Time/Date: 1230PM/Monday, June 13, 2022
Weather: 10C, overcast, raining on and off.
Observations: Summer is certainly in full swing as several small shrubs and plants have sprouted up on the forest floor. From my last visit, I did notice that wild strawberry was still there and doing well. I also noticed that the “mystery” plant that I could not identify has proliferated in the area. Still not 100% sure what it could be: I want to lean towards wild ginger, but could potentially be part of a violet family as they are similar in look and both groundcover plants.
The water level has gone down significantly since the last visit. The shoreline trees and shrubs have done a great job holding the banks.
I also noticed that summer storms in the area have blown some large sections of branches and trees off onto the ground. Again, turkey tail mushrooms can be seen on the pieces of trees that have fallen/broken. These hardy mushrooms seem to be pretty unphased anywhere they grow.
With this in mind, there are several locations where turkey tails are growing on stumps and I would like to see if one environment is better than another. There are two stumps in the area that feature turkey tails. One stump is off the ground and has a sun and shade side. The other stump is on the ground, in the shade and seems to have fallen off one of the trees in the area from a past storm.
- Response Variable: Organisms/Biological Attribute: Turkey Tail Mushroom growth
- Observations Along Environmental Gradient: Three specific areas that I am looking to observe the turkey tails are on two particular stumps: one stump has turkey tails growing on both the sun-side and shade-side. The other stump is actually on the ground in a shaded area allowing it to have more access to ground moisture. As turkey tails are quite hardy, will they grow differently in these different environments or will they proliferate in all areas?
- Potential Underlying Processes
Hypothesis: There will be a difference in growth in turkey tails that are in different environments despite being such a hardy fungus.
Formal Prediction: Turkey tails will grow better in the shade and with access to moisture as most mushroom ideally thrive in this environment.
- Variables
Potential response variable: Size of turkey tails, colour variation, proliferation.
Potential explanatory variable: Moisture (or lack thereof), sunlight, shade, nutrients.
Hello,
Thank you for your post, I love all of the pictures! In your prediction, you say that you think the Turkey tails will grow better in the shade and with access to moisture. I think you could reword your hypothesis to include moisture and shade and then pick a specific response variable such as the size of the turkey tails to analyze in your study. A potentially modified hypothesis could read: There will be variation in the growth of turkey tails in shady/moist environments versus dry environments that receive sunlight, or the growth of turkey tails is a result of shade and moisture.
Cheers,
Reid Marriott T00716013