In this piece of writing, I am trying to find out if trees adapt to their surroundings. I think I will be successful in finding the answer through the fieldwork and write up of this coursework.

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Lebina Shrestha         Geography Coursework        10X4

Do trees modify their environment?

Introduction

In this piece of writing, I am trying to find out if trees adapt to their surroundings. I think I will be successful in finding the answer through the fieldwork and write up of this coursework.

Location

Russell’s Inclosure is located in the Forest of Dean in Wye Valley. The grid reference is 6110 in the map. The area is situated 4km west of Coleford, the nearest town. The relief of the site is somewhat flat, as the area is located 90-130 metres above sea level in 1km, so the steepness of the slope is quite gentle.

Methodology

I want to find out if trees modify their surroundings. To do this, I have collected a various amount of data. The first thing I found out was the temperature of the area. I used a thermometer to record the data in degrees Celsius (°C). I used the light meter to measure the light intensity, which I recorded in Lumens.

 The soil moisture was measured using a soil meter that was provided. It was recorded in a scale of A-H, where A was the driest and H the wettest. To measure the soil pH, I, first, used a test tube to put in a sample of soil from the forest floor and then added barium sulphate with distilled water and universal indicator. Then I shook the test tube, so that my test could be fair. I left the tube to settle. I used my colour chart to identify the pH number of the soil (substance) in the tube.

On the ground cover, I had to measure a 12 metre transect. Using the 50cmx50cm quadrant, I placed the quadrat at 0 metre, 4metres, 8 metres and then on 12 metres. At each point, I estimated the percentage of the ground cover by observing it.

Hypothesis

I did the whole process in four places. Each of them was in the woods and across the path of deciduous wood and coniferous wood.

I think that there will be a difference in ground cover between the coniferous wood and the deciduous wood. I think that there will be much more dead leaves in the coniferous woods than the deciduous wood. I think that there will be more living ground cover in the deciduous wood than the coniferous woods.

There will be more leaf litter because evergreen trees (coniferous) shed their leaves throughout the year. Deciduous trees only shed their leaves in autumn/winter. This means that in summer/spring, these leaves are decomposed by decomposers whereas in the coniferous wood, even though leaves do fall, they fall all year around; so decomposers takes a longer time to decompose.

I think that there will be a difference in the ground cover between the woodland and the path. I think that there will be less living ground cover on the path than in the woodland. I think there will be less leaf litter on the path than in the woodland.

There will be less leaf litter on the path than in the woodland because the woodland consists of trees whereas there are no trees on the path. Therefore less leaf litter is found on the path. There is a possibility of finding more living ground cover in the woodland because the woodland floor has less plant, lots of moisture, light, etc. Moisture and light are the essential parts of photosynthesis and without photosynthesis plants or even trees wouldn’t have been able to grow. These are vital for the survival of living things. This is probably the main reason for more living ground cover being found on the woodland floor.

I think that commercial management will have a difference with habitat management. Commercial management grows the coniferous trees for timber, which provides them with money.  These trees are not for show. Habitat management is a place where food webs can be found. This is where deciduous trees are found. They are lovely to look at and are often found at picnic areas. These trees are self-seeded, for e.g.: wind can carry the seed or animals eat and excrete the seeds in their excretion. These two managements may have a difference in the ground cover. I think that in the coniferous wood, the ground cover may contain lots of living things whereas in the deciduous wood, the ground cover will, probably, consist of non-living things.

I expect lots of non-living things in the deciduous wood because the soil moisture in the area would be low as moisture can evaporate quickly through large spaces between the trees. Compared to this, I expect the coniferous wood to have high soil moisture. I think this because coniferous trees are often planted close together, which prevents water from evaporating. This would mean that soil would be wetter than the average and more plants would grow in this area, also attracting living things to make this area their habitat. This is the main reason for living things to be found in the coniferous ground cover. Another reason that could explain why less living things are found in the habitat management is that these areas would have gravel or soil paths constructed, which would mean that plants wouldn’t be able to grow as water and nutrients are no available on the path. This would be the reason for most non-living things to be found in habitat management.

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Graphs

Below are the graphs showing the results of my field work in Russell’s Inclosure. Graph 1: the ages of the selected tree in Russell’s Inclosure                        

Graph 2: ground cover found in the young coniferous wood

Graph 3: ground cover found across the path of the young coniferous wood

Graph 4: ground cover found in the old deciduous wood

Graph 5: ground cover found across the path of the old deciduous wood

Graph 6: ground cover found in the young old coniferous wood

Graph 7: ground cover found across the path of the old coniferous wood

Graph 8: ground ...

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