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Implementation of sampling strategy

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I am hypothesizing that the number and length of projections of Creeping juniper will vary based on their distance from a man-made staircase at Cranberry Flats, Saskatoon. Specifically, along the South-East side of the stair case, where creeping juniper runs immediately perpendicular to the stairs, there will be fewer and shorter projections of Creeping juniper compared to the NW side where the Creeping juniper sits at least a meter from the stair case.

Implementation of my sampling strategy went fairly well. I chose to sample 10 random sites of Creeping juniper on either side of the stair case at Cranberry Flats. At each site I counted and measured the number of projections extending from the main plant body in a 1m span. I intended to randomly measure the length of three of the projections in each 1m span; however, in all cases, there were no more than two projections, at times even zero.

I used a random number generator to determine which projections I would measure at each site. As stated above, I was not able to implement this randomization in the first five replicates. However, to counter this issue in the remaining replicates, if there are 4 projections in the 1m span and I am supposed to measure projections 1, 2 and 5, I will adjust my procedure and measure projections 1, 2, and 4 in order to maximize observations. This will increase the amount of data I have at each replicate site. Although I will still only have ten data points per side of the staircase (mean length of projections), if I am able to measure three instead of two projections, my data will be more representative of what is found in the environment.

Sampling Strategies

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I chose to sample by area. Please refer to Table 1 for estimated values and percentage error.

Systematic sampling was the fasted technique, taking 12 hours and 41 minutes (compared to 13 hours and 13 hours and 9 minutes for haphazard and random, respectively).

 

In the case of common species (Eastern Hemlock and Sweet Birch), the simple random technique had the highest percentage error, while the haphazard technique had the lowest. When sampling rare species (Striped Maple and White Pine), percentage error was highest when using the systematic technique and lowest using the simple random technique.

 

There was a significant decrease in accuracy based on species abundance. When sampling common species, the average sampling error was 13% compared to that of rare species, which was 104.1%.

 

Overall, the most accurate sampling strategy was haphazard.

 

 

Observations: Blog Post #1

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The location I have chosen to study for my Final Research Project is a small wetland area inside McIntyre Creek Regional park and public trail system in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Approximately four kilometres from the back gate of my residence, following trails I’ve become familiar with over ten years of walking, wild cranberry picking, and unsuccessful fishing, it is a comforting and familiar place that I am ecstatic to explore and observe in an ecological context. The area I’ve focused on is no more than two square kilometers and has varied topography due years of erosion from the creek and human built trails. It is home to many plants and animals, including but not limited to white spruce, lodgepole pine, soap berry (or kinnick-kinnick), wild-rose, various mosses/fungi/lichens, beavers, salmon, large ungulates in passing and various birds. The steep slope descending to the creek reveals white river ash layered between dense clay, and the landing is host to not only a picnic area with interpretive signage but also an active archeological site where one is likely to find churt and obsidian flakes from tools made by early inhabitants. (For detailed trail maps and more information about the area, please follow this link:   http://yukonconservation.org/programs/get-outside/mcintyre-creek-self-guided-hikes-and-citizen-science/ ).

My first visit, on May 8th, 2017 at 12:30pm under overcast skies, revealed dry vegetation that has few signs of the arrival of spring. The more sheltered areas of the creek still have some ice and snow that has not cleared, typical of early spring in the Yukon. I did not see a beaver swimming in the pond, which is a likely occurrence, but there was overwhelming evidence of their busy nature in the form of freshly cut willow and aspen. Beaver activity may be an interesting study area for this project, as well as contrasting the plant/fungi species and health on the picnic landing versus at the wetter creek bed level.

Three questions I have about the area that may lay the foundation for my project are:

  • How does the vegetation differ between the landing area and creek level and what factors contribute to that?
  • Which large ungulate species use the area most frequently and does that draw predators?
  • How important is this area to fish for habitat and spawning?

Blog Post 8: Tables and Graphs

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In order to summarize my data, I have created one table and two graphs. I did have to put some thoughts into how to organize my data. I had to keep my hypothesis in mind to make sure that my table and graphs would reflect it.

