Category: Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives

Blog Post 7 – Theoretical Perspectives

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In my blog posts I often used the word dispersal. I used it as a broad term to describe where organisms are found in a pond. The focus on my project was on habitat. The underlying factors for habitat could include food, protection from predators, competition, and reproduction among others. Some abiotic factors may also come into play such as light, temperature, and water depth. I think one ecological process it touches upon is patches on a small scale. The pond consists of different habitat patches of various sizes and composition that influence how aquatic insects are dispersed around the pond. Edges of the habitats also come into play and influence the movement of the insects around the pond. In terms of my own research project gradient could also come into play as my transect line ran along changes in plant density.

Three basic words to describe my research project are pond, aquatic insects, dispersal.

Blog Post 7. Theoretical Perspectives

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Almost every secondary school student, would be able to recognize basic importance of bees. As a whole, pollinators community contribute to reproduction of almost 180,000 flowering plant species and many crops. In fact different sources indicate that they are responsible for 20-35% of worlds food production. Most of recent studies indicate a drastic decline in pollinators community, which is associated with anthropogenic changes. Because we are so dependent on pollinators, it is greatly important to maintain their number at equilibrium. First step in establishing such equilibrium is defining the reasons behind the decline and specifying patterns that underline it. One of such reasons is urbanization that is constantly increasing its level, which leads to fragmentation and loss of habitat. Therefore, it is important to find the patterns of pollinators community distribution in response to urbanization gradient. Further down the line, specific patterns preferred by the community could possibly be recreated in the highly disturbed areas and maintain the population preventing it from decline. Specifically in my study, I would like to evaluate not only impervious surface effects but also incorporate the encounters with anthropogenic objects as one of the factors effecting the distribution.

Keywords

Pollinators, Urbanization, Conservation

Blog Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives

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Blog Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives

Since my last blog post I have completely changed by study focus and sampling design. For my new project I will be looking at how sun exposure effects the growth of Fescue grass (Festuca L.). The study area for this project is the same as the previous study, which is the Student Services Building (SSB) courtyard at Durham College (DC) located in Oshawa, Ontario.

Seeing that my study aims to examine factors influencing the growth of grass, some ecological processes that my study may touch on may include photosynthesis, soil composition and rainfall. There are many factors and processes that effect the growth of grass and sun exposure is only one factor to consider. During my observations and data collection so far, the effects of sun exposure do have significant impact on the growth of fescue grass.

Three key words that could be used to help identify this work could include: Festuca L., sun exposure, grass growth

Blog Post # 7: Theoretical

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My hypothesis touches upon how environmental factors effect how an organism develops and survives. I think some of us are quite fascinated in how a little seed is able to grow into something that humans as consumers need in order to survive ourselves. The physiological aspects of plants are quite interesting to me and I’ll admit I do not know much about it.

Ideas that underpin my research are wondering how environmental factors change the morphological and physiological components of fruit as it grows and matures. Why and how does the amount of water determine the health of fruit? Would fruit trees be able to survive in extreme drought conditions? What is the optimal environment for fruit trees to survive and develop in?
Keywords: fruit trees, plant physiology, water stress

Blog Post # 7 Theoretical perspectives

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Animal behaviour has been something that we as our own species are fascinated with, we want to know what makes an animal tick, why does the cat flick its tail upwards whilst sometimes it “wags” it side to side. Behaviour of animals has become such interesting topic over the past few years as we seek answers to why animals do the things they do.

The major idea that underpins my research is the why, why and how does the Elephants drinking behaviour change as it gets hotter, how does it change as it gets colder. The Anatomy of the Elephant very well may hold the key to the answer as their enormous weight is matched to a small surface area (relative).

Keywords

African Elephant ( Loxodanta africana ), Temperature, Drinking

Theoretical Perspectives on Measuring Branch Growth Frequency

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Being that my study aims to examine factors influencing the growth of tree branches, some pertinent areas of tree physiology may include photosynthesis, allometry and hormonal regulation. Naturally, these fields are all well documented in the scientific literature, and while I don’t expect to be breaking new ground in regards to vascular plant biology, I am excited to be broadening my personal knowledge base in this field, which I find more and more interesting the more research I do. I am quickly becoming appreciative of the fact that we are very privileged to live in a time where access to so much scientific knowledge is so readily available, in addition to rudimentary material for the budding student as well!

