Blog Post 5: Design Reflections

1. Did you have any difficulties in implementing your sampling strategy?
Yes, I did have trouble implementing my sampling strategy.
2. If yes, what were these difficulties? Was the data that you collected surprising in any way?
I noticed that Wesburn Park does have a lot of human activity, which tends to affect local ecosystems. Secondly, a greater portion of the park’s grassy regions is regularly mowed, so observing the plant species in that area would have been difficult due to tampering with the ecological space from the last time I did my observations. I deduced that it would be best to observe the animal species I could find instead.
After shifting my approach, I ran a transact across the park from the entrance to the opposite side of the field on my second observation. This covered 3 potions, which had very distinct differences. The area is divided into 3 locations/regions. Location 1 is the grassland clearing, location 2 is the mixed forest area, and location 3 is the riparian zone.
Since the species I chose to observe is the Western Red-backed Salamanders, they are both common in Burnaby but tend to cluster in areas with more diverse flora and higher humidity/ water present.
As such, I had to do several runs to record the presence of a Salamander in a particular quadrant along my belt transact. Some quadrants along the transact didn’t contain any Salamander, so the time spent looking for them was much longer since they were moving organisms.

3. Do you plan to continue to collect data using the same technique, or do you need to modify your approach?
I will continue to collect data in this manner, i.e., systemic sampling along a belt transect.

4. If you modify your approach, explain briefly how you think your modification will improve your research.
Since my chosen location is quite busy, I will conduct further research during off-peak times when there is less human activity interaction with the ecosystem. I will also need to add more data on the other species found in each quadrant and how interactions between that fauna and the species in question, i.e., the Western Red-backed Salamanders, impact its density. Doing so could also improve the discussion on whether the density of Salamanders is limited solely to variables such as the flora type within the quadrant or whether other flora species play a role as well.