What, How, Where, When of Adam’s Research

 

WHAT

Adam Davis’ Ph.D. research examines how plant community characteristics vary spatially with environmental variables.

 

Specifically it aspires to determine …

 

How these plant community

characteristics:

  • Biodiversity
  • Community composition

 

 

Covary and correlate spatially with these environmental variables:

  • pH
  • soil nitrogen (NO3-, NH4+)
  • soil phosphorus (PO43-)
  • regolith thickness

 

 

 

  • slope angle
  • slope orientation
  • soil moisture
  • water table depth
  • soil permeability

 

HOW

To do the correlations of plant community characteristics and environmental variables the following 3 measures will be used:

1.      Raw data values

2.      Spatial heterogeneity of environmental variables

3.      Relative importance of each variable (e.g., coefficient of correlation)

And these measures will be compared between 2 different geologic settings.

 

WHERE

Abandoned Agricultural fields in 2 different geologic settings

1.      Griffy Teaching and Research Preserve, IN - upland, thick clay-rich soils, limestone bedrock, low dissection, agriculture stopped in early 1970s.

2.      Brown County State Park, IN - highly dissected upland, siltstone bedrock, agriculture stopped prior to WWII

 

WHEN

Data collection will occur during spring, summer, and fall within the next 2 years.