When I had observed the wildlife in the pond for the first time I had noticed there were no ducks in the shallow areas. I had seen a muskrat swimming in the shallow water. Therefore, the question I had was in regards to predator-prey interactions. I had thought that the ducks purposely chose to avoid the shallow water to avoid the possibility of being attacked by a predator. However, after sampling, I found the ducks sometimes chose to stay in shallow water and perhaps the predator-prey interactions were not the driving force behind the choice of location within a pond. Therefore I am investigating one of the many potential factors influencing the patch choice of the mallard ducks and redhead ducks. Therefore, I feel my topic covers the keywords below:
Keywords: Patch Choice; Foraging behaviour; Animal Nestings; Animal behaviour
Blog Post 6: Data Collection
I had been collecting data March 26 to March 28 on the number of ducks in the three locations (Land, Shallow water, Deep water) and found there to be somewhat more ducks in the deep water. I had collected a total of 5 samples. Sample 2 and 3 were on the same day at different times. Sample 4 and 5 were also on the same day at different times. During these sampling periods, I noticed something important: the ducks appear to change preference throughout the day. This data is simplified and shown in Table 1 below. Therefore, I had collected 4 more days of data at three points in time during the week of April 2nd. This data has yet to be analyzed – but this had changed my initial hypothesis. I had originally hypothesized that the ducks prefer to be in the deep water at all times but I hypothesize that they prefer the shallow water during certain light levels.
Table 1. The average number of ducks seen in each location throughout the day for each sampling trial. Each trial shows the mean number of ducks in the location during the sampling hour. The Average number is shown in the last row.
| Trial | Land | Shallow | Deep |
| 1 | 0.0 | 10.3 | 8.6 |
| 2 | 0.2 | 2.9 | 9.4 |
| 3 | 0.0 | 6.0 | 6.5 |
| 4 | 0.4 | 3.9 | 10.3 |
| 5 | 0.0 | 6.6 | 6.8 |
| 0.1 | 6.0 | 8.3 |
Blog Post 4: Sampling Strategies
After using the sampling techniques I have found that the fastest sampling technique was the systematic sampling technique with it taking 12 hours and 39 minutes. The percent error is shown in Table 1. Both haphazard and random sampling lacked finding the striped maple, while the systematic approach still had a very large percent error. It appeared that the random sampling overall had a lower percent error than the other two techniques; however, with 24 samples, the percent error for all plants is still statistically significant. This is interesting as I wouldn’t have expected the percent errors to be so high with this many samples. The two more abundant species have a lower percent error than the two less abundant species. Therefore, abundance did appear to influence the percent error.
Table 1. Haphazard, Random and Systematic sampling percent error in regards to density. The (*) indicates no species found in the trials for said technique.
| Haphazard | Random | Systematic | |
| Eastern Hemlock | 37.92296233 | 34.77336 | 11.51309 |
| Sweet Birch | 64.5106383 | 39.74468 | 11.48936 |
| White Pine | 114.2857143 | 4.571429 | 151.4286 |
| Striped Maple | 100* | 100* | 185.7143 |
Blog Post 5: Design Reflections
My data collection from March 26 until 28 had shown some interesting results. I collected the location of the two duck species Anas platyrhynchos Aythya americana within the Gambles Pond at different times. The layout for my collection locations is shown below:
I collected data of for which regions the ducks were in with 5-minute intervals for an hour. The difficulties I faced were with differentiating ducks at low lighting. This was mediated by using binoculars – but still was difficult at lower light levels in the evening. I was surprised how often ducks entered the shallow water in the evening versus the earlier day. As a result, I wish to collect data at 3 times periods a day to see if there are any differences among the three periods. I think that this approach should be good for collecting the data.
Blog Post 9: Field Research Reflections
To summarize my experiment, I took samples of Achillea millefolium around the interior of British Columbia at different elevations and counted their flowers to see if there seemed to be a relationship between elevation and fitness. I completely changed my study goals when a brutal winter hit Merritt and the bunchgrass I was investigating was literally frozen solid.