Even within the context of this course I am finding there to be some overlap with similar projects recently undertaken by fellow students. In particular, Doug’s study of insolation on species diversity has helped shed some light on the slope effect for me (pun intended).

While this blog post is supposedly on the theoretical perspectives of this project, I can’t help but ponder what possible practical angles it may hold as well. So far, the research I have done suggests that the measurement of biomass is a regular subject in the field of ecology, and is particularly of interest to the forestry and silviculture industries. The ability to manage biomass production is core to the practice silviculture and the better this process is understood the more effectively this process can be achieved.

Some tags that could be used to help identify this work could include Branch Growth, Sunlight, Pseudotsuga Menziesii and gymnosperm (one extra for good luck).

 

 

Theoretical perspectives and underlying processes

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The man-made staircase that forms the foundation of my hypotheses is an abiotic factor that may influence the growth potential of creeping juniper. More specifically, because the staircase is embedded in the sand, and creeping juniper typically grows along sand, the absence of availability of a favourable environment may decrease plant size. Because my two conditions differ in the amount of sand present for creeping juniper to grow in/along, I am able to statistically test for this abiotic influence.

Keywords for this project would include: creeping juniper; abiotic environmental influences; growth limiters

Blog Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives

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While collecting my data, I have observed that the number of gulls (Larus spp.) present on the beach is much greater at low tide. I have also observed that there are more gulls on the beach when the low tide occurs in the late afternoon and early evening as opposed to in the morning. These observations are true only for one of the three zones of the beach where I collected my data. Gulls were numerous mainly in the rocky intertidal middle zone, in contrast to the two sandy zones of the beach. I have also observed that the number of birds of other genus or species does not seem to vary in function of tides.

The main ecological process underlying the presence of gulls in a rocky intertidal zone at low tide is foraging. Gulls are known to forage for invertebrates in rocky intertidal zones. Their main preys are mussels, chitons, limpets, urchins, sea stars, sea cucumbers, crabs and barnacles. They also prey on small fishes in the shallow water adjacent to the intertidal zone. Gulls are often seen foraging within one hour of the lowest tide since a greater area of the intertidal zone is exposed at that time. Gulls are also known to display other behaviors while in the rocky intertidal zone, such as resting. Some of the others birds that I have observed while conducting my study are buffleheads, common merganser, eagle and common goldeneye. These birds are known to dive in order to forage for their food (invertebrates and fishes). This foraging behavior explains the reason why these birds were not seen in higher number foraging in the rocky intertidal zone at low tide.

Another aspect of my study is the presence of the creek that flows into the ocean right over the rocky intertidal zone. I have been trying to find a link between the presence of the creek and that of a rocky intertidal zone. I would like to find out if the creek is responsible for the presence of the rocky zone. I have also been trying to determine if the creek influences the presence of preys in the intertidal zone through an increase in the amount of nutrients available. I am still searching answers to these questions.

The three key words that I could use to describe my research project are gulls’ (Larus spp.) foraging behaviors, rocky intertidal zone and invertebrate predators.

Theoretical basis

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My research topic looks at the effects of de-icing agents on snow salinity. It is my hypothesis that snow salinity will be higher in areas where road salt is used as a de-icing agent, versus an area that uses sand as a de-icing agent. I believe that this salinity plays a role in altering the abundance of a grass species directly next to areas where the de-icing agent is used.

The concepts underlining my research topic are those of abundance, human interaction and species resistance to salinity

Theoretical Perspectives

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The ecological process that my final research project mainly focuses is the connection between distributional pattern and abundance within trees of different and same specie. Throughout this topic, I will be discussing some factors that play an important role in the type of patterns found in trees which can be seedling, resources, competition and topography. In my interpretation, I will explain how these can compare to the succession of trees at Cranberry Flat which is my area of study. At Cranberry Flat Conservation area two main species of trees can be found I believe one of the primary reason for the low diversity is because of the type of soil present which was laid down by post-glacial deposits, this landform is composed mainly of sand.

My main aim in this research is to prove there is an existent correlation between the species that is more dominant and its distribution, the pattern should be consistent throughout.

Keywords: abundance, distributional pattern, resources, competition.