In blog post three I thought I would try to see if there was a correlation between salmon carcasses and species richness, however this will prove difficult to get a proper estimate or number of fish carcasses. So for small assignment one I did a point count (looking at bird species) at each body of water from the designated trail. Pond three was the closest to the observed shooting range and pond 1 was the farthest. After receiving my feedback from the submission I will be doing point counts from five different locations surrounding the ponds. However one pond will be difficult as I am unsure how to access the other side of the pond as there is no bridge nearby and off trail activity is prohibited. With the weather now improving though I should be able to find a way to access more areas around the ponds. with more non-frequented trails becoming visible.
These point counts were used to determine the bird species that were around each pond. Ponds 1 through 3 are at 50m increments increasing in distance from the shooting range in Squamish. With this estimation on distance using google maps I will determine the exact distance from the shooting range for each of my 15 point counts (five per pond) and I predict that both bird species richness and number of individuals as distance increases from the shooting range. This makes my working null hypothesis that there is no difference in species richnesses or number of individuals between each pond. This being said, my independent variable will be the distance from the shooting range and the responding variables will be both species richness and number of total birds present. This is consistent with my findings so far so I’m excited to explore this further and look into research on anthropogenic disturbance and diversity.