I had originally planned to do my study on Haida Gwaii and I was a little too ambitious thinking I could identify lichens to genus level. I could successfully ID some to genus level but not enough to be consistent so, once I arrived in Victoria and decided to do my study at Mount Douglas Park, I broadened my study to just look at the three dominant lichen growth forms of crustose, foliose, and fruticose which I could easily identify in the field. I had to make two changes to my design, the first of which was eliminating the transect on the northern side of the park and instead doing two transects in the southern portion along the same trail. The northern side of the park had dense under story vegetation which would have been difficult to get through and sample trees and the tree community was different, having mostly red cedars whereas the southern portion was Douglas fir dominated. Site reconnaissance is important! The second change was that I had hypothesized too many things that would have made my sample design too complicated. I decided to keep my first two hypotheses that were that lichen distribution differed between tree aspect, and the second that lichen abundance differed between tree type (deciduous and coniferous). I ditched the third hypothesis that lichen distribution differed between the upper and lower forest.
Developing an appropriate experimental and sampling design was a challenge but what an incredible learning experience this has been. I now feel like I have a much more solid base of understanding when approaching scientific articles and understanding the varying methodologies and approaches to various problems. Clarity is incredibly important when defining research questions and study variables. Dealing with statistics is a mentally painful experience for me but it is such an integral part of ecology that I am really trying to understand, and this course helped me understand why certain statistical methods are used in certain situations regarding categorical and continuous variables. My appreciation for the work that goes into ecological studies has deepened, and I now have a much better understanding of how much planning has to happen before the actual field data collection.
I also thoroughly enjoyed learning more about lichens which are gaining more presence in the literature as important members of the ecological community. They fix nitrogen, cycle minerals, provide food and nest materials for wildlife, and can be used as indicators of air quality. They are fascinating and so beautiful to observe in the forest, and just like anything, when I learn the names of more species out there, my connection to that place and to nature as a whole deepens which I am always grateful for.
Thanks for your guidance throughout the course, Nancy!
