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The Effects of Soil Moisture in Coverboard Diversity

Organization(s):Pajaro Valley High School
Country:United States of America
Student(s):Juan Escamilla, Vincente Martinez, and Diego Vazquez
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Teacher:Gary Martindale
Contributors:
Report Type(s):Standard Research Report, U.S. Student Research Symposia (SRS)
Protocols:Soil Fertility, Soil Temperature, Soil Moisture - Gravimetric, Air Temperature, Relative Humidity
Language(s):English
Date Submitted:06/17/2020
GLOBE students
● Amphibians are species that are greatly impacted by our rapidly changing environment. We see this with their high extinction rates. ● They are important to food webs at Elkhorn Slough because they transfer nutrients between bodies of freshwater and land. ● Our research project site was located at an oak woodland along the Long Valley Loop Trail at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve. ● Testable Question: Does soil moisture affect the abundance of amphibians and terrestrial invertebrates under coverboards at Elkhorn Slough? ● Hypothesis - If soil moisture increases, then the diversity and abundance of amphibians in coverboards will increase. ● Multiple variables were tested including: soil moisture, soil NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Pottasium), and soil temperature. ● Ultimately our most notable findings were those relating to moisture and weather.


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Comments

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GLOBE Scientist (inactive)
3 Years Ago
My name is John Haskins. I do water quality research and monitoring at Elkhorn Slough Reserve and have been there since 1998. https://www.elkhornslough.org/profiles/john-haskins/ Nicely organized poster. Its fairly easy to read through and learn what you did and what your question was as well as your hypothesis. The Abundance pie chart is pretty cool but may be more clear to group the individual species into family or order. I also like the pictures. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and its true here.
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GLOBE Scientist (inactive)
3 Years Ago
Hi, I'm Enrique Gomezdelcampo, a faculty member in hydrology at Bowling Green State University, who specializes in watershed modeling and ecohydrology.

You have an interesting and well set up research question.

What happens if you have predation in your samples? Your frogs eat your invertebrates under a coverboard. Does it give you false results?
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GLOBE Scientist (inactive)
3 Years Ago
Dear Juan, Vicente and Diego:

Andy Cameron here. I’m pleased to see your poster after watching you gather at the slough on all those Fridays.
I like how you firmly stated the one factor that had the most effect was soil moisture and that your data supported that hypothesis. The language is well written science and it is very clear for the reader. Then you go on to state other hypotheses that might emerge from your results. Good form!
By assigning roles, the methods section becomes uncomplicated and I find it easy to understand.
The pie chart and Simpson diversity graph show your results clearly. However the pie chart emphasizes number of individuals of each species. Therefore sowbugs take up a large part of the graph area and frogs a lesser one. But you focus on the role of amphibians in your conclusions. Perhaps a different graph like a histogram and a log scale could de-emphasize the sowbug numbers.
I like that you note in your conclusions how the study could be of use to the ESNERR and why. Good job!