Field data collection activities have been going smoothly (save for a few blackfly and mosquito bites from time to time). So far I have been back twice to my sampling location in order to collect data which seems to be going well.
My formal hypothesis is that there will be variation in the size of growth and abundance of turkey tails in shady/moist environments versus dry environments that receive full sun. This is since that, commonly, fungi thrive in shady and moist environments, so my expected findings should show that the most abundant and largest fungi will be found in the shady environments.
The sampling method continues to be the modified quadrant/transect sections that I created to fit the cylindrical shape of the stump. I have 8 transected sections mapped out, each serving as a different “environment” in terms of my predictor variables (sun, shade and combination).
T1 – Full Sun
T2 – Combination
T3 – Shade
T4 – Shade
T5 – Shade
T6 – Shade
T7 – Combination
T8 – Full Sun
In order for the data to not be skewed, I may need to omit 2 sections of shade in order to have the same amount of ‘replicates’ for each predictor variable (2 of each). But I will continue to collect data based off the original transects of sections.
My data is showing that a combination of sun and shade seems to foster the largest fungi, which is contrary to my original hypothesis. It will be interesting to see going forward with all data available what the final conclusion will be.
Good luck sampling everyone.