Fieldwork Flashcards
Title for physical enquiry
Investigate the changes in characteristics to the sand dunes at Knoll Beach, Studland Bay
Physical enquiry hypothesis
There is significant change to the shape and vegetation of the sand dunes at Knoll Beach, Studland Bay
Location of physical fieldwork
Sand dunes are located at Knoll Beach, Studland Bay in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England
Why did we choose our physical enquiry location
Relevant to our fieldwork
Public access to sand dunes (were allowed to be there)- dunes managed by National Trust so they also provided useful local information including on plant species and lended equipment
Location close to where we were staying
Dunes in sheltered bay with very few risks
Good available facilities including toilets, first aid and large car park for coach
Sand dune system roughly 3km long- provides plenty of space to conduct survey without unnecessary impact on dunes
One risk for physical fieldwork and how we overcame it
Risk: falling over in sand dunes causing injury
Risk reduced: wearing sturdy shoes like trainers and carrying a fist aid kit in case we got injured
What is meant by the sand dune succession theory
Tells us how characteristics change as you move through the dune system such as shape (gradient and height), type of vegetation and amount of vegetation
The sand dune succession theory tells us how…
Characteristics change as you move through the dune system including dune shape, amount of vegetation and vegetation type.
What conditions do plants in sand dunes have to adapt to
High wind speeds, extremes of temperature, alkaline PH, lack of water in soil
What plant species is found in the fore and yellow dune
Marram grass
How is marram grass adapted to live in the fore and yellow dunes
Physical features like woody, tissue stems
Make plant tough and strong for stability in high exposure to wind (overcome problem of high wind speeds)
Deep roots to reach water and tiny hairs in leaves to trap water (overcome problem of lack of water)
3 key supporting concepts and theories for our physical enquiry
Sand dune succession (tells us how dunes change going further back in the system)
How plants have adapted to live in sand dunes e.g marram grass in fore and yellow dune
Cyril Driver Project (where National Trust encouraged people to trample all over dunes to help regenerate them)
What was the Cyril Driver Project
Led to National Trust encouraging visitors to trample over dunes and regenerate them and caused limited variety of species with high levels of vegetation
How long was the tape measure we used for the physical enquiry
50m
Equipment used for physical enquiry
50m tape measure
Ranging Poles
Clinometer
1m squared Quadrat
Species identification sheet
How long was the dune transect
100m
Methodology for physical enquiry
1) Marked transect from shoreline back through dune system with 50m tape measure to create a 100m transect of the dunes at 90 degree angle to coast
2) Placed ranging poles 2m apart at systematic 2m intervals using tape measure. Clinometer then used to measure gradient of dune between 2 ranging poles
3) Every 2m interval qudrat randomly dropped on ground and species identification sheet used to record number of different plant species + percentage vegetation cover
Sample size for physical enquiry
50 samples (every 2m across 100m transect)
One strength of physical methodology
Large sample size of 50
Reduce risk of anomalies influencing our analysis
One flaw of physical methodology
Limited time
The transect was only 100m long so not long enough to identify other dunes
Type of sampling used for gradient data of dunes
Systematic (sampled every 2m over 100m transect)
Type of sampling used to collect vegetation data of dunes
Random systematic
(As quadrat placed randomly on ground every 2m across 100m transect)
Why did we systematically sample every 2m for the physical enquiry
Allowed us to create accurate graph of transect showing the change in gradient and height of dunes (shape) and to prove/ disprove our hypothesis of whether the shape of the dunes changed
Why did we use ranging poles and Clinometer for physical enquiry
Easy to use
Accurate for GCSE level
We could work out change in gradient to be able to plot on graph showing how the shape of the dunes changed
What type of data did our physical enquiry create
Quantitative
Why was it important that our physical enquiry created quantitative data
Able to present it in transect graph so visually easy to see findings
Why was it important to have a 1m squared qudrat
Large vegetation sample size as if smaller could’ve missed some key vegetation
We could see how the % vegetation coverage changed through the dune system
How did we present our physical data
Created sand dune transect on paper as sand dune profile (type of line graph)to show how dunes changed shape
Plotted gradient every 2m using protractor, ruler and sharp pencil to then create a line graph with scale drawing of dunes
Overlaid this with percentage values for vegetation cover
Plotted dot plot to show where different species occurred along transect
3 key findings from physical investigation
At 30m there was a sharp change in gradient and dominant species changed from grasses to heather (sand dune succession theory- we expected this that the gradient would increase/ decrease due to the different dunes)(we expected marram grass to be present due to being adapted to survive tough/ harsh conditions of fore dune) (we weren’t so much expecting heather to be present on the fore dune but this may be due to National Trust heavily protecting heather around dunes)
We didn’t find an embryo dune like we were expecting from our theory- perhaps due to physical erosion/ human erosion as it’s a popular honeypot tourist sight
Reasons why we might not have found an embryo dune like we expected according to the sand dune succession theory
Physical erosion (destructive waves destroy embryo but this is less likely due to being in sheltered bay)
Human erosion (honey pot sight so lots of tourists treading on dunes, gradually wearing them away)
