The Effects of Soil Moisture in Coverboard Diversity - Grade 9 - 12 - 2020 SRS - 2020 SRS

Project Title: The Effects of Soil Moisture in Coverboard Diversity
School Name: Pajaro Valley High School, CA
Teacher Name: Gary Martindale
Student Name: Juan Escamilla, Vincente Martinez, and Diego Vazquez
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Project Description: 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. Does soil moisture affect the abundance of amphibians and terrestrial invertebrates under coverboards at Elkhorn Slough?
Abstract: 

• 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.

Atmosphere Protocols: Soil fertility, Soil temperature, Soil moisture
Language:  English

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. Also It took me a while to learn the difference between wet and dry. It looks like for the wet you added water to it. What was the method there? I see you added 19 liters but then what happened? Did you leave it to soak in for a period of time then take your sample? The Abundance pie chart is pretty cool but may be more clear to group the individual species into family or order. As we are on graphs the diversity graphs might be able to be combined to show before and after the rain. I see you also mentioned that the diversity and abundance under coverboards changed significantly after the rain but would be good to mention any tests you ran to make that conclusion.  I also like the pictures. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and its true here.

You have an interesting and well set up research question.

Your research would improve is you do replicates of your experiment. That is you repeat your experiment several times in order to have more results to understand if what you did once it really is true. It would also allow you to test your results with statitics.  

What happens if your have predation in your samples? Your frogs eat your invertebrates under a coverboard. Does it give you false results?

Your Methods and Materials section would be more clear if you describe what a coverboard is and exactly how it was set up.

Hi, I'm Enrique Gomezdelcampo, a faculty member in hydrology at Bowling Green State University, who specializes in watershed modeling and ecohydrology.

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!