I created two graphs. Figure 1 contains all the data of my experiment. For Figure 2, I excluded one set of data, which is the value for the number of other birds at low tide for survey one. On that particular day, the beach was covered with crows (about 200). I observed this phenomenon only once. Since that value is very high, it changes the mean result and the way the graph looks drastically. I also want to do two the statistical analysis, one with and one without that value.

The results of my data collection are mainly as I expected. The number of gulls (Larus spp.) in the intertidal zone varies with the tides and the number of birds of other genus does not. However, I don’t know yet if these results are statistically significant yet. Furthermore, my data show that the number of gulls in the intertidal zone at low tide is higher especially in the late afternoon and evening.  I did not expect that the number of gulls in the intertidal zone at low tide would vary in function of the time of the day. Factors other than the time of the day might have influenced this result, such a weather or wind.

 

Table 1

Comparison of the number of Gulls (Larus spp.) at low and high tide and the number of birds of other genus at low and high tide in an intertidal zone.

   

Gulls (Larus spp.)

  

Other birds genus
  Low Tide High Tide Low Tide High Tide
Survey 1 80 1 200 0
Survey 2 281 0 1 2
Survey 3 2 0 6 0
Survey 4 23 1 0 0
Survey 5 43 0 1 1
Survey 6 79 0 0 1
Survey 7 0 2 2 1
Survey 8 0 0 2 0
Survey 9 0 0 0 0
Survey 10 14 0 5 5
Mean 52.2 0.4 21.7 1
Mean* 52.2 0.4 1.89* 1

*Mean value excluding the value for Other birds genus at low tide for Survey 1.

 

Figure 1. Comparison of the mean number of gulls (Larus spp.) at low and high tide and the mean number of birds of other genus at low and high tide in an intertidal zone.

 

Figure 2. Comparison of the mean number of gulls (Larus spp.) at low and high tide and the mean number of birds of other genus at low and high tide in an intertidal zone. The mean value for other birds genus at low tide excludes the value of survey 1.

Blog Post 5: Design Reflections

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During the month of May is typically the time of year that we see the greatest change in our seasons. Unlike Canada we have two seasons a wet and dry and we are now moving from our wet season towards our drier months (May,June,July,August,September). This has brought cooler temperatures during the day and night as well as different movement of animals, particularly Elephant. It has made data collection hard as the larger herds of Elephants are not moving through the area and the bull elephants are not in great numbers.

The Camera traps have caught a lot of action at the water holes mainly from Impala (the most common antelope in the area), hyena, lion, and warthogs. There have been two instances in the past in the past 9 days where I have caught Elephants drinking at the water holes. Once at Xinatsi dam around 6pm when one elephant bull came and drank and once at Marula pan where two bulls came and drank around 2.30pm. Surprisingly the two most dominant animals in terms of numbers present throughout the day at the water holes are warthog and impala by day and hyena at night, which could have been suspected.

I do plan to continue this method of data collection, as it is the best way to monitor the activity at the water holes without being there day in day out.The use of camera traps to monitor an individuals behaviour in the wild has been a technique used since the 1980’s.  The water holes I have chosen to monitor are non-random points that will be monitored for the presence/absence of elephants which is my response variable. The time of day the elephants drink and the temperature at that specific time will be my predictor values.  However through much contemplation I have decided to try and maximize the amount of elephants to be captured on the camera traps by increasing the amount of water holes to monitored to 10 (see below picture). These water holes are spread out over the 15,000 hectares of traversing area that Motswari uses in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. Each camera will be placed once at every water hole for 5 days and 5 nights. This will hopefully increase the opportunity to collect data on the elephants drinking habits.

The elephants being highly mobile creatures and with there being no fences to contain them in one general area has made it hard to collect data as they have 3 million hectares to traverse through but hopefully by increasing the study area it will maximize the data I can obtain to get a better understanding of their drinking habits and how that relates to the maximum temperature during the day.

 

Water holes to be monitored.