To be tactful, my research was not well thought out. To be blunt, my research was garbage. I started with two sites in Chilliwack, 170 km from my home, then took samples at three sites in the Thompson-Okanagan, much closer to home, once the snow had melted enough. This may not have been a great idea, simply because there are significant differences in climate and plant life in those areas that I was not equipped to control. Were I to repeat this experiment, I would stick to one biogeoclimatic zone.
As I read through the literature related to my plant, I realized that I did not account for numerous confounding factors in my design. The best I could do by that point was point out the glaring flaws in my design in the final paper, as I am in no position to go traipsing through the snow again to recollect all of my data. I also figured out that I really need to brush up on statistics (it’s been a few years for me, and I am certain that I made errors in interpreting my results).
I will say that I found the initial field observations highly enjoyable. As a computer scientist, I have had almost no exposure to ecology or field techniques, but it was a wonderful experience to take control of my own learning and pay attention to the fine details of my local natural community.
Overall, the entire process was a valuable learning experience. Even if my design was not a complete success, I was able to identify where there existed weaknesses by looking at others’ experimental designs with a critical eye.
Blog Post 3: Ongoing Field Observations
I had gone to Gambles pond again on March 25 to observe the behaviour of the animals around.
I have decided to focus on 3 species:
The Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
The Redhead Duck (Aythya americana)
The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
While I may focus more on the Mallard duck – I think that collecting data from the other two species would provide good data for consideration. I am interested in a couple of factors about the ducks in particular. Why do they seem to avoid one section of the pond and do they change how they behave during different times of the day or at different temperatures. As I saw in my previous blog posts, I noticed a small animal that looked like a muskrat swimming around in the shallow section. Perhaps the main reason the ducks are more prevalent in the centre of the pond is to avoid potential predators. However, there is a walking path, and ducks seem to migrate there when people are present. This may be to get food from people. So to investigate I will have to stay away from the edge of the water.
I hypothesize that: Anas platyrhynchos prefer to be in the open of a body of water.
I predict that: The number of Anas platyrhynchos in the middle of the pond will be higher than at the edges.
The predictor variables: land, shallow water with foliage and deep water (categorical).
The response variables: Number of Anas platyrhynchos present (continuous).
Attached are my field book notes: Ongoing Field Observations_Drayden Kopp
Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information
The source of information is from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3798312?origin=crossref
This is an academic peer-reviewed journal article. It is a research article.
The article discusses research methods and uses its own data. It is published into a journal. The guidelines for this journal talk about the peer-review process in detail here:
http://www.nacwg.org/JWMguidelines2011.pdf
A reference to this source:
Martz, G. F. 1967. Effects of Nesting Cover Removal on Breeding Puddle Ducks. The Journal of Wildlife Management 31:236.
Blog Post 1: Observations
The Area I am interested in is Gambles Pond. It is at a public park. The area has a baseball field near the pond and a small path to the edge of the pond. The pond itself has a lot of vegetation. There are a handful of animals present. The pond itself is near a grassland area with rolling hills. There are a few trees and shrubs. Some of the trees may be ornamental. I visited at the start of spring on March 24, 2018. There is still snow present – but ducks and geese are present. Interestingly, a large section of the lake is lacking any ducks but a muskrat or otter is present.
The area of interest is shown below:
Areas of interest would be:
- Prevalence of ducks at different light levels and temperature levels.
- The ratio of male to female ducks
- The choice of location made by the ducks.
I have kept my lab book digitally:
Blog post #7: Theoretical perspective
In my experiment, I am looking at how the survival rate of the Nootka Rose hip varies according to the distance from an exposed cliff overlooking the ocean. The theoretical basis for this research is to determine how the micro-climate of a cliff environment affects the survival of this particular species.
Plant species that grow along cliffs are more subject to harsh abiotic conditions including high winds, limited space and drier soil (Mathaux et al 2015). Therefore, I am interested to see how the survival rate of the Nootka rose hip varies along a gradient that differs in the distance from the cliff’s edge.
Keywords:
Cliff ecology, abiotic factors, Nootka rose
Reference:
- Mathaux C, Mandin JP, Oberlin C, Edouard JL, Gauquelin T, Guibal F. 2016. Ancient juniper trees growing on cliffs: Toward a long mediterranean tree-ring chronology. Dendrochronologia. 37:79-88.
