The purpose of my experiment is to collect data to further understand if an increase in soil organic matter will increase plant health and productivity. The way I am measuring this is by taking a quadrat and measuring the amount of pine needles (organic matter) and then counting the amount of lily of the valley plants. This experiment does touch on other ecological processes such as sunlight availability. Some plants have access to more sun than the other which may effect the data collected. Another ecological process is rainfall. The area that I am measuring has a slope to it and therefore precipitation distribution will not be equal. Another ecological process to consider is the change of season from fall to winter, the cooling temperature may alter the amount of alive and thriving plants. The final ecological process to be aware of is herbivores. This location has many herbivores that may consume the plants and in return skew the data.
3 words: connection, dynamic and evolving.
Turner-Skoff, Jessica. The Benefits of Trees for Livable and … – Wiley Online Library, 8 July 2019, nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.39.
interesting! the other factors can be considered (unless measured) in the Discussion, as future topics, and also for some consideration of things that may impact growth
Pine needles will provide some organic matter, and I understand that the idea that they make the soil more acidic is a myth (or only completely decomposed needles might do this).
I wonder if the physical presence of needles might prevent a plant from becoming established in the first place?