Dissertation on conservation and environment
Details: Does the re-introduction of pollarding effect the abundance and diversity of leaf-litter invertebrates
The survey was carried out within Epping Forest at two locations, within one wood that comprised mainly Carpinus betulus, Fagus sylvaticus and Quercus robur, the first site was an area that seen the re-introduction of pollarding mainly of Carpinus betulus with an understorey of holly Ilex aquifolium and Rubus fruticosus the ground flora was primarily regenerative Carpinus betulus and Mercurialis perennis. the second site was unmanaged area of woodland consisting of Carpinus betulus with Quercus robur, understory of Ilex aquifolium and ground flora of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum).
The methodology involved a 50m2 plot at each site broken into 25 plots, a 0.25 quadrat was used to collect 1 leaf-litter sample within each plot, the leaf-litter was then sieved and invertebrates collected were then identified on site.
Three environmental variables from both sites were collected,
leaf-litter depth(cm)
course woody debris > 10 cm
fine woody debris < 5cm
To carry out statistical analysis using PAST software (link for download of software http://folk.uio.no/ohammer/past/ )
1. carry out PCA and cluster analysis of environmental variables of leaf litter, course woody debris (CWD) and fine woody debris (FWD) from the two sites,
2. Test the 3 environmental variables using Mann Whitney against species collected.
3. Correlations between quantities of FWD and CWD at the two sites and FWD and leaf litter at both sites using Spearman’s Ranking.
4. PCA for invertebrate data and Mann-Whitney for key taxa.
5. Canonical Correlation analysis of environmental and species data.
6. Spearman’s Ranking for all environmental an species data.
7. Chi-squared test on species richness at each site
No# of Pages:10 pages (2,500 words)
Paper Style:Harvard
No# of Sources Required:10
