Blog Post 6

Create a blog post describing your field data collection activities. How many replicates did you sample?

I have created a quadrat that is 12″ by 12″ (square). That allows me to isolate an area to measure the amount of lily of the valley plants and the amount of pine needles (measured in lbs).

I completed 10 replicates at random points at the base of the spruce tree.

Have you had any problems implementing your sampling design?

Randomization. I try and randomly place the quadrat at various points at the base of the tree. I need to find a method that allows for complete randomization and eliminates the variable of human bias/error.

Have you noticed any ancillary patterns that make you reflect on your hypothesis?

Although the data set favours my hypothesis there are outliers in the data. Usually as the amount of needles goes up, so does the amount of lily of the valley plants. There are some data points where that is not the case. There may be variable factors such as soil health, insects, sunlight, etc.