Succession and Abiotic Factors - Partners: Emily R. Seay & David Shoupe

On Tuesday, March 9, 2011 our Ecology class was assigned, by Mrs. Richardson, to do a lab outside. In order to complete this lab we had 6 sites to go to and figure out the height (cm) of an object that was specified and we had to record the temperature (C) of that location.

Our first site was Air Temperature: Of course since it is an abiotic factor we were unable to measure it because well air temperature is everywhere. It's impossible. The temperature, we recorded, was 22 degrees Celcius.

Site #2: Black Top 

We were unable to put a height to black top because there is no way of doing that. We placed the thermometer on the black top and the temperature went up one degree from the air temperature. It was recorded as 23 degrees Celsius.

Site #3: Bare Soil

We walked onto the baseball field and walked into the dugout in search for bare soil as our next site. We placed the thermometer on the bare soil and we recorded the temperature to be 17 degrees Celsius. We deteremined that the ground has a cooler temperature than pavement. We also found dead grass to measure beside our location of bare soil and it came out to be 2 cm.

Site #4: Grass

For our next site we found a patch of grass to determine the height and temperature. The temperature we recorded went down 2 degrees to 15 degrees Celsius. The tallest patch of grass around our site was 7.5 cm.

Site #5: Shrub

For our fifth site, it was a little more difficult to sit the thermometer on the shrub without in falling and also getting the height of the shrub only using a ruler. But we had to make due with what we had. We sat the thermometer in the shrub as best as we could and the temperature ended up being 12 degrees Celcius. I determined that the shrub was this temperature because previously it had rained and there could have been dew left on the shrub and also with the cold weather. Me and my partner, David Shoupe, recorded the height to be 3 ft. and 4 inches. We had to convert this to centimeters --> 141 cm.

Site #6: Trees

Our last site we had to do was a little difficult. We had to find a tree and like all the other sites we had to determine the temperature and the height. Like I said before all we had was a small thermometer and a ruler so we had to record this tree with the materials we had. We had to lay the thermometer up against the tree as best we could and we recorded the temperature to be 14 degrees Celsuis. To record the height we had to put the ruler up against the tree at breast height. The tree was determined to be 50 cm.

Out of all these sites the control was air temperature. In order for this lab to be successful we had to have air temperature. One important biotic factor that influenced surface temperature at each site was the trees. The trees produced shade to make the temperature go down.