9 – Reflections on St. Patrick’s Island Study

Overall, I am very happy with my field research project, which is not to say that I did not identify many many ways in which I could (and should) have done things better. I thought it might be easier to list it out in a more easily readable manner:

Things that worked very well:

• using flood frequency as a categorical predictor variable. This was easy to understand, was derived from a public dataset, and was associated with distinct “levels” across an ecotone. Ultimately, flood frequency was determined to be a significant predictor of both native and invasive woody species cover
• using cover as a discrete response variable. This was easy to understand and measure, could be measured during winter, and was an effective way to obtain data which allowed inferences on presence/absence, richness, and abundance of species across the study area.
• recording sampling order when taking GPS measurements, this ultimately confirmed that the elevation readings from the GPS were not accurate. Had I not checked this, assuming accuracy of readings could have introduced a lot of head scratching about why the elevations and flood frequency levels did not correspond and which data source contained the error.

Things that I would do differently:

• complete sampling during the summer or fall season. Waiting until the leaves had fallen off the trees and the non-woody species had all died and been buried by snow meant that I couldn’t collect data on a lot of other species that might have allowed for more meaningful inferences about flood frequency and human disturbance
• create a basic field app or use google sheets to enter data directly into table form

I have definitely learned throughout the course the importance of study design in influencing the quality of data collected and how it can be interpreted. I have a better understanding of how a study should be conceptualized, designed, implemented, and reported on. I am grateful for this new knowledge and hope to put it to good use both in my work and personal life. I’m hoping to conduct some very small scale studies just for fun, relating to fish and spawn timing for under-described species!