Field Journal Observations
Location: Private forested property in Mayo, QC
Date: July 21st 2024
Time: 10AM-12PM
Weather: Sunny and clear skies
Temperature: 28°C
Observations: Plant density seems to be higher at the bottom of the slope compared to the top of the slope.
Location 1: Low elevation – bottom of slope. The plants are really dense, especially by the creeks edge. There seems to be a wide variety of plants species in this area. There are especially a lot of ferns here. The abundance of plants makes this area of the forest a little harder to walk through. Plants seem to be thriving, growing up to 0.5m from the ground.
Location 2: Mid-elevation – mid point up the slope. There seems to be a lot of plants here however the plants are not as densely packed together. There still seems to be quite a variety of species, its hard to tell if the species diversity has changed between this location and the bottom of the slope. Plants still seem to be thriving in this area.
Location 3: High elevation – top of the slope. There are very little plants up here. There are mostly trees, with a very small amount of plants here and there. The plant growth seems to be stunted perhaps, as all of the plants are small and remain very low to the ground.
I plan to study the plant diversity and abundance along the gradient of a hill slope in the forested area of my study site. The hill slope could influence the moisture accumulation in the soil at different areas on the slope, where I assume the bottom of the slope will accumulate more soil moisture than the highest part of the slope. This would make sense as there is also a creek running at the bottom of the hill. This could influence species diversity and density due to differences in resources (water) available to the plants.
I will measure plant diversity and abundance (per species) by sampling at 3 different areas on the slope : the high elevation, mid-elevation, and low elevation. I plan to sample each location using 1m2 quadrats along a 50m transect line, sampling at 5m intervals to be representative of each location.
Hypothesis: The hill slope will influence plant diversity and density.
Prediction: The lowest area of the hill slope will have the highest diversity of species and abundance of plants per species, whereas the highest area of the hill slope will have the lowest abundance/diversity of plants.
Response variable: Number of plant species and number of plants per species aka density (continuous variable)
Explanatory variable: Position on slope (categorical – 3 categories: high grounds, middle grounds, low grounds)