Environmental Measurement Modules
Introduction
Plant ecologists must be able to assess the environment in which plants live (and also where they are absent) in order to understand the distributions of these organisms. There are a number of standard environmental measurements that are ordinarily taken to characterize study sites. Also, the resolution (e.g., sampling rate and precision) is generally determined by the nature of the processes that limit plant distributions. The spatial distribution of the environmental measurements is also important.
This portion of the course is equally concerned with making the appropriate measurements and the analysis and synthesis of the data which are collected.
Strategy
Overall, the procedure involving environmental measurements will consist of developing a deep background on the temporal and spatial variation of the major environmental factors (called the "context" here) that might be responsible for controlling plant distributions. These patterns will then be used for predictions of where contemporary measurements should be made and how they will be interpreted.
Hypothesis Development: Specific questions will be investigated which relate to the observed distribution of plants. This will generate hypotheses about how the environment is limiting the distribution of a particular species at a particular site in comparison to the same species growing at a similar site.
Context: The goal is to provide the "big picture" in terms of space and time into which the distribution hypothesis fits. The entire class will tackle this aspect and pool its findings. Web and literature searches will be done to find the data. Digital datasets will be created so that they can be used for statistical analyses and graphical comparisons. Distribution information, including maps and herbarium records will be collected and made available.
Site Selection and Documentation: The comparison sites will be analyzed with on-site instrumentation. The entire class will decide where to do the analyses. The class will then divide into teams to document the site (e.g., maps with general and critical features).
Measurements: The entire class will be involved in setting up and operating the equipment to record environmental factors. The data which are collected will be shared with all students.
Instrument Construction: build the instrument, if necessary.
Instrument Operation and Calibration: confirm that readings can be made and that they are valid.
Instrument Deployment: placing the instruments in meaningful locations that refer to hypotheses.
Instrument Maintenance and Data Collection: maintaining the instruments during the measurement process, including transferring the data to a digital repository.
Synthesis: The goal is to address the distribution hypothesis with all of the observations and context information. Each student is responsible for analyzing, synthesizing and describing the results of the hypothesis test.
Schedule
Week 1: Developing skills while building a site description of a simple location (in NTBG)
Skills (no product, just learning and practice)
Calibrate paces for several distances and use this to determine distances
Measure distances with tapes
Use a compass to measure angles
Take digital photographs (close-up, regular, panoramic)
Annotate digital photographs (metadata)
Record GPS locations (waypoints and tracks)
Link GPS tracks to digital photos (geotagging)
Collect and process voucher specimens
Measure slopes
Estimate tree heights
Measure tree diameters
Integrate information on a map
Check the map with Google Earth (overlay map, use GE measuring tool)
Show photos and locations on Google Earth
Integrative Activities (products: team site description, individual Google Sites page with phenology log)
Choose a location for a site description
Practice the skills on the site
Start phenological observations (these continue through week 5)
Week 2: Deploying weather instrumentation
Build simple rain gauges and calibrate them
Initiate and retrieve data from temperature/light recorders
Collect wind data
Establish interesting transects and place instrumentation
Obtain external data (ppt, temp, wind, radiation) to establish the context
Plot context information so that current conditions are seen in their temporal and spatial context
Document site visits with GPS tracks, digital photos (with geotagging and metadata annotations)
Week 3: Creating a site description of a complex place
Continue with weather data recording, display and analysis
Choose a remote location and create a site description (see Week 1)
Place recording weather instruments to supplement single-visit data
Document all site visits with GPS tracks, digital photos (with geotagging and metadata annotations)
Week 4: Explaining a species distribution pattern
Find two contrasting locations which are similar but differ in whether the species under study is present or absent
Document the two sites in an effort to determine what factor is creating the distribution difference
Document all site visits with GPS tracks, digital photos (with geotagging and metadata annotations)
Week 5: Examining species with limited distributions
Integrate phenological observations with external data (e.g., flora descriptions, photo collections)
Seek out rare plant species and discuss what factors might be limiting their distributions
Report on the experienced environmental conditions relative to the long-term average
Document all site visits with GPS tracks, digital photos (with geotagging and metadata annotations)
Week 6: Limahuli Assessment
Perform a large-scale reconnaissance of the Limahuli site
Select key locations and create reconnaissance maps, data collections, and context analyses
Data Collection and Data Mining
The following list is only suggestive of the data that will be collected with instrumentation. Limitations in equipment, access to sites, and other difficulties might mean that some data will need to be mined from books, research papers, government reports or on-line resources.
Each student will be expected to demonstrate an ability to collect basic data (locations, ambient temperature, and light). In addition, a demonstration of basic skills in taking digital photographs (landscape, close-up), uploading digital images into an editing program, making basic edits (crop, tone-balance, sharpen), and using digital images in Google Sites is required.
Site documentation
Digital locations (GPS coordinates, Google Earth coordinates, Site Maps)
Digital photographs
Precipitation (transect, open vs. under canopy, cloud interception, historical)
Temperature (transect, lapse rate, daily variation, on-line METAR, historical)
Humidity
Wind
Solar radiation (light, PAR, day length, cloud cover)
Soils (roadside observations, site analyses, soil maps)
Data Harvesting & Analysis Techniques
All students are expected to develop skills in entering data into a digital format, harvesting on-line data, performing basic statistical analyses, creating maps that display spatial data and overlaying statistical information on base maps.
Basic data entry and organization (spreadsheets)
Data scraping from on-line resources
Descriptive statistics (spreadsheet functions, PAST)
Regression analysis (spreadsheet graphics, PAST)
Data visualization charts (spreadsheet graphics)
Spatial interpolation (3DField)
Map overlays (Google Earth)
Photo georeferencing (GeoSetter) and panoramas (Hugin)
Environmental Data Integration Module
The field course presents an excellent opportunity to integrate the short term data collection activities with the historical data which have been collected for a region. This will allow an integration of spatial and temporal scales of weather conditions. Special emphasis will be placed on the extreme conditions of drought and excess wetness, particularly as these might help explain the distribution of plant species.
The module will consist of a set of Google Sites web pages that first and foremost provides a visual representation of the environmental data during the course in the context of the historical information about the region. This visual representation should make it clear how the short-term and limited location collections made during the class relate to the extreme conditions that have been observed in the region.
Behind this presentation are linked pages that document data collections, notes on instrumentation, sources of historical data and other information that strengthens the overall presentation. To the extent possible, this module should be a model for environmental data collection programs in other regions.
An Important Note on "Sophistication" (or the lack of it)
The state-of-the-art in the measurement of the environmental variables is quite amazing. Extremely precise instruments are available and these are used routinely many places. However, the cost of such instrumentation is quite high. Furthermore, there are significant costs to learn how to set up and operate these instruments, as well as to maintain them.
The instrumentation that we are using is very simple. And this "simplicity" extends from the way we collect data all the way to the computers that we use for the analyses. The reason is quite important to us.
One of our goals is to transfer research technologies to the people who are the primary stakeholders. If we are studying a problem in a community, we would like to collaborate with people in that community. When we leave, we would like them to continue the study. If we were to use expensive instrumentation, it would be difficult to support the transfer of the technology. So we are using "right sized" instrumentation. It is certainly adequate for the types of studies that we are doing. And once you learn how to work within these constraints, you'll be able to transfer the technology to other people because it is affordable.
Grades & Rubrics
The grading rubric is found on this link.