when we visited the meziadin river while crossing the bushes. I noticed how abundant snowberries (Symphoricarpos albus) were in the pathside . I observed the snow berries on my walk to midpath and continued on a longer walk after the midpath. I observed bushes beside concrete campus sidewalks, bushes on forested trails, and bushes off trail in the forest. I returned to my home and then walked to Bow Park (my original observation site) and made observations on the snowberries there.
The snowberry plants closest to human walking paths had the least amount of berries. The farther away from the human paths the larger and more fruitful the bushes became. This pattern along the environmental gradient did not feel unexpected. The snowberries closest to the path are at highest risk of being physically disrupted by human and dog movement. In many cases they were actually being cut back as well.
An interesting pattern that I noticed was that the number of berries per bush seemed directly tied to the height of the bush. Taller bushes had more berries, and the shorter more spread out bushes had less, even when it seemed like both bushes had a similar amount of biomass. This pattern seemed intact across the gradient, whether the plants were close to human walking paths or not.
In researching snowberries, I learned that they can reproduce in three methods. One is through seeds, which are contained in the berries. Another is by sending up shoots from rhizomes. The final method is a self-propogation method called “layering”. When layering, the snow berries droop over until their stems touch the soil. When in contact with the ground, stems can form roots, eventually creating a plant that can survive even if the original connection is severed. Is it possible the shorter plants focus more on layering, while the taller plants expend more energy into seed production?
My hypothesis: The height of a snowberry plant influences how many berries it produces.
My formal prediction: When counted, taller snowberry plants will have more berries than short ones.
A potential response variable would be the number of berries per plant. This would be a continuous variable. A potential explanatory variable would be the height of the plant being observed. This would be also a continuous variable.
Roopkamalbir Kaur