My data will be based on observations made on July 5, when the weather was sunny, and the temperature was 27. I noticed certain challenges with my observations. Initially, I considered designating three distinct locations with 10cm by 10cm, but it seemed extremely small! Although I could have made more observations, I was only able to make ten because of human activity in the garden, which prevented me from covering a greater area. I expanded the testing areas to 30 cm by 30 cm as a result.
The areas in front of the garden can tolerate 30 cm because the soil there is quite level. But the backdrop region, where the grass is longer and the soil is not level, is much harder to measure. It was also challenging to limit the area to only 30 centimetres because of the size of the other plants that were growing there.
My first thought was to just increase the background location’s area, but since that would make the data differ, it would cause errors or not be acquired.
I made sure that every area I used for observations in each place was 30 cm by 30 cm.
My initial action was:
I’ll shift soil from the second place to the first, the third location to the second, and the first location to the third.
Nothing happened during the first week, so I guess it will take longer than I anticipated. I’ve changed it to 5-7 weeks.
There was a warning for high temperatures in Halifax, which I also found challenging given the extreme heat. The soil was really dry; thus, I believe that affected my outcomes.
How are you sampling the soil? Generally not a good idea to do all your sampling before I provide feedback on small assignments 1 and 2 in case something needs to be adjusted. What are you measuring for your response variable? I’m still not really clear on your gradient.