Field Study and Paper Assignment
*A note: the most recent versions of IOS are not, sadly, compatible with some of the software used in this lab – and no updates have been created. Please check to see whether you have any app issues right away and let the course staff know if you are unable to borrow or use an older version of IOS on an iPhone/iPad – we can continue to research alternatives that you can use, or will resort to the physical tools of the field if need be….
Investigating the plastic and adaptive responses of California plants to light environments
Plants in California are adapted to an enormous variety of resource conditions. Leaves, the centers of photosynthesis, gas exchange and transpiration, have to deal with conditions ranging from extreme shade to the intense temperatures and evaporative stresses of high-light environments in summer. Some plants in California are evergreen, retaining their leaves year-round and replacing them gradually throughout the year. Others are deciduous, dropping their leaves synchronously once a year, either before the summer drought or before the winter’s colder, darker conditions. Leaves vary because of genetic differences between and among plants, populations and species. Because plants also varying degrees of plasticity, they can produce different types of leaves depending on the conditions they encounter, and even produce different types of leaves in different locations on the same plant.
In this assignment, each student will collect data on the leaf characteristics of one to three plant species, sampling both shade and sun leaves on each individual plant. The larger dataset will give you options around what question you want to address, but the basic question this project addresses is: How do plant leaf characteristics vary within and across individuals, species, and habitat types? Briefly, you will sample multiple sun and shade leaves on each of three woody plants in the same habitat type, and collect some basic data in each case about the immediate environment the plant is experiencing.
For this assignment, you will work with woody species in naturally vegetated areas – in other words, city trees in planters, or hedge borders in a garden, are not the ideal target areas. However, even a relatively small patch of habitat – whether chaparral, oak woodland, redwood forest, or some other type that includes woody species – will serve. Because we want you to sample sun and shade leaves, it’s best to pick plants on which you can reach the tops and bottoms of the plants, more or less. You should also pick broadleaved plants – this means plants with leaves, as you would find on an oak or Manzanita, rather than needles, as you would find on a pine or redwood.
Approach
Please read this whole section before heading out to the field. Data to record is in bold.
Your task is to:
1. Prepare to collect data: Study the data sheet; then print out the datasheet to record raw data.
2. Select and record your habitat. It should be on land, with natural vegetation that includes woody plants of a size that will allow you to reach leaves in both the top/outer perimeter of at least three plants and the bottom/shaded interior of the plants. This setting might be a grassland (mostly grass and other herbaceous plants, with scattered woody plants), a shrubland (such as chaparral, coastal scrub, or small patches of natural (not planted) shrubs in which most of the cover is shrubs), a woodland (with about 1/3-1/2 tree cover, such as oaks, bay laurels or tanoaks with the rest some mix of shrubs and grass/herbaceous), or a forest (more than ½ tree cover) – either redwood forest or other forest.
a. Record city (use caps, e.g. Santa Cruz not santa cruz), and latitude in decimal form (e.g. 51.5034070). (You are all in the northern hemisphere, so no need to indicate “N.”) You can use mygeoposition.com to drop a pin on your location and get this, even after you’ve gone home.
3. Select three woody plants within your study area. They need not be near each other (more interesting if they are not), they need not be the same species, and they need not be identifiable to you (though if you can identify, place that ID in the notes column). They should all have leaves (not needles, not bare branches) that you can sample at both outer edge/top and inner portion/ bottom, to get both sun and shade leaves.
4. For each plant, collect environmental and leaf data as follows (you will repeat this step three times, one for each of your three plants):
a. Record site data for your plant.
i. Using you phone, measure slope using Tiltmeter (Apple) or Clinometer + bubble level (Android). You will place you phone on the ground in a smooth area (push away litter, rocks) and record slope in degrees (e.g. enter “23” for 23 degrees, “0” for zero degrees which is no slope at all; flat). Do this THREE TIMES for your plant – once on each of three sides – and average the readings so that you account for slight variations on the ground.
ii. Using your phone, measure aspect. This is what direction the slope is facing. If you are on perfectly flat ground (slope = 0), leave it blank. Otherwise, use your Heading (Apple) or Compass (Android) app as follows: stand on the slope with feet placed next to each other so that you are facing straight downhill (even if it’s slight – use your aspect measurement as a guide to where downhill is). Hold your phone at your chest so it points straight away from you. Record the nearest reading in degrees to the arrow (e.g. you will enter 165, 180 or 195 rather than an approximation or a letter NSEW). Note that North is 0, not 360.
iii. Record tree canopy above your plant: enter “none”, ”some,” or “full.” Use “some” if there are any trees directly over any part of your plant, “full” only if your plant is mostly beneath trees.
b. Record leaf data for your plant. You will record canopy cover data once each for shade and sun areas of your plant, and all other data for each leaf. Collect data for 3 sun leaves and 3 shade leaves on your plant selected on different branches.
i. Measure canopy cover for sun (top, outer perimeter) and shade (lower, inside from perimeter) areas of your plant, once each. You will enter this value for every leaf, using the one sun value for each sun leaf and the one shade value for each shade leaf. Use CanopyApp (Apple, instructions in box below) or Canopy Cover Free (Android). You will record a percentage, e.g. “69.7”
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