Soil diversity is an important phenomenon to understand because it helps explain the life underneath the soil and also the vegetation above the soil. This is because the soil composition enables it to keep a certain temperature that supports a given type of organisms within the soil ecosystem. Additionally, the temperature of the soil also enables the soil to be selective in the type of vegetation that it supports. As a result, this research focuses on soil composition and structure as the primary concept behind this research. An observation during the site visit was that the soil was dark, organic, and presumably from a swamp-type environment. A second observation was that the vegetation in the area had thin leaves, maybe to help promote water retention, and this is what the hypothesis of the research will test.
H0: The soil biodiversity, composition, and structure of Kelowna, BC, only supports vegetation with thin leaves.
H1: The soil biodiversity, composition, and structure of Kelowna, BC, only supports vegetation with thin leaves.
From scientific knowledge obtained from my lower stages of learning, I can explain the vegetation type based on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. In this case, the soil composition and temperature only support the plants with small leaves to facilitate a reduction in the loss of water through the leaves. The colour of the soil absorbs a lot of heat energy, and as a result, the temperature of the area is usually not. Thus, I believe that the temperature, through the Darwinian theory of natural selection, defines the vegetation diversity in the area.
One potential response variable based on the hypothesis is soil biodiversity, which directly impacts the type of soil diversity and the vegetation type in the area.
Ok, there are a few issues with this and I see you have also already submitted your small assignment so I will be commenting on that as well.
First, You can not test soil biodiversity structure and function in all of Kelowna BC. All of Kelowna BC does not have the exact same soil type and the same vegetation. You can test some aspect of soil at your study site. Where is your study site, how big is it etc?
Second, What is your environmental gradient at your study site? You need a gradient so you can sample from different areas and see if they are different based on your hypothesis or not.
Third, You need to review the hypothesis and prediction tutorial in Moodle. Your hypothesis is not something you can test in this study.
Finally, Darwinian theories on evolution can not be applied to soil as a whole. Evolution works on species and really on individuals within a species that pass on their DNA. I would drop this completely as part of your study background as it does not work. I recommend you do some reading on evolution so you gain a better understanding of the concept.
Hello,
I just wanted to offer some constructive criticism of your hypotheses. I noticed that you have distinguished between a null (H0) and an alternative (H1) hypothesis. However, you have worded both the same (maybe this is a mistake). I wanted to highlight that a null hypothesis means that either there is no difference between two variables OR that the opposite of what was expected occurred. Unfortunately, you only mention one variable (vegetation with thin leaves), you would need a second variable for this to be a testable hypothesis. A hypothesis needs to be a testable/refutable statement and with the way you have worded your hypothesis(es), it is not.