Fieldwork

Question 1

Title for physical enquiry

Answer 1

Investigate the changes in characteristics to the sand dunes at Knoll Beach, Studland Bay

Question 2

Physical enquiry hypothesis

Answer 2

There is significant change to the shape and vegetation of the sand dunes at Knoll Beach, Studland Bay

Question 3

Location of physical fieldwork

Answer 3

Sand dunes are located at Knoll Beach, Studland Bay in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England

Question 4

Why did we choose our physical enquiry location

Answer 4

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

Question 5

One risk for physical fieldwork and how we overcame it

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What is meant by the sand dune succession theory

Answer 6

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

Question 7

The sand dune succession theory tells us how…

Answer 7

Characteristics change as you move through the dune system including dune shape, amount of vegetation and vegetation type.

Question 8

What conditions do plants in sand dunes have to adapt to

Answer 8

High wind speeds, extremes of temperature, alkaline PH, lack of water in soil

Question 9

What plant species is found in the fore and yellow dune

Answer 9

Marram grass

Question 10

How is marram grass adapted to live in the fore and yellow dunes

Answer 10

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)

Question 11

3 key supporting concepts and theories for our physical enquiry

Answer 11

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)

Question 12

What was the Cyril Driver Project

Answer 12

Led to National Trust encouraging visitors to trample over dunes and regenerate them and caused limited variety of species with high levels of vegetation

Question 13

How long was the tape measure we used for the physical enquiry

Answer 13

50m

Question 14

Equipment used for physical enquiry

Answer 14

50m tape measure
Ranging Poles
Clinometer
1m squared Quadrat
Species identification sheet

Question 15

How long was the dune transect

Answer 15

100m

Question 16

Methodology for physical enquiry

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Sample size for physical enquiry

Answer 17

50 samples (every 2m across 100m transect)

Question 18

One strength of physical methodology

Answer 18

Large sample size of 50
Reduce risk of anomalies influencing our analysis

Question 19

One flaw of physical methodology

Answer 19

Limited time
The transect was only 100m long so not long enough to identify other dunes

Question 20

Type of sampling used for gradient data of dunes

Answer 20

Systematic (sampled every 2m over 100m transect)

Question 21

Type of sampling used to collect vegetation data of dunes

Answer 21

Random systematic
(As quadrat placed randomly on ground every 2m across 100m transect)

Question 22

Why did we systematically sample every 2m for the physical enquiry

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Why did we use ranging poles and Clinometer for physical enquiry

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What type of data did our physical enquiry create

Answer 24

Quantitative

Question 25

Why was it important that our physical enquiry created quantitative data

Answer 25

Able to present it in transect graph so visually easy to see findings

Question 26

Why was it important to have a 1m squared qudrat

Answer 26

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

Question 27

How did we present our physical data

Answer 27

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

Question 28

3 key findings from physical investigation

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Reasons why we might not have found an embryo dune like we expected according to the sand dune succession theory

Answer 29

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)