My first hypothesis is; where there are trees there will be less light, less soil moisture, the temperature will be lower, there will be less plants growing on the ground, and the soil ph will be more acidic, than an area where there are no trees.
Results:
The transect I am going to describe is the one I laid in the coniferous woodland.
Along this transect I found leaf litter in all four quadrants at a total of 255%, the second most dominant element found again in all four quadrants was twigs at a total of 140%. I also found 32% moss and 35% soil in two of four quadrants. The least element was found in all four quadrants at 25%. I also found the following results; light -74%, temperature -10.2 degrees centigrade, soil moisture -3, soil ph -5 (acidic) and 34% plants growing.
The second transect I am going to describe is the one I laid across a path in a coniferous woodland. I received the following results; 342% leaf litter was found in all four quadrants. 65% twigs found in all four quadrants. 15% Soil was found in the 12m quadrants, and 7% acorns were found in the 4m and 8m quadrant. Also 4% nettles, 4% moss and 3% stones were the least amount of elements found in this quadrant. Other things were tested in this quadrant; I managed to obtain the following results; light -81%, temperature -9.6 degrees, soil moisture -5, soil ph -5 (acidic) and 8% ground cover.
In my first hypotheses I predicted there to be less light where there are trees, than an area where there aren’t any trees. I was correct light (74%) was less in the wood because the canopy was blocking the light, and light (81%) was more in the path because there is no canopy to absorb the sunlight.
I thought soil moisture would be less in a wood than a path, my results show I was correct, the woodland soil moisture was 3, which was less moist, than the path soil moisture at 5, this was due to higher temperatures, which make the water evaporate, another reason is the trees could have absorbed most of the water through their roots in the wood.
Next I predicted temperatures would be lower in the wood, than a path. My results show me temperature in the wood was 10.42%, this is higher than the temperature recorded at the path, that was 9.6%, these results were unusual and didn’t match my prediction, this could be because the temperature was recorded at different times of the day or the trees may have been over shadowing the path. Temperature across the path was recorded in the morning and the temperature in the woodland was recorded later on about midday, this is why the temperature was different.
I predicted ground cover to be more in a wood than a path; my results show plants growing in the woodland is 34%, and ground cover in the path is 8%, so therefore my prediction was right ground cover was more because people walking along the path, kill vegetation growing by trampling on them; this results to soil erosion.
The lasts prediction made in the first hypothesis was; soil ph will be more acidic in a wood than a path, my results show both were equally acidic at 5ph. Reason being, pine needles from pine trees are acidic so when they decompose they make the soil acidic.
My second hypothesis is; where there are deciduous trees there will be more light, less soil moisture, the temperature will be higher, there will be more ground cover, and the soil will be more acidic, than an area where there are coniferous trees.
Results:
I am going to describe the transect I laid in the deciduous woodland. This transect showed a high amount of leaf litter at 360%, the second most dominant element found was 47% twigs and the least element found was 4% nettles and 1% earth.
Other results I obtained were light - 82%, temperature - 10.9 degrees, soil moisture - 1.2, soil ph - 6ph (acidic) and ground cover was 4%.
The second transect, which is going to help me prove my hypotheses is the one I laid in the coniferous woodland. In analysing my data I found that the leaf litter was 95% less than the leaf litter in the deciduous woodland. The second most dominant feature in this transect, was 140% twigs, found in all four quadrants. 32% moss was found in the 0m and 12m quadrants, also 35% soil was found in 2 of 4 quadrants. The least element found was 25% acorns. Moss and acorns weren’t found in the deciduous woodland however nettles were found in the deciduous woodland but were not found in the coniferous.
The following results were also found; light - 74%, which is 8% lower than the light result found in the deciduous woodland. Temperature - 10.42, soil moisture was 2.5 times higher in the coniferous wood than the deciduous woodland. Soil PH – 5ph (acidic), and ground cover was 34%.
In this second hypothesis I expected the deciduous wood to be lighter, hotter and drier than a coniferous wood. I also expected the soil to be more acidic, and ground cover would be more there. My transects show I was partly correct as the light in the coniferous wood was 8% lower, than the deciduous wood. So therefore my prediction was right, because my results show that the deciduous wood was lighter. A possible reason could be that the canopy is smaller, due to the fact that the trees are planted randomly, this allows more light to reach the ground. I found out the deciduous wood was hotter than the coniferous wood, due to the fact that the temperatures were recorded at two different stages of the day (morning for coniferous, and afternoon for the deciduous), another reason could be threes are planted randomly, making the canopy smaller and allowing more sunlight to reach the ground and turn to heat energy, which makes the surroundings hotter, this that my prediction was right.