Drinking at Xinatsi dam (missing the left hand side tusk)

The warthog watches patiently for a turn at the water hole !

Blog post # 4: Sampling Stategies

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The virtual forest sampling tutorial was a good learning experience about, haphazard, random/systemic and random/Systematic Area sampling. I looked at the Mohn Mill area and sampled 30 quadrants with each method as I felt that would achieve the greatest diversity or greatest possible diversity as you sample a larger area.The area haphazard method produced the fastest time at 9hr 1 min sampling 30 quadrants, 3 hours quicker than the systematic/random area sampling method. The percentage error for the two most common and rare species are as follows :

Haphazard

Common                         Rare

Red Maple – 9%            Black Tupelo – 87%

White Oak – 45%          Striped Maple – 99%

Random/Systemic

Red maple – 6%             Black Cherry – 75%

White Oak – 6%             Hawthorn – 25%

Radom/systematic

Red Maple – 3%           White Ash – 77%

White Oak – 19%         Basswood – 77 %

 

The accuracy changed dramatically according the abundance of species most especially with the rarest. Random/Systemic area sampling produced the largest species list, and estimated numbers closet to the actual data, it also had the lowest percentage of error between the three methods.  It did not achieve the fastest estimated time but it was not the slowest and it was the most accurate.

Post 4: Sampling Strategies

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Hello everyone,

The sampling techniques I used in the field were a bit different from the ones listed in the tutorial. The areas I chose to study were located in lentic and lotic ecosystems. The benthic invertebrates and periphyton were mainly collected during the fall. The water samples were collected on a bi-weekly basis (if accessible) for water quality analysis.

Study components:

Water and tissue chemistry: to analyze selenium concentrations in samples of surface water, invertebrates and periphyton.

Field Sampling:

Sampling approach – systematic sampling

Surface water – all the surface water samples that were collected from the stream were based on BC Field Manual. The samples collected were submitted to a CALA certified lab in the lower mainland.

Physical habitat assessment – CABIN field protocols.

Benthic invertebrate samples – kicknet (stream) and sediment grab sampler (wetland). After collecting the benthos, they were sieved from debris, then rinsed, patted dry and put into a freezer. The samples were submitted to a lab for analysis.

Periphyton – collected from hard substrates using a clean scraper (stream), glove hand or 400-µm dip net. After collecting the periphyton, the sample was patted dry, placed in sample packages and put into a freezer.

Cheers,

CQ

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.

Blog 2: Ecology Article

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For this blog post I looked at the article, “Ecological Integrity, Visitor Use, and Marketing of Canada’s National Parks”.

a) This article was found from the Thompson Rivers University Library. The article is part of the Journal of Park & Recreation Administration. 2003, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p63-83. 21p. The following is a link to the article, http://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hjh&AN=32547365&site=eds-live.

b) Article classification, academic, peer-reviewed, review material.

c) Article classification explanation
Academic – The author is a professor at York University, the paper contains in-text citations and a reference section.
Peer-Reviewed – The ‘Journal of Park & Recreation Administration’ was peer reviewed.
Review – The paper does not have results from a field or lab study.

Blog Post 1: SSB Courtyard

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The area I have selected to observe is the Student Services Building (SSB) Courtyard at Durham College. I first visited this site on May 5, 2017 at 11:00. The day I visited was a very rainy day with 80mm expected to fall over 48 hours.

The area is a mainly flat grass area that is approximately 70m long by 20m wide. The grass area is man-made and has a slight elevation on the south side. Sidewalks that lead to adjoining building surround the area and there is a parking lot at the south-west corner. At this time of year, the area is home to two Canadian Geese to protect the area for their nesting eggs. The area also frequents several bird species. The vegetation in this area is grass, weeds and there are nine trees. See pictures attached.

Three questions that come to mind when observing this area are as follows,

  1. How is the vegetation effected by the use of the courtyard by students and staff
  2. Are there any negative effects on the space due to the surrounding sidewalks and parking lot
  3. Is there different vegetation is shaded versus sunny areas.