Physical fieldwork

Question 1

What is the physical geography fieldwork title?

Answer 1

To investigate the effect of trampling on the abundance and diversity of vegetation at Reigate Heath, Surrey

Question 2

What is the human geography fieldwork title?

Answer 2

To investigate the pattern of housing and environmental quality in Reigate

Question 3

What is the geographical theory of the physical investigation?

Answer 3

biodiversity of species are affected by human activities

Question 4

What are the data collection methods for physical investigation?

Answer 4

quadrat sampling percentage cover of vegetation
field sketch

Question 5

Justify one primary data collection for physical inquiry

Answer 5

was useful method as allowed accurate results for how veg varied across footpath/transect so could compare results to assess evidence of trampling
was achievable in time available meant i could gather large amount of data

Question 6

What is the issue with using quadrats?

Answer 6

hard to count veg in or out of quadrat
affected results as some areas might be marked high % veg if smaller veg

to improve:
same person count veg
improve accuracy as avoid error between judgement
so data more valid

Question 7

What is the secondary data for physical investigation?

Answer 7

Reigate Heath management plan
OS maps
Historical data

Question 8

What are the risks for the physical investigation?

Answer 8

ticks which may carry lyme disease
mitigation: wear long trousers and check for ticks after fieldwork

uneven ground so may trip, fall, injury
mitigation: appropriate footwear, no running

Question 9

What sampling method was used in the physical investigation?

Answer 9

Stratified approach to chose a site which was appropriate and accessible
Systematic approach for sampling across path - quadrat placed every metre across path

Question 10

What is the justification for the sampling method in physical investigation?

Answer 10

gave representative data across whole path and reduced bias
quadrats work well to study vegetation distribution patterns

Question 11

What were the problems with the sampling for physical investigation?

Answer 11

Only an estimation of % vegetation cover so not fully accurate
miss anomalies
bare ground and vegetation difficult to separate with plants resting horizontally so assessment of coverage difficult

Question 12

What are the data presentation methods for physical investigation?

Answer 12

Kite diagram - shows % veg cover across path

fieldwork - shows key features of site

Proportional circle map (GIS)- shows number of species (biodiversity) across site

Question 13

What are the advantages of kite diagram?

Answer 13

Useful for displaying changes over distance
visually clear and easy to interpret one category from another

Question 14

What are the disadvantages of kite diagrams?

Answer 14

visually subjective as the scale influences visual effect
only works with a specific range of data
time-consuming to construct by hand

Question 15

What are the advantages of proportional circles?

Answer 15

GIS allows data to be plotted onto a map which gives a good visual representation of vegetation cover

Question 16

What are the disadvantages of proportional circles?

Answer 16

proportional circles can all blur together so it is difficult to read

Question 17

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using mean to find average?

Answer 17

all data used to find answer
but…
very large or very small numbers can distort the answer

Question 18

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using median to find average?

Answer 18

very small/big values don’t affect it
but…
takes long time to calculate for large set of data

Question 19

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using mode to find average?

Answer 19

only average we can use when data not numerical, easy to calculate
but…
may be more than one mode, may be no mode if no data the same, may not accurately represent data

Question 20

What were the anomalies in the physical investigation?

Answer 20

tree stumps in way, tree routes running through sample area

Question 21

What was the conclusion to the physical investigation?

Answer 21

% veg cover increases with distance from footpath, due to human usage being more concentrated near footpath through dog walkers and members of public

Question 22

What is the negative evaluation of the physical conclusion?

Answer 22

difficult to estimate % veg exactly within quadrat
only carried out at one time of year - users more active in summer so less veg cover
only sampled 20m transect line given time constraints, would enlarge to 30m

Question 23

What is the positive evaluation of the physical conclusion?

Answer 23

quadrats allowed me to gain good spatial coverage over a distance
quadrats were carried out systematically (every 1m) which meant bias was avoided as well as enabling me to gain a good representation of % veg cover

Question 24

What is the last evaluative point for the physical conclusion?

Answer 24

total of 5 transects carried out across footpath which was an adequate sample size
however, if i was to repeat again i would increase sample size to 10 quadrats and return at different seasons.
would enable me to be even more confident that % veg coverage increases with distance from footpath

Question 25

Why was reigate heath a good location?

Answer 25

close to home/is a used area