I recently completed an intensive phase of data collection. This effort resulted in a detailed dataset capturing observations from three distinct urbanization levels: Riverside Park (high urban), Peterson Creek (medium urban), and Kenna Cartwright Park (low urban). Here, I reflect on the process of organizing and analyzing this data and discuss the initial findings and their implications.
Challenges in Data Handling
The process of organizing, aggregating, and summarizing the data was both challenging and enlightening. One primary challenge was ensuring accuracy in the data entry phase, especially with daily field notes turning into quantitative data entries. Aggregating data across different days and locations required meticulous attention to detail to maintain consistency across the dataset.
Another challenge was deciding on the best methods for summarizing the data to reveal meaningful patterns. Choosing between different types of graphs (e.g., bar charts, scatter plots) to appropriately reflect the nuances of urbanization’s impact on bird populations was crucial. Honestly, I found this part to be more difficult than hiking for 20 days straight. Ensuring the data visualization was clear and effectively communicated the findings to both scientific and general audiences involved several iterations.
Expected Outcomes and Surprises
Going into this analysis, I anticipated seeing a clear decrease in both the diversity and abundance of bird species with increased urbanization, based on existing literature. The data mostly supported this hypothesis, with the highest diversity observed in the least urbanized location, Kenna Cartwright Park, and the lowest in Riverside Park, the most urbanized setting. But the data revealed a surprising aspect to it as the abundance observed across all three sites turned out to be fairly equal. This observation prompted me to change my hypothesis accordingly.
Further Exploration
The initial findings from this data have opened up several avenues for further exploration. One particularly intriguing aspect is the adaptability of certain bird species to urban environments. Future research could focus on the specific traits that enable these species to succeed in urban settings, which could inform urban planning and conservation strategies to support diverse bird populations.
Conclusion
This phase of the project has been immensely rewarding and informative. It has made me make some changes to my initial hypotheses about urbanization’s impact on bird diversity but also highlighted the resilience and adaptability of urban wildlife.