Location: Fairview Halifax N.S
Date: Jul 2nd, 2024 Time: 3:29 pm
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure:101.7kpa
Temperature: 28 °C
Humidity: 84%
Wind: 18km/h
I am planning to study the different locations of the soil in three different situations. That will be based on what comes out of it. Such as the 1st location beside the tree, where there are no other types of plants, just grass; the 2nd picture in the middle, where I saw flowers (pink and white); and lastly, on the back of the garden, where their soil is deeper and different plants are growing there (much longer than on the other side of the garden).
I am thinking of processes that may cause any patterns (3 steps), and I would do them at the same time and then record all the observations from each test:
- Cover the 2nd and 3rd areas so I can make shadows to cover the soil. Leave it for 2–3 weeks. (Record the difference.) This will tell us if the shadow of the tree is different.
- I will label a small area at each location (10 cm by 10 cm). This will show me if the soil has anything to do with what is growing (record information after 7–14 days).
- I will move the soil from the second location to the first.
- Remove soil from the 3rd location to the 2nd.
- Remove soil from the first location to the third one.
- The third location is deeper than the other one and more wet; I am not sure if that is the reason for growing long or different types of plants. Therefore, I will wet the other two areas to see if anything changes.
Hypothesis: As the soil gets deeper down, it will get wetter, so different types of plants will grow at a high rate.
Prediction: If my hypothesis is correct, then I am expecting to see no long plants at the 1st and 2nd locations because the land is not as deep as at the 3rd location.
Response variable: the soil. I will change the type of soil in the three locations. This will be categorical.
Predictor: the depths or flats of the earth.
This is meant to be an observational study and so there is no experiment necessary and I don’t think the experiments you suggest above will work. If you move soil, it could take years to let the vegetation grow in a new location to tell a difference. That is partly why this is an observational study, there isn’t time to measure results of an experiment in the duration of the course.
What is your gradient? You mention shade of the tree and you mention depth of the soil. Is one location shady and the others are not? How do you know the soil is deeper in one area? These are the types of questions you need to think about when designing your study.
What are you planning to measure from your soil samples? Soil moisture? Amount of clay? Depth? Something else? Your predictor variable is worded unclearly. What is the ‘depths or flats of the earth’? This phrase does not make sense to me.
Your response and predictor variable can not both be the soil. Isn’t one plant type or plant growth? One thing you could measure is plant growth over time in these different soils…
You mention the vegetation is different in the different areas. Since this is a backyard and is not natural, are the differences in vegetation due to different plants planted and not due to the soil?
How will you have replicates? You mention taking one sample from each of three areas, but you need replication within each category of your response variable. You generally need a minimum of 5 replicates for each category.
One final note, in your first post, you talked about a sloped gradient where you thought grass was growing at different rates along the gradient. This is something you could measure. You could measure grass height at different times along the slope and have replicates as well.