Physical Fieldwork Flashcards
Physical enquiry title
Investigate changes to characteristics of Sandunes in Studland Bay
Hypothesis
There is a significant change to the shape and vegetation on the sand dunes
Why was studland bay a suitable site?
Give 3 reasons.
1.2 km beach with a deep and mature system, 1 km deep that allowed multiple groups to collect a 200 meter transect simultaneously
2. Owned by the National Trust who allowed us to access and survey the dune system for free.
3. The conservation of the site by the National Trust means the dunes are in good condition.
Name 2 risks during the enquiry and how the risk was managed
1.Ticks and snake bites (lyme disease and poison)
Mitigation: Tick checks done and removal devices carried by staff
Students warned about dangers of adders and told to make noise / walk heavily
2. Injury from slips, trips and falls
Mitigation : Suitable site found for transect that doesn’t have steep / unsafe inclines
Students wearing suitable footwear with enough grip and ankle support
Define succession theory
Sand dune succession theory describes how sand dunes form from sand blown inland that is then trapped and colonised by plants.
What was our sample size?
we had 40 data points over 200m (every 5m)
What was our Sample method?
we used systematic sampling to collect gradient data every 5 metres and random systematic sampling to collect vegetation data.
What equipment did we use?
Ranging poles quadrat, plant species ID sheet, tape measure clinometer
What might be the problem with the distance data collection covered? (Methodology evaluation)
We only measured 200 m so could have missed mature dunes
What was good about systematic sampling?
Recording gradient and vegetation every 5 m allowed us to accurately present, changes to height, gradient and vegetation
Why was the clinometer good?
Affordable and easy to use
Although why was the clinometer flawed?
Clinometer readings, maybe inaccurate due to unsteady hand and wind meaning, gravity wheel wouldn’t settle 
What was good about the quadrat?
Conveniently, broken into 100 squares which easily allowed us to calculate percentage of vegetation cover
Challenges with species identification
Because we recorded our data in autumn plants have not flowered meaning it was hard to identify a lot of plants species despite the identification sheet
Discuss the effectiveness of your data presentation techniques in your physical enquiry” (6 marks).
1st para: we presented our transect data as a sand dune profile (line graph). This was effective as it visually represented our data allowing us to spot changes in landscape, which therefore helped us identify us our fore Dune and yellow Dune. The data showed that the fore dune was evident between 15-40 metres.
2nd para: writing percentage vegetation cover as a number wasn’t very visual so reduced our ability to spot interesting patterns. We could’ve drawn pie charts or proportional symbols to identify patterns between
different areas of the dunes.
3rd para: by plotting our distance and gradient data using a protractor we were able to calculate the height of the land throughout the transact. Eg. At 20 metres we were able to show that was a gradient of three
Another para: it wasn’t clear whether dips in our sand dune profile was dunes or slacks . Adding photos would have been better in showing the impact of man-made footpath on our transact shape.
