Returning to the island after a few months in the Rockies for work have allowed me to reintroduce my visits to Bow Park in Victoria B.C. Throughout the spring and summer months, I have confirmed a biological and environmental attribute to use for future research in this course.
In my first blog post, I have mentioned the presence of an intermittent stream that provides water to the pond in the middle of the park. The stream is groundwater fed and only persists through specific times of the year. Recent observations of the stream have shown a gradual reduction in the water level throughout different locations, indicating that the groundwater flow has not been entirely persistent leading into the summer months. For this study, I wanted to see how the intermittent reduction from the stream affects the wildlife around the park and within the pond, specifically regarding the most common bird species in the area: the Mallard, Northern Shoveler, and Wood Duck.
Changes in the water level and bird abundance were recorded from three different locations. Each location was distinguishable by differences in water level, ranging from high, medium, and low. The opening for the intermittent stream to flow likely determines the water levels at the three locations. The water level was measured in meters, starting from the bench at each location and spanning towards the base of the water mark. The results from each location showed that the lowest water levels held the highest abundance of each bird species, while the highest water levels showed the lowest abundance. This could be caused by several factors. The largest water reduction at the first location could allow for the birds to access roots, seeds, and different insects nestled in the ground that were previously inaccessible due to higher water levels. Human interactions could also influence this behaviour, as more birds will migrate onto land to access the food that visitors of the park may provide.
Further analysis shows that the Mallards were the most common across all three locations, while the Northern Shoveler was mostly scarce. This consideration may be due to different migration patterns from the changing seasons, or the retreating water not being sufficient for the species survival in the area. In terms of gender from each species, the males have shown slightly more prominence than the females across all three bird species, but the data provides little significance for the broad experiment.
Based on the recordings made from Bow Park, a suitable hypothesis would be that the water reduction levels from the intermittent stream affect the abundancy and biodiversity between different bird species. I predict that the decreasing water levels in certain locations allow for more birds to thrive, leading to greater bird abundance when compared to areas with less water reduction. Because the abundance of ducks was measured numerically at each location, it is considered the continuous response variable. The water level at each location could either be considered a categorical variable (high, medium, low) or a continuous variable (measured in meters). For simplicity, we can note this as being the categorical explanatory variable, rather than considering the exact distance from the shore.
The pictures below are representative of the field data taken on July 1st 2022:
NOTE: I left the Journal Observations as a note because I was unable to upload them any other way.