I would expect the wind speed to be higher on the peaks than the troughs and to get lower the closer we get to the woodland. This is because peaks are more exposed than troughs and the woodland provides even more protection.
Methodology
Method
Step1. Arrive at sand dunes between Montpellier to the West and Le Grand Mote to the East
Step2. Measure the distance between the sea and the edge of the sand dunes.
Step3. Mark first point with measuring pole and take first readings; Air temp, wind speed, air humidity, ground temp and soil temp.
Step4. Mark point 2, either a trough or a peak, with 2nd measuring pole.
Step5. Measure distance between the two points, and read gradient.
Step6. Take readings for point 2
Step7. Continue taking readings for every peak, trough and long plane until deep into woodland area.
Equipment Used
Measuring Poles
Air humidifier
Thermometer
Tape measure
Whirling Hydrometer
Sampling Methods
Outcomes
Results
Notes on Results
There are several results which look a little dodgy and those that have been stared are points which I think will be anomalies. I will still use them in my graphs and spearman’s rank to check this though and if I can see then that they make a big impression on the findings then they will be removed.
Sea – Point 1 = 41.10m, angle 6°
Road between points 7 – 8 = 2 troughs
Point 10 Shrub area
Point 12 Land flattens out, readings taken every 10m
Point 19 Woodland; shade, pine needles = cooler temp
Clinometer hard to use increasing chances of human error
Whenever Rob read the temp it always varied from my readings
Plants & vegetation covered the ground getting in our way & may affect results
Graphs
This graph shows a strong correlation between the soil temps but in a different proportion. The soil temp is greater on the peaks than in the troughs.
This graph shows the continuation of the soil temp beyond the peaks and troughs. I had predicted that the soil temperature would fall the further back from the beach you got and the nearer the woodland you got. This is almost right as the soil temp is progressively falling from the peaks readings, I hadn’t expected the trough soil temperatures to have been quite as low though.
The temps are lower in the troughs because of the shelter that they receive from the peaks around them and the vegetation that they have around them. The soil temp decreases more towards the end of the sand dunes because the wood land offers even more shelter; shade from the trees themselves, shade from the pine needles they drop and a higher air humidity all help to cool the soil temp.
The graph doesn’t show a clear pattern but what it does show is a clear rise towards the end from point 19 onwards. The equipment used to measure this was the whirling hydrometer. This is a piece of equipment which is spun around overhead and gives two sets of results. These results are then used on a graph to work out the humidity. It is because of this long process needed to work out the humidity and the erratic results received that has led me to doubt the accuracy of the whirling hydrometer. There is too much chance of human error, both in consistent spinning and having to work out the humidity using the graph – which was quite small and hard to read on a field trip. I also doubt the consistency of the equipment itself.
I did predict that the humidity would be higher at the beginning and end of the data, closer to the sea and then in the woodland area. This has almost worked out on my graph as the highest points on my graph are at the first and last few recordings. This is because of the high humidity in woodland and the higher humidity nearer the sea.
The air temperature was taken using a normal thermometer and shows a fairly consistent line. There are anomalies in results and if they were to be taken out the line would become a lot smoother but I feel that I have produced a sufficient graph to back up my prediction. The decrease in temperature in the final third was probably due to the time of day and this is what I had predicted before the data was collected.
I had predicted that the ground temperature would be higher on the peaks and lower in the troughs but I have not been able to find any patterns worth using from this data and so will no longer follow this up any further.
Conclusion
Overall I have been quite successful in finding results and patterns to back up my hypothesis. The only one in which I could find no evidence for was the ground temp prediction, in which I thought I could find patterns which would relate to both peaks and troughs showing that the ground temp would vary weather the reading was taken from a peak or a trough.
The Air Humidity results weren’t that much better but showed enough of a pattern to provide evidence for my prediction. The Air Temperature showed a much better correlation and even though it showed some anomalies it provided clear evidence for my prediction that the temperature would remain quite stable.
My other prediction for soil temperature was much more convincing however. It clearly showed a correlation between peaks and troughs even though anomalies had thrown the spearman’s rank. It showed that the peaks clearly had a higher soil temp than the troughs and then that as we reached the shade of the woodland the temperature dropped again.
Evaluation
I did feel that there were difficulties with some of the equipment used, none of it was top of the range and some of it was alarmingly in accurate. The most worrying was perhaps the wind meters, sometimes you could feel a fairly strong breeze and yet they would not pick up anything. They would also let the average wind speed drop dramatically if the wind stopped leaving some very inconsistent results which could not be used to help out my hypothesis. I therefore made the decision to cut these from my investigation.
Another piece of equipment which I felt hindered the investigation was the ground thermometer, which was either not very accurate or not used well as the results were in consistent and showed no real pattern that could be related to the microclimate. The whirling hydrometer also caused a few problems either by human error or inaccuracy as the results were a bit wavy, however the important results relating to the predictions could be seen.
An error which I have noticed was that in fact point 1 on the results chart was point 2 on the measurement of the sand dunes. This didn’t affect my results as I noticed it while I was doing my graphs but it does mean a point is missing. Other errors have been starred as anomalies and some have been removed from the results.
There were limitations of our study. We ran out of time before we could finish, we only studied a small section of the beach and we could only collect one set of results.
Oliver Jewell
1799 words
