Humidity
This is directly to temperature, because this can affect the amount of water that the plants will receive. This will therefore affect the rate of photosynthesis aswell, as water is one of the key ingredients to photosynthesis. The environmental meter also measures this.
Soil Type
To find the soil type, we did a series of tests to the soil. We got the soil from an auger, and the soil used was taken from the bottom of the auger, and to make sure it was a fair test we went the same depth each time. The soil was examined first, and then dampened with distilled H2O, and rolled into various positions; we did this to see whether the soil crumbled in any way, as that would give us an idea of the type. Soil type is a pretty important factor as a plant may not grow in a particular type of soil, and we have to know that information. The soil type could change quickly, in a few metres possibly, which would create a border between 2 types of plant.
Soil pH
Soil pH can vary between very acidic soil (5 maximum) to very alkaline soil (9 maximum). Soil pH can make a big difference; this is because particular plants can be very sensitive to the soil pH, whereas some won’t care. Each plant will have a most favourable pH level, with plants being classified into 3 categories: acidic, alkaline, and neutral. To test the soil pH levels, we used the soil pH kit; this included a test tube, BaSO4, indicator, spatula, distilled water, and a key that you could use to view the results.
Soil Moisture
This is the measure of the amount of moisture in the soil. As water is a key ingredient to photosynthesis, and therefore needed badly, this was quite a key factor. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the apparatus required to measure the moisture at our disposal. So, we were unable to take the soil moisture.
Method
We had a set list of apparatus to use; the apparatus are as follows:
- Quadrat
- Identification Book
- Auger
- Record Sheet
- Soil pH Kit
- Environmental Meter
- Tape Measure
Quadrat
We used the quadrat to get an area of ground to investigate. To make it fair, we had a random co-ordinates sheet and then we used them to get our information on the species. We used the species key to identify the species; this had a certain amount of plant species on it. When we took readings from the quadrat, we first identified a particular species, and then counted the number of squares it was in; this is what gave us our results
Auger
The auger is basically a large drill that we used to drill into the soil, in order to get the samples of soil we needed for the results. With the auger, we drilled into the ground. Then, once we’d removed the auger from the ground, we’d take the soil samples from the bottom of the auger, at the lowest point on the ground. The soil samples were needed for the results in soil moisture, pH, and soil type tests.
Soil pH Kit
This consists of 5 items to help us get our results from the soil; these included the following
- Spatula
- Distilled H20
- Indicator
- BaSO4
- Test Tube
We rubbed the soil in our hands first, mixed with the water; this was to clean it to a certain extent. From that we could tell the type of soil, aswell as the moisture, however to get the acidity we had to do the following. We put it in the test tube, and added BaSO4 and indicator before mixing it with a spatula. We checked the colour for the acidity.
Environmental Meter
We used this device to get the results for the light, the temperature and the humidity. For these, we just had to change to the correct setting and leave the meter stable for 10sec to let the answer settle, once it clearly settles, we took the answer and recorded it.
Results
For our results, we counted how many different species were present in the quadrat; we did that 5 times. We also found out the Soil pH, temperature, light and humidity. Here are the results:
Old Coppice
Old Coppice
Young Coppice
Young Coppice
Conclusion
There are many reasons for the sets of results I have received, and I will now go through these comparing the young coppice with the old.
Firstly, it is quite obvious that more species were found in the young coppice, this is because of the light levels. In the old coppice, the trees are all at canopy level near enough, blocking out the light not giving new plats a chance to grow. Basically, the only plant species that is consistently present is the bluebell; the rest is mainly dead organic matter, as most plants have gradually faded away into ground making the dead organic matter. However, in the young coppice there’s a bigger diversity of species, this because of the light, and also the space that the plants can grow into. Because of the cover in the old coppice, the plants in there won’t get as much rain, as it will be cut off by the upper trees, therefore with the young coppice getting more water and light, their rate of photosynthesis will increase.
With all plants in the old coppice growing on top of each other, they end going into layers, meaning it is hard for any new species to flower or even get off the ground, add to that the lack of light then that jus makes it even harder. Whereas, in the young coppice, there is quite a bit of grass, and just bare ground, therefore it should be much easier for new species to flower, this is the reason there is a bigger range in the young coppice.
In the young coppice, the wind will be able to transport seeds to different areas of the coppice, and with enough bare ground, they should be able develop. Although this could still happen in the old coppice, it is harder for the seed to be planted, and the wind level may well be less in the old coppice.
In my hypothesis I stated that basically there would be a wider variety of species in the young coppice rather than the old coppice. This happened because of the reasons I stated in my results sections, so it hasn’t come as a surprise.
However, although this was always likely to happen it doesn’t mean that our results are perfect, or that we have done the experiment completely correct. There are reasons for this; we don’t have the time to check every single area of each coppice so our results won’t necessarily be perfect, however when we did our 5 samples, we used a random number table to generate our positioning, yet with trees and other groups in the way, and possibly not walking straight it was easy to get sidetracked slightly.
When searching through the coppice, human error may enter into the process, as it possible that certain species could have been missed, especially in the old coppice with separate layers of plants. Human error could actually be present at many parts of our experiment, and it is just something that we have to get on with, hopefully using machines like the environmental meter to give us more accurate results.
Results could always vary due to the weather, of course we do measure temperature and humidity, but as we are only there one day, we wouldn’t be able to see how results varied on different, however it is unlikely there is a major difference, unless there has been a heat wave, or a giant thunderstorm.