The deciduous wood was drier than the coniferous wood; because the deciduous wood is hotter so therefore more water evaporates leaving the soil less damp. Looking at my results I noticed that the soil is more acidic in the deciduous wood; because it is so hotter in a deciduous wood compared to a coniferous wood, this causes more leaf litter to decay, and the decaying of leaf litter results to acidic soil; so my prediction was right. Finally I found there were less plants growing in the deciduous wood than a coniferous wood, this is a result of the fact that not the soil was dry which means plants didn’t have enough water to follow the process of photosynthesis.
My third and final hypotheses is; where there are young trees there will be more light, the temperature will be higher, the soil will be more moist, there will be more plants growing on the ground, and the soil ph will be less acidic, than an area where there are old trees.
Results:
I will explain what I found in the transect I laid in the coniferous wood, though I am only going to describe what I found in the 8m quadrant. Firstly the 8m quadrant shows me the highest element found was twigs -65%, the second highest element found was leaf litter-35%, the least elements found was Pine cone -10% and Soil –5%. I also obtained the following results, light –74%, temperature – 10.42 degrees, soil moisture – 3, soil ph – 5 (acidic), and plants growing – 34%.
The second transect I am going to describe is the one I laid in the deciduous wood, but again I am only going to describe what was found in the 8m transect. Only two elements were found in the 8m quadrant; the two elements were, leaf litter -95% and twigs -12%. I also received the following results; light – 82%, temperature – 10.9 degrees, soil moisture – 1.2, soil ph – 6, and plants growing – 4%.
I have recorded additional results, which are relevant in proving this hypothesis. I recorded the ages of 20 trees in total, 10 trees were coniferous trees and the other 10 trees were deciduous trees. For a coniferous tree I divided the size (cm) by 3.13, this gave me the age of the tree. I used the same method to work out the age of a deciduous tree but divided the size (cm) by 2.50. I then worked out the average age of both coniferous and deciduous trees, this gave me the following answers, average age of coniferous trees is – 57.8 years, and the average age of deciduous trees is – 87.2 years; so therefore the coniferous woodland is younger than the deciduous woodland.
In this final hypothesis I expected to find the younger woodland (coniferous wood) to be lighter, hotter and wetter. I also expected the younger woodland (coniferous wood) to have less acidic soil, and more plants growing on the ground, compared to the older woodland (deciduous wood).
My results show me that I was partly right; I found the younger wood (light – 74%) was not lighter than the older wood (light- 82%); there is difference of 8%. This was unusual to find as I thought the younger wood will have more light because its canopy will be small, so it absorbs less sunlight, this enable more sunlight to reach the ground. However my results prove me wrong, a possible reason for this could be the results were recorded at two different time of the day (am, pm).
I also predicted the younger wood to be hotter than the older wood; my results show me I was wrong. The reason for the younger wood being hotter than the older wood, could be, the temperature was recorded at two different times of the day (am, pm), this can also depend on the weather, when I recorded the temperature for the younger wood it was cloudy, and when I recorded the temperature for the older wood it was sunny.
I found the younger wood was wetter, just as I predicted. This could be because the younger wood (10.42 degrees) temperature was lower than the older wood (10.9 degrees), and low temperature results to less evaporation, which leaves the soil damp. This is why the soil was wetter in the younger wood.
The soil was more acidic in the older wood, because the bigger canopy prevents sunlight reaching lower leaves, lack of sunlight means leaves aren’t able to perform photosynthesis, causing leaves to die and become leaf litter. As leaf litter decomposes, it increases ph of the soil.
The younger wood had more plants growing, as I predicted. More plants were growing because the soil was more moist (3); this provided the plants with water, and nutrient to grow. Also the younger wood has a smaller canopy, so more sunlight reaches the ground, this helps plants to photosynthesise and grow.
Conclusion:
Looking at what I found, I conclude that trees do modify their environment by if there’s more trees e.g. woodland, there is less light as most of the sunlight is blocked by the canopy. This means that the soil will be more moist as not enough sunlight reaches the ground therefore not much evaporation occurs. Also not much plant life exists due to the fact of not enough sunlight.
Transect one Coniferous wood: -
Transect two across path in coniferous wood: -
Transect three deciduous wood: -
Transect four across path in deciduous wood: -
