Since the original six transects (30 total quadrat plots) sampled for Module 3, I have visited the cedar grove once more, for five hours of continued sampling. The original 30 plots across six transects were augmented to a total of 75 plots across nine transects. There are now 60 plots, ten per transect, from the original six (three downslope of the burn piles, three in representative “control” areas). The three new transects each have five plots, for a total of 15.
In the second round of sampling, I began each of the original transects on the opposite starting side (i.e., looker’s left instead of right). This means that the total area of each original transect is now ~10m2, arranged as a grid of 2m width and 5m length looking downslope, with ten 1m2 plots per transect. Here I encountered my first issue of the August 24 site visit: trying not to recount fronds counted during the site visit of August 4. Even with photos from the prior visit, it was difficult to position the logger’s tape and survey stakes in their original place. Unfortunately, I have been borrowing equipment from work and did not think to provide my own stakes using, say, spray-painted tent stakes. In the future, I would consider sampling the entire 2m2 in the first visit, to alleviate the effects of sample disturbance. That said, I cross-referenced the initial sampling often, and believe it to be a minor error when the two adjacent quadrats will be taken as a whole for frond density calculations along the distance gradient.
The new 15 plots were taken from three 5m transects of five plots each, located downslope of the original 5m burn pile transects, in the direction of the perceived flow of water. The 1m2 quadrat was centred along the tape line for the “downslope burn pile” transects. Because not all of the downslope transects matched the same azimuth as the original burn pile transects, there technically was some overlap. I had to decide whether to count a maidenhair frond as being at the end of the original burn pile transect (plot average distance 4.5m), or beginning of the farther downslope transect (5.5m). This decision only needed to be made once or twice, and only for ~20 fronds total. Additionally, the densities will be plotted across 10m, so whether a frond gets counted at 4.5m or 5.5m should not affect the graphical analysis much.
I tried to isolate for incoming solar radiation by qualifying percent shading at each transect site on the hour, as I did during the prior site visit. That said, one ancillary pattern I considered as I was sampling was the effect of micro-environment on presence of maidenhair or sword fern. That is, could sunlight at the individual level (about the size of a quadrat) have an effect on whether a maidenhair or sword fern grows in that exact spot? Likely. In order to test this, I would either re-sample the plots using a pyranometer or, perhaps more simply, design a laboratory experiment wherein maidenhair and sword fern are grown together with varying amounts of sunlight. Either is likely beyond the scope of this course, however, and I am reasonably pleased with the data I have collected for now. After some statistical analysis and Excel plotting, I will determine if the report requires further sampling.