In this blog post, I’ll discuss the challenges faced during the implementation of our sampling strategy, any surprises encountered in the collected data, and considerations for future data collection purposes.
My sample technique was put into practice by picking Blue Spruce trees with care from three different places along an environmental gradient. Although in principle the idea of systematic sampling was simple, there were several difficulties in putting it into practice. One challenge I faced was determining the appropriate sample interval for the trees to observe for the needles. The biggest hurdle was the uniformity of the trees in the three different locations as the urban and suburban areas close to my building had the trees in a very convenient straight fashion making it easy to pick trees as part of my sampling strategy with equal intervals. Still, I had to settle for a lower interval number of 3 due to the lower tree density whereas in the urban forest area trees were arranged in a haphazard manner but with higher in density causing a few discrepancies. Upon analyzing my collected data, I noticed that there were a few nuances in the results for instance, some Blue Spruce trees in the distant urban forests exhibited signs of needle discoloration despite minimal human disturbance, challenging my initial assumptions but with the harsh weather changes in the recent weeks could have linked to snow showers and steep declines in temperatures within days. Even though I had some hurdles, I’m still going to keep using the same way to collect data for now. I think sticking to what I know will help me understand more about the relationship between environmental stressors and needle health as I do believe that the overarching idea around my study is still valid.
Even though your systematic sampling method made sense in theory, it was clearly hard to put into practice, especially since tree densities varied across the landscape, making it hard to get a regular sample interval. To get around the randomly placed trees in urban forests and change the interval to a smaller number in places with fewer people, these fieldwork problems could be solved in a practical way. Finding needle discoloration in trees from places that haven’t been disturbed as much is an interesting twist that suggests environmental factors like recent harsh weather changes may play a big role. It makes sense for you to stick with the current way of collecting data because it lets you be consistent, which is important for comparing data sets over time. Sticking to a tried-and-true method makes it easier to figure out how environmental factors affect needle health. This determination to deal with real issues while keeping an open mind about unexpected outcomes shows how flexible field research is.