Recent Posts

Blog post 1: Observations

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

Shannon Myles

March 18th, 2019

 

The study area chosen is a strip of grassland in Satellite Beach, Florida that separates the beach from the highway. The area covers a rectangle of about 250m alongside the beach and of about 90-100m deep towards the road. The land is flat from the road all the way to the beginning of the sandy beach where the terrain goes downhill and eventually into the ocean.

 

The vegetation in the area seems to be poorly diverse with only a few different grass types, flowering plants and palm trees. The palm trees are scattered in what seems to be a random pattern throughout the area. The site also has Sea Grapes, a type of shrub with large round green leaves. As for the flowering plants, four different varieties were observed in the field. Two yellow flower kinds, one very small white flower, and another small purple flower kind were seen at the site.

 

The area seems to have been left unshaped by man except for this one clear path of about a car’s width that goes from the road to the beach. The path is characterized by not having any vegetation other than short, scattered patches of grass. The soil seems to be very compacted in the area, which leads to believe that the path is used a lot or by heavy machines.

I visited the site around 16:00 in the afternoon of a sunny Wednesday. As the pictures show, a few clouds were in the sky. The temperature was 23C° but felt cold because of the wind coming from the ocean.

What interests me a lot about this site is the possibility to study the gradient formed by the step-cline created by the ocean meeting the land and its effect on abundance or physiology of organisms. Some of the questions I had while walking through the area were the following:

  1. How does the abundance of flowering plants vary in relation to the distance with the ocean in the ecotone?
  2. Is the width of Sea Grape leaves affected by its proximity to the step-cline?
  3. Is there a correlation between the height of the palm trees in the area and their distance from the beach?

Post 1: Observations

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

Colliery Dam Park is four-hectare B.C. Historic Provincial Park located at 635 Wakesiah Avenue, Nanaimo. I visited the park in the afternoon after it had lightly rained that morning. It was approximately 5 °C. It’s generally flat and forested predominately by Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock, and Big Leaf Maples. There is a number of invasive plants such as Daphne, English Holly, English Ivy, Himalayan Blackberry, and Scotch Broom. I was aware that Scotch Broom was invasive, but I never realized English Ivy was too. Many of the trees and ferns were covered by the Ivy and it appeared the amount of ivy increased the farther from the main path you went. Additionally, there has been work done in recent years on the dams and spillways.

Hypothesize:

  1. How does the distribution and abundance of English Ivy change throughout the park and/or the main path?
  2. Do the dams and spillways affect the growth of certain plant species?
  3. How does the distribution and abundance of Daphne change throughout the park?

Initial field observations

English Ivy growing on ferns and trees.

Post 1 – Observations at Jerseyville Park in Hamilton, ON

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

My intended study area is a four hundred metre length of the Spring Valley Trail which is located in Jerseryville Park in the City of Hamilton and part of a conservation area administered by the City of Hamilton and the Dundas Valley Conservation Area.  The study area is part of an irregularly shaped, mostly-contiguous protected area covering over 1200 hectares of conservation area and approximately 1500 hectares of private and crown land.  The conservation area has numerous streams and waterfalls and is comprised mostly of forests with small meadows which are artifacts of previous agricultural activities and human habitation.

Soil in the area was not studied but probably ranges from clayey to clayey-loam as it was once a riverbed and this would be consistent with other similar parcels in the general vicinity.

The study area runs linearly, approximately north-south, along a formal unpaved (municipally maintained) footpath called the Spring Valley Trail which connects to numerous other trails in the protected area.  The study area is bounded on the east side by Sulphur Creek which runs roughly parallel to the footpath and an irregularly shaped ridge line running roughly parallel to the study area to the west.  The height of the ridge is approximately 10-20 metres along its course creating a defined boundary to the study area ecosystem.  The study area itself has undergone significant human disturbance in the past and as a public-use facility, continues to undergo significant disturbance from high pedestrian and bicycle usage.

The actual study area is the disturbed area running adjacent to the public footpath.  Even to an unqualified observer, the difference in vegetation is apparent along a gradient from the pathway to the forest along the ridge.  The vegetation in the study areas appears to be mostly invasive species of which I am having trouble accurately identifying.  Queries to online forums have yielded only a common-catchall term of “hogweed” which apparently is a common term for unidentified low-value plants.  Dispersed throughout the study area are maple saplings which generally do not have the opportunity to mature due to human disturbance and the prevalence of herbivores (deer) in the area.

