Recent Posts

Blog Post 8: Tables and Graphs.

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

Based on my data, I decided to do column graphs because they portrayed the data well. I did have some difficulty in deciding what to show on my graphs because I had a lot of data. I did 3 column graphs which were supporting my hypothesis- that there are more geese around ponds than along the river. One graph shows the total number of geese in these areas and the other two  graphs show the density of geese at the two different times that I collected the data which were 12pm and 5:30pm at both locations. These graphs supported my hypothesis and contrasted the difference in the number of geese at the locations.

The data did not reveal anything unexpected because it supported my hypothesis. Even though I collected the temperature twice a day, I did not use it in the graphs because the temperature did not seem to affect the density of geese at the locations. I decided to do a table as well, showing the average and standard deviation of the geese density at both the locations, during both the times that I collected the data. This also supported my hypothesis and the graphs.

 

Blog post 6

TRU Open Learning 1 Comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

My field collection consists of 12 total replicates, 6 in each subarea of my yard. Each replicate is a quadrat that measures .5*.5m. I randomly placed them in my tard using a random number generator. I decided not to use the garden as it was too small to have more than one replicate it in it. If I put more than one the results would have been skewed due to the disproportionate replicates compared to size. The extreme changes in weather continues to be challenging to my collection activities and I worry that if I do not try and go out on days when weather is similar that my results will be skewed. I tried going out multiple times a day to get more accurate results, but I found that going out once a day in mid afternoon when the weather was at its most stable worked better.

I think that my results will be reliable given the fact that my yard usage has not changed much in the time I have lived here. This consistency will reduce the amount of interference in my data collection.

Post 4: Sampling Strategies

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

When participating in the virtual forest tutorial activity, I used three sampling strategies, haphazard area sampling, stratified-random sampling and systematic sampling.

When looking at the haphazard area sampling method results, I found the sampling time to be the fastest at 18 hours 59 minutes. Following this was systematic sampling at  26hours 58 minutes and finally random at 63 hours 18 minutes. With haphazard, I found reducing bias selection was difficult when considering the topography and cluster images. I was drawn to selecting those areas first in hopes of greater concentration of results. Unfortunately this was not the case and haphazard proved to be the least accurate method of sampling for common and uncommon species. The most accurate method was also the most time consuming. When filling in the random sampling selections, I found the greatest variation in discovered species as well as the highest accuracy in percentages.

The two most common species were:

Red maple 

Haphazard-9.0%

Random-1.0%

Stratified-3.25%

Chestnut oak

Haphazard-34.0%

Random-3.25%

Stratified-3.75%

The two rarest species were:

Sweet birch

Haphazard-90.0%

Random-0.1%

Stratified-82.0%

 White ash

Haphazard-90.0%

Random-0%

Stratified-100%

When reviewing the effects of density on the accuracy of species sampling I found higher density species had a greater accuracy in recordings. The lower density species, when found have a very high accuracy, but often are not found which greatly reduced the accuracy.

Blog Post 7 – Theoretical Perspectives

TRU Open Learning 2 Comments

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

After completing my replicates research from my study site, I have come to find a better understanding of what possible theories could parallel my project. The topic that seems to fit most aptly relates to anthropogenic disturbances. These are disturbances that are caused by human activity, which result in smaller-scale ecological changes. From what I can gather through my research so far, it is indicative that the Western Honeybee pollination activity is being affected by anthropogenic habitats (the adjacent road). The combination of noise pollution and higher human activity could be the cause of the decreased Honeybee activity closer to the road. Because the honeybee activity decreases as you get closer to the road, a disturbance gradient would best define this phenomenon. My initial hypothesis touches on this topic, and I hope to see more research to further solidify the answer to my project’s question.

Keywords to summarize my research includes the following: anthropogenic disturbances, honeybee pollination and disturbance gradient.

Post 9: Field Research Reflections

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

Some of the challenges that I experienced during the research project was that the amount of different species that was being collected was too many to accurately tabulate my findings. I had to modify my hypothesis to only focus several specific species of vegetations to avoid getting lost in the data.
One thing that I struggled with and still do but not as much was with identifying plants and vegetation. I found it difficult trying to figure out what plant species I was looking at or looking for.
Another challenge was that the soil samples were collected in one day and therefore will only reflect the soil moisture on that given and will not represent an average moisture content for a season or month.
A speed bump that happened for me was that some of my data was collected over time as I tried to space it out but in October in Calgary we experienced a fair amount of snow which covered the ground for about 2 weeks in Fish Creek. So this snow coverage prevented me from gathering some of my data until a little later than expected. It also killed and wilted some vegetation we made species a little more difficult to identify and tabulate as some species were now laying dead on the ground instead of upright.
I think if I was enrolled in this class in spring and had collected my data during April or May, I would have seen a more distinct response of vegetation to the flooding being experienced as it would have been more common with the consistent melting of snow.

Post 7: Theoretical Perspectives

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

Some of the theoretical perspectives that my research project may discuss could be how different species respond to flooding, whether seasonal or nuisance. At what amount of soil moisture does vegetation for certain species begin to degrade or deteriorate. Other ideas could be if contaminants are present in stormwater and if so, how do they affect vegetation. Another aspect could be how does human interference and traffic and unnatural barriers affect the growth rate of vegetation.
Key words to help describe my research project could be stormwater, flooding and vegetation response and moisture content.

