Emily Browne
- Mallards
- The environmental gradient I am choosing to study is the habitat transition between the lake the riparian zone into a marsh, and then the land which is a small vegetated riparian which leads into a concrete sidewalk in a very busy urban area. I will be observing the presence of mallards in these 3 zones and also noting what they are doing (swimming, wading, eating, resting, etc)
- Based on my observations, most mallards are in the wetland and either swimming, wadding, or eating. There are few mallards in the lake which are mostly just swimming. And very rarely are mallards on the land. When they are they are eating grass/ plants. The abundance of mallards appears to be mostly driven by food availability and accessibility but may also be driven by human presence. The ducks have a food source on land but may not access it as frequently due to human disturbances.
Hypothesis: mallards are most abundance where they have most access to food.
4. Response variable: food availability
Explanatory variable: Presence and abundance of mallards.
Are these three areas of similar size? If there is more water than vegetated riparian than you may see more mallards because there is more area.
Also, how will you have replication in your study?
You won’t be able to say if your results are because of the abundance of food. So that can’t be your response variable. You would have to measure food availability in some way for this. Your response variable is the 3 zones. There could be other reasons why mallards are using these areas differently. It could be related to security, as they are safer from predators when on the open water. This seems more like a life history study of what types of habitats mallards spend more time in. You can still do it this way, though your gradient is aquatic to terrestrial habitat. You can discuss in your discussion why your results might be one way or another, but your main result will simply be if abundance is different in these three habitat types.