While walking through the area on numerous prior occasions, the difference in vegetation adjacent to the trail from the forest floor became obvious.  I also noted that some areas along the trail are much more sparsely vegetated and I wondered why.  Some possible questions regarding the observed phenomena are:

Is there a correlation between amount of available light and ground cover?

Are variations in ground cover due to recurring disturbances?

Are variations in ground cover due to topographical influences?

I would like to explore the available light aspect for my study.

The study area was visited on several occasions in early October to reconnoiter the area and evaluate specific study plots.  The main study visit was conducted on October 11, 2018 between 2-3PM.  The weather was sunny with very little cloud cover, 23°C, with very little or no wind.  Data collection consisted of taking photographs and measurements.  Although the floor was partially covered, it appears that the leaf litter was not due to seasonal autumn activities as most trees and plants had not shed their leaves giving the opportunity for plant identification.

Blog Post 8 – Tables and Graphs

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

I found that summarizing my data into a visually representative table or graph was relatively easy. The table I submitted summarizes the number of individuals (abundance) counted within the two habitat areas within Terwillegar Park. My prediction was that bird abundance would increase with increase in tree/forest cover. When I summarized my data into the table it was noticeable that the highest number of individuals was the forested area.  In my paper I plan on creating a visually representative bar graph of the data collected as this will display the difference in abundance easier than in table form.
 

Table 1: Recorded point count data from Terwillegar Park, Edmonton, Alberta.   

Habitat Type  Number of Birds   
  March 9, 2019  March 12, 2019 
Open Area with Scattered Cover  15  8 
Forest Area 

 

 53  51 

 

Blog Post 9

TRU Open Learning 1 Comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

Ideally, it would have been better to conduct this research in the summertime because there are additional factors of emerald ash borer infestation in trees (eg. epicormic shoots, canopy dieback) that I could have noticed. Collecting more data from more plots would have also improved the level of certainty of my data. In hindsight, I did not know that the first signs of emerald ash borer infection (D-shaped exit holes) occur 2 years after infestation, so as much as I could have improved my methods there still would be a degree of inaccuracy in assessing the health of these trees due to the time lag. However, this did not discourage me. I was on the right track with this study by examining as many factors as I could in terms of infestation and learning that the age of a tree also indicates whether it will be infected (saplings were not infected). Despite my results being inconclusive it made me realize this project would have benefitted being conducted in a controlled setting. By planting ash trees in various plots at the same time you could eliminate age as a confounding variable. One could either wait and see what plots get infected first by EAB or you could introduce the same concentration of EAB larva in a plot and see how it propagates over time. A study like this would take longer and be more costly however, it would help draw better conclusions on how EAB develops and its effects on ash trees. This understanding would give land managers or conservation authorities a better time scale of how harmed they can expect infested woodlots to become. This is important because it gives them the opportunity to assess whether they wish to take cautionary measures to prevent the spread of EAB (eg. insecticide use) or if treatment options are not worth the cost.

Engaging in the process of ecology has made me realize the importance of the study design. By having a good plan for your research project before you go out to the field, you save yourself ample time and it progressively makes your data more accurate. For instance, when I first arrived at my site to record data, it occurred to me that I had no way of ensuring I would not double count trees. So I had to return home and bring along some chalk so I could mark trees.

Blog Post 8

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

The graph I made shows the frequency between the total number of ash trees and the total number of ash trees infected by emerald ash borer (EAB). Each dot on the graph represents one of the 5, 25X25 foot plots containing ash trees. I included a trendline and r^2 value to assess how strong the correlation, if any, existed between my predictor and response variable. I was surprised to see my data indicates there seems to be no correlation between the two variables (very low r^2 value). In my methodology, I was not able to notice signs of EAB presence with full certainty so I expect the general rate of infestation is higher among all plots. My results underestimated infestation rates because it was limited to what I could see with my eyes (eg. larval galleries, fissures in the bark, woodpecker foraging). D-shaped exit holes are the first sign of EAB presence, however, Burr et. al note this occurs 2 years after trees are already infected. This is to say many of the trees I noted as “not-infected” might indeed be infected. Without the ability to girdle trees at the conservation area I visited, my results are not completely accurate. When I made my observations noting the signs of emerald ash borer infestation in the trees, it appeared that younger saplings were not affected by emerald ash borer even amidst other trees that showed clear signs of infestation (eg. D-shaped emerald ash borer exit holes). After some research, I came across the work of Klooster et. al which noted that by 2009, 99% of ash trees in the Upper Huron area of southeast Michigan had been killed -largely by EAB- but those that remained were younger saplings. In the future, I think it would be beneficial to do the same study but based on trees that were planted at the same time /naturally came into seed around the same time to see if there is a relationship between density of a plot and infestation rate. These areas would be characterized by the absence of younger saplings. Additionally, I would use other methods to ensure better accuracy in EAB detection (eg. tree girdling to expose hidden larval galleries and remote sensing methods to notice early canopy loss of EAB infected trees).

