The Study of a Psammosere Succession.

Map of Study Area

Methodology

        I decided to test two of the hypotheses listed in the introduction, and incorporate the other hypotheses into the two I chose. The hypotheses are:

1. Human activity affects the way in which the dunes are formed, and the cosmetics of the dunes.
2. The amount of vegetation cover and the number of species both increase the further inland you are.

 To be able to test these hypotheses, I had to measure various aspects of the sand dunes. The aspects that I measured were:

• The angle of the slopes
• The distance between each sample point
• The amount of vegetation
• The wind speeds
• The number of species
• The moisture and organic matter content of the soil.
• Human impacts

I decided to use a stratified sampling method, which meant that I took a reading every time the angle of the slope changed. The next section shows how I collected and recorded the data:

The angles of the slope and length of the dunes

In order to get an accurate geographical profile of the dunes I measured the angle of the dunes and the length between each result point. These results would help to test hypothesis 2.

After deciding the transect to take, I measured the angle with a clinometer and the length between each ranging pole. I had to follow a compass bearing from each point to give me a straight transect line, which would allow me to produce profiles of the dunes at a later date.

Wind speed readings

Recording the wind speeds that affect the sand dunes is crucial, because this is a factor that hugely affects the shape, relief and stability of the dunes, so my results had to be very accurate.

I took the wind speeds with a wind anometer at 3 separate heights. The heights were at 10, 50 and 100cm above ground level. The reason for this is that I wanted to see what effect vegetation had on the wind at 10cm, and compare that reading to the other 2 readings, in order to have some idea of how that would affect the dune succession. The wind speeds were taken at each sample point and the average over a period of 5 seconds was noted, which meant that the results were much more accurate, and if any result anomalies did crop up then averaging out the result would make it more accurate.

The amount of vegetation and different species

This was measured with the use of a quadrat. The quadrat was thrown randomly onto the ground around the sample point, so I did not take any bias results. I then counted how many squares were covered with vegetation to give me a number out of 100, which would give me a percentage. Along with how much vegetation there was I would carefully comb through the vegetation around me to count how many different species there were.

The amount of moisture and organic matter in the soil

This was done by bagging a small sample of soil at every sample point on the first transect. I only took samples at these points because the soil sample would not differ very much at all between each transect.

I then took them back to the geography department and weighed the samples. After weighing them, I would gently heat them until all the moisture had evaporated. I then weighed it again and took the second weight away from the first to give me the amount of moisture in the soil. After this I heated the samples again with greater heat to burn all the organic matter off, to then give me the amount of organic matter in the soil.

Human Impact

I simply noted the human impact at every sample point on all of the transect points. This could allow me to have a logical explanation for any anomalies.

Risk Assessment

What I Expect to Find

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Data Presentation

Transect 1

Transect 2

Transect 3