As I wrap up my final report, a few reflections on the experience of designing and conducting a field experiment:
It was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Trying to produce a hypothesis to explain the observed pattern took some thought. My initial design, which involved sampling a cross-section of moisture conditions, had to be modified to ensure sufficient replicates in each of the three soil moisture zones (based on Professor Elliot’s advice). It’s easy to underestimate the replicates required to get a representative sampling.
Maintaining replicate independence and randomization was another challenge. My limited ecological knowledge likely caused me to overcompensate, or err on the side of caution, when spacing my replicates to ensure independence. It took a couple of tries to come up with an effective randomization technique. Unconscious bias is hard to avoid.
Although my hypothesis was supported by the results, there were a lot of confounding factors that emerged as I researched the final report. Some I had anticipated, others I had not. My background is in chemistry, where experimental conditions are carefully controlled in a laboratory setting. The complexity of nature in the real world provides an astounding array of potentially confounding variables, some of which are impossible to control or manipulate. This process taught me a lot about the application of the scientific method and difficulties in assuring accuracy of results. I have a newfound respect for how ecological theories are developed and proven (or disproven).