Post 6: Data Collection

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

I decided to not use some of the data that was collected as I feel it would provide too broad of a scope and not a clear reflection of my hypothesis which is that the species abundance and percent coverage will fluctuate based on the distance from the stormwater pond.
I had a total of 16 quadrats, 4 from each zone, at different distances and elevations from the stormwater pond. I did not have set distances from each zone. I defined each zone based on the maps of Fish Creek I was using and by the physical differences that were noticed in the zones.
Zone 1: Natural Wetland – this area was located pretty much right beside the flood zone of the stormwater pond and had a little pond itself.
Zone 2: Riverine lower elevation – this area was located just a few meters up the hill from the flood zone of the stormwater pond.
Zone 3: Riverine higher elevation – this area was located a few more meters up the hill from the lower elevation zone and was restricted by the walking trail that was located to the north of the zone.
Zone 4: Grassland – this area was located north of the walking trail and at a higher elevation. It was a few meters back from the walking trail as the walking trail had a buffer zone which seemed to be regularly disturbed.
I am unsure how accurate my data really is as there are several variables to consider that could alter the results. I tried to be as accurate as possible with determining the percent coverage of vegetation within the quadrats. I do think that the size and lack of randomness of the selection of where the quadrats were to be placed can possibly affect the results. I do think that while the data collected may not be the most accurate it will still be able to determine how vegetation responds to flooding in and around the stormwater pond.
It is promising to see that the data I have collected does coincide with how I predicted vegetation would respond to the flood zones.

Post 5: Design Reflections

TRU Open Learning 1 Comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

When I originally started gathering data, I tried keeping track of all the species that had percent coverage over 10%. In some of the quadrats there were 5 or 6 different species, so I have decided to only tabulate the most prevalent 2 or 3 species. From looking at all the quadrats the vegetation that seems to be the most common in all regions is the veiny meadow rue and cow parsnip.
When looking specifically at veiny meadow rue there seems to be a clear line moving horizontally across the hill that could define the floodplain. My hypothesis is that vegetation species and their percent cover will either decrease or increase in relation to their proximity to the stormwater pond. Vegetation such as cow parsnip will be more common regardless of distance from the stormwater pond as it is a more versatile species.
When selecting my quadrats I could have used a more methodical approach. Instead of blindly tossing a ball and then creating a quadrat around that I kind of “randomly” selected my quadrats based on what I thought would return the best quality of data that I could use. In that sense, the data presented may not accurately depict the actual percent coverage of vegetation in the 4 zones being studied.
I could have also increased the size or number of quadrats as larger species would naturally occupy more percent of a 1m x 1m quadrat and a larger quadrat or more quadrats would be able to more accurately display the percent coverage of smaller vegetation species.
These samples were not collected in the spring months, but I think it would have been interesting to see how vegetation would have responded to the melting and constant flooding that would be experienced. Maybe if there were larger amounts of snow that was melting then flooding would be more prevalent which could push vegetation boundaries up to higher elevations as opposed to a lighter winter where not as much snow would melt and vegetation boundaries may be at lower elevations.
It would be interesting to see these boundaries in relation to the amount of snow fall from the previous winter and see if there was some correlation between the two.

Post 4: Sampling Strategies

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

The area around the stormwater pond is called Marshall Springs. The type of sampling strategies that I am going to use is area-based sampling. I will be taking 16 samples. They will consist of 1m x 1m quadrats. I will have 4 quadrats in each zone that I have picked, natural wetland, riverine (lower elevation), riverine (higher elevation), and grassland. I will use random and systematic methods to determine the most abundant species of vegetation in each quadrat along with the soil moisture. I will only tabulate the species that are present for, let’s say, above 10% coverage in the quadrat. I will be looking at the percent coverage of vegetation in each quadrat and not the number of individuals.
Given the area of the park and region I am looking at I could have increased the size of the quadrats or the number of quadrats which could better reflect the actual percent coverage of vegetation in each region and more accurately display the soil moisture. The soil moisture is also only reflective of the current state. If we were to be experiencing a rainfall or drought then obviously the soil moisture would fluctuate.
I will also be trying to calculate the moisture content of the soil in each zone. I will collect 1 cup (250ml) of dry soil and weigh it. I will then collect samples from each quadrat and determine the moisture content present. My fiancée worked at a garden center through her degree and helped me with calculating moisture content as she said that different plants require different moisture content in order to optimize growing potential.

Post 3: Ongoing Field Observations

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

For my research project I am going to look at population density and vegetation abundance from different intervals and elevations from the stormwater pond in Fish Creek.
I am going to be looking at the abundance of cow parsnip, common yarrow, silver sage and veiny meadow rue.
I have initially noticed that there is a clear distinction in vegetation abundance along the stormwater pond and maybe this could be the normal floodplain for the pond when it experiences a flooding situation after a rainfall.
I am going to look at 4 distinct areas and see if there are noticeable differences in vegetation species and densities based on the amount of flooding experienced.
Area 1: an area immediately next to the stormwater pond which is classified s a natural wetland. This leads me to believe that the vegetation and landscape has not been or at least minimally altered by humans.
Area 2: a riverine area located at lower elevation and closer proximity to the stormwater pond.
Area 3: a riverine area located at higher elevation and further away from the stormwater pond and right beside the walking path.
Area 4: a grassland area located at higher elevation and with the walking path creating a barrier between the grassland area and the stormwater pond
My hypothesis is that the stormwater pond, the frequency of flooding and the floodplain average height will determine the species and abundance of vegetation growing in Fish Creek.
I’m predicting that cow parsnip will be more prevalent at lower elevations as it is more resilient and species such as the veiny meadow rue will be more abundant at higher elevations that experience less flooding.
An explanatory variable could be the distance from the stormwater pond and how much water vegetation is receiving. A response variable could be the abundance of vegetation present if there is any in certain regions.