Burr, S. J., McCullough, D. G. and T. M. Poland. 2018. Density of Emerald Ash Borer     (Coleoptera:  Buprestidae) Adults and Larvae at Three Stages of the Invasion Wave.   Environmental Entomology 47. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvx200

Klooster, W. S., Gandhi, K. J. K., Long, L. C., Perry, K. I., Rice, K. B. and D. A. Herms. 2018.          Ecological Impacts of Emerald Ash Borer in Forests at the Epicenter of Invasion in North America. Forests 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/f9050250

 

Blog Post 7

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

My research examines the effects that emerald ash borer (EAB) has on ash trees. I am interested in whether the proximity/density of ash trees facilitates increased infestation of trees within an area and thus a more rapid decline of those trees and spread of EAB. I predicted that as stand density increases the number of trees infected by EAB will also increase. With more resources (denser plot) available for EAB to lay eggs in the bark and produce offspring, I expect this would accelerate the decline of ash trees. I judged the health of ash trees by the absence or presence of signs of EAB activity such as woodpecker foraging, EAB larval galleries in the bark, fissures in the tree. Ecological processes in my work might touch upon include chemical control of EAB using insecticides, biological control of EAB using parasitoids,  species resilience (ash trees), species stability (ash trees).  The use of chemical or biological controls helps to understand how invasive species spread and how it affects interspecies relationships.

Three key words to describe my research are Invasive species, Biological Stressor, Fitness

Blog Post 7 – Theoretical Perspective

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

The theoretical basis of my research project is examining how amount of cover effects overwintering birds’ presence/abundance in an urban park. My hypothesis/prediction is primarily concerned with the abundance of overwintering birds in an open area with scattered trees versus a forested area with dense cover allowing birds to escape the elements, but hypothesis and predictions could also be tied o that a dense forest has greater foraging capabilities for these birds than the open areas do. 

The ideas the underpins my research is wondering how birds can cope with the conditions that we experience during the winter months and how cover affects the birds.  

Keywords: urban park, overwintering, bird abundance/presence, cover type. 

Blog Post 6 – Data Collection

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

To date I have completed my first round of point count surveys within Terwillegar Park to determine overwintering bird abundance/presence based on forest cover within the park (open area with scattered tree cover and forested cover). In my first round of point count surveys I completed 4 replicates in each of the areas mentioned above. I will complete at least one more day of data collection this week, bringing total replicates to 8 in each area.

To date the only problem that arose with implementing my sampling was by the time I reached the last point count locations, the number of people and their pets increased resulting in disturbance during my 10 minutes of recording bird observations.

Ancillary information that I have observed, such as the number of people and there pets that make me reflect on my hypothesis could lead to additional questions and studies to be completed however they will not be studied in my paper. The one question I have thought about on numerous occasions is does the increased presence of dogs impact the abundance of birds present in the park.

Blog Post 4: Sampling Strategies

TRU Open Learning Leave a comment

User:  | Open Learning Faculty Member: 

1. Which technique had the fastest estimated sampling time?

The technique with the fastest sampling times was systematic with 12 hours and 35 minutes.

2. Compare the percentage error of the different strategies for the two most common and two rarest species.

Common / Rare Sampling Technique % Error
Common (Eastern Hemlock) Random 28.6%
Haphazard 20.6%
Systematic 17.4%
Common (Sweet Birch) Random 4.3%
Haphazard 4.3%
Systematic 26.0%
Rare (White Pine) Random 197.6%
Haphazard 48.8%
Systematic 138.1%
Rare (Red Maple) Random 8.9%
Haphazard 19.2%
Systematic 14.4%

3. Was one sampling strategy more accurate than another?

Based on the information presented in the above table, no single sampling technique was more accurate than another.