Initially, I planned to simply visually estimate the percent cover of weed growth within each of my study areas, as I read an article stating that it had the potential to be just as accurate as more systematic methods. However, it was pointed out in the feedback on my Small Assignment 1 that using a quadrat would likely provide better results, so I’ve opted to use that moving forward. This brings up another wrinkle however, as the data that I have previously collected my not necessarily match up with that data I gather using the quadrat. I’m already a couple months in and I’m measuring percent cover over time with respect to differing sun conditions, so there isn’t time to start over – I will use the quadrat from now on and account for any potential discrepancies in my discussion. Hopefully the data from the visual estimations that I’ve already taken matches up with the data taken from using the quadrat!
In terms of the data itself, I am not surprised that the area receiving the highest amount of sun has the highest weed growth, but I am surprised that the medium-shade area appears to be the lowest so far, with barely any growth at all. This may be in part due to the pine needles on this section of soil, but the highly shaded area has those too, and while it also doesn’t have much weed growth, it still has slightly more than the medium shaded area. We did just have quite a bit of rain over the past few days, so it will be interesting to see how that affects the growth in each area, if at all.