Simmons - Ecosystem Comparisons

Megan Simmons
Site Analysis:
1. The two sites that I looked at had very different plants in them. My section of the Urban Lawn setting was in full sun, and was completely covered by dry grass. The second site, Woodrose Park (Forest) was covered with sticks and dead composing leaves. There were also many non-native plants in the ground.
2. In the first site, the main living factor was the grass that interacted with nonliving factors such as the sun, the soil, and the rocks in the soil. The interesting part about the second site, Woodrose Park, was the non-native plants that were taking over the ground and then you could look up and see all the large native trees. The non-natives were multiplying and really just taking over this whole site. Underneath the non-native plants, there was a lot of dead, decomposing leaves.
4. The plants in the ecosystem definitely influence the light, temperature, and soils around them and this is obvious when visiting two sites as different as an Urban Lawn and a Forest. The Urban lawn was in direct sunlight and there was no tree to even shade the grass. Consequently, the soil was dryer and the temperature was warmer than the soil that we measured in the Forest. The Forest was covered in trees and plants that shaded the floor. The soil in the forest was cooler because of this. However, we did measure the two different sites on two different days, so there could be error attributed to that. I would expect the Forest soil to have a lower temperature than the Urban Lawn soil.
5. We measured the percents by just looking up at the canopy and estimating how much canopy covered the ground. There was nothing really mathematical about it and this could be changed by using actual devices to measure this, instead of just using our eyes.

Lab:
Research question: how does the weather and light characteristics affect the soil characteristics?

Identify variables:
Independent Variable (IV): weather and light characteristics
Dependent Variable (DP): soil moisture and temperature
Constants: used same tools for measurements
Controls: same people measuring data

Relevant Background:
Ecosystems are always changing and energy, nutrients and water constantly move through them. An ecosystem is made up of abiotic and biotic factors. Light intensity, air temperature, soil temperature, and soil moisture are all abiotic factors. Biotic factors are living organisms such as plants and animals.

Data Collection and Interpretation:

Weather Description Urban Lawn, Woodrose Forest
Time of day: 8:23am, 9:02am
Overall weather description: Sunny, Partially cloudy
Air temperature (F): 63.38 degrees, 60.62 degrees
Wind Direction: SW, n/a
Soil Characteristics
Soil Temperature (F) 62.24 degrees, 59.72 degrees
Soil Moisture: 0, 1
Additional observations: Rocks in soil,/ Dead, composing leaves on surface, non-native plants on ground
Light Characteristics
Canopy cover %: 0%, 25%


The information that my group was able to collect consisted mainly of weather and light and soil characteristics. The temperature data was collected with instruments, while the rest of the data was collected by us using our five senses. For example, we estimated the canopy cover with our eyes and the soil moisture by feeling the soil with our hands. For the soil moisture we used a scale from 0-3, with 0 being the most dry, and 3 being the moistest.

Analysis and Conclusion:
In conclusion, no matter what ecosystem one is in, that soil in that ecosystem will always be affected by the weather and light characteristics. When we were at the Urban Lawn ecosystem, the weather was sunny and the air temperature was 63.68 degrees F outside. There was not enough wind to get a reading on it, and there was no canopy cover over our section of the site. Because of this, the soil underneath the grass was very dry. There were no bugs and some rocks in the soil. The soil temperature was also 62.24 degrees F. This is cooler than the air temperature, as it should be, but it is definitely hotter than the Forest site that was measured two days later. At the Woodrose Park Forest site the overall weather was partially cloudy and the air temperature was 60.62 degrees F. There were large trees that made up the canopy that covered about 25% of our site. Because of these factors, the soil temperature was 59.72 degrees F and the soil moisture was a little moister than the dryness of the Urban Lawn soil.

Limitations and Future Studies:
If I were to do this lab again, I would want to measure both the sites at the exact same time on the same day. This would have been ideal, and then the information of the two ecosystems could have been more scientifically related. The day we were at the Urban Lawn setting the sun was out and it was 63.68 degrees F outside. The second day, two days later, we were at the Woodrose Park ecosystem and it was 60.62 degrees F outside.