UNIT 4a

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

TO INVESTIGATE SUCCESSION IN A HALOSERE

Question 2

Hypotheses

Answer 2

The Height Of The Land Will Increase As You Move Inland

The Species Richness Will Increase As You Move Inland

Substrate Temperature Will Increase As You Move Further Inland

Question 3

Height of the land will increase but why

Answer 3

(This is because as more biotic matter is able to survive, there is a larger soil store and the height increases therefore in the areas where there is more life)

Question 4

Species richness increases but why

Answer 4

(The conditions inland will become more and more suitable for more plants, as salinity will decrease, temperature will increase and substrate quality will increase)

Question 5

Substrate temperature will increase but why

Answer 5

(The further inland, the less often the land is covered by cold water, therefore the dryer land will be warmed by the sun for longer)

Question 6

Location

Answer 6

Holbrook Bay, Village of Holbrook, Suffolk

Stour Estuary

Question 7

Suitability of bae

Answer 7

Small, established halosere – Easy and relevant

Several stages of succession are noticeable – Means we could see changes across the process
Yet to reach deciduous woodland – Unable to see the climatic climax, restricting investigation

Agricultural use creating a Plagioclimax – Shows the lands importance, restricts investigation

Felixstowe (10km) creates wash – Erodes the halosere effecting natural succession + Coastal Squeeze

Eustatic Change (sea level change) = visible sudden step– Effects natural succession

Site of Special Scientific Interest from 2003– Show the areas importance

Within the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths AONB – Great interest with tourism and Importance

The EU made it a Special Protection Area due to rare birds– Shows importance of area

Question 8

SSSi

Answer 8

Nationally Important for 13 species of wintering waterfowl (Godwit+ Knot), 3 of which on autumn passage (Redshank), as well as coastal saltmarsh, sheltered muddy shores, 2 scarce marine invertebrates and a vascular scarce plant assemblage

3 nationally important geological sites providing; early exposures of Eocene sediments containing volcanic ash formations between Harwich and Wrabness, fossil fruits, and in Stutton younger Pleistocene sediments have yielded important and rich fossil vertebrate fauna

Question 9

species of wintering waterfowl

Answer 9

godwit + knot

Question 10

autumn passage bird

Answer 10

Redshank

Question 11

rare stuff

Answer 11

2 scarce marine invertebrates and a vascular scarce plant assemblage

Question 12

Important for geology why

Answer 12

3 nationally important geological sites providing; early exposures of Eocene sediments containing volcanic ash formations between Harwich and Wrabness, fossil fruits, and in Stutton younger Pleistocene sediments have yielded important and rich fossil vertebrate fauna

Question 13

Why are haloseres good for us

Answer 13

Haloseres furthermore are carbon sinks and act as coastal management and protection

Question 14

Theory of Succession : Mudflat stage

Answer 14

Gut weed & Eel grass bind and build up the mud flats

Question 15

Theory of Succession : Flowering stage

Answer 15

The glasswort is a pioneer plant that grows up to around 35cm tall. It adapts to its environment and has the ability to remain hydrated by storing water.

Cord grass is adapted by having stomata in deep grooves, retaining water.
These plants grow fast and have longer roots, there for binding the substrate. As they die they produce humus.

Question 16

Theory of Succession : Establishment stage

Answer 16

Sea aster is a plant found all over a saltmarsh due to the seeds being spread by water and wind.

Question 17

Theory of Succession : Competition stage

Answer 17

Sea purslane has leaves covered in hair, for surface area and transpiration is kept at a minimum. Furthermore is excretes salt, to lose it from the inner tissues.

Question 18

Theory of Succession : Stabilization Stage

Answer 18

Scurvy grass retains most of the water absorbed so that salt levels are diluted.
In this stage we find mostly Rush, which grows in concentrate. It is able to flourish here at the climax stage because it the salinity is at its lowest.

Question 19

Plants in order of succession

Answer 19

Gut weed & eel grass

glasswort and cord grass

sea aster

seas purslane

scurvy grass and rush

Question 20

Example of risk assessment

Answer 20

Hazard of deep tranches hidden by plants

Control measures, watch where you are putting your feet, walk carefully, do not run

Question 21

3 steps for risk assessment

Answer 21

3 Steps

1) Identify the hazards
2) Calculate the risk = likelihood x severity
3) Remove the hazard or introduce control measures

Question 22

Dynamic Assessment

Answer 22

The ongoing process of each step

Question 23

Kite diagram results

Answer 23

Glasswort is a pioneer plant at the establishment stage of succession, growing up to around 35cm tall. It adapts to its environment and has the ability to remain hydrated by storing water – This was most present closer (15m-30m) to the low water mark

Sea purslane has leaves covered in hair, for surface area and transpiration is kept at a minimum – Competition stage of succession – This was most present from 30-45m from the low water mark

Flowering Rush is an evergreen plant at the stabilisation stage of succession – This was most present from 45m-60m from the low water mark

Question 24

Advantage and disadvantage of Kite Diagrams

Answer 24

+ Clear and easy to interpret.
+ Shows changes over distance.
+Easy to show distribution of more than of variable and compare

• Time consuming to plot by hand.
• Hard to notice anomaly’s
• Shows sudden changes

Question 25

Advantage and disadvantage of GE bar chart

Answer 25

+ Allowed me to show changes in height on top of the actual map telling me more about the land as well as the land height

• Not as easy to interpret
• Requires time and technical knowledge
• No clear scale

Question 26

Advantage and disadvantage Scatter graph

Answer 26

+ Easy to see anomaly’s

• Works better with lots of data
• Harder to interpret more than one variable

Question 27

What i used spearmans rank for

Answer 27

I was able to use spearman’s rank to see if, like I hypothesised, substrate temperature and land height increased with distance from the low water mark. However, I was unable to use it in relation to plant cover, as this involved using percentages of many different species

Question 28

spearmans rank of substrate temp and distance

Answer 28

of -0.658 shows that as the distance increases, the temperature decreases

Question 29

spearmans rank of substrate temp and distance critical values

Answer 29

With my 0.02 critical values being above the value of 0.6484, I can be 98% confident that my results are reliable and not all anomalies. It’s also a fairly strong negative correlation, meaning there is a significant pattern.

Question 30

Advantages and disadvantage of : Spearman’s rank

Answer 30

+ Shows the significance of the data.
+ Proves/disproves correlation.
+ Allows for further analysis.
+ Doesn’t assume normal distribution

• Can be difficult to work out.
• Quite a complicated formula.
• Can be misinterpreted.
• Need two sets of variable data so the test can be performed

Question 31

Advantages and disadvantage of : Chi Squared

Answer 31

+ Can test association between variables.
+ Identifies difference between observed and expected

• Can’t use percentages.
• Data must be numerical.
• Categories of 2 are not good to compare.
• The number of observations must be 20+
• The test becomes invalid if any of the expected values are below 5

Question 32

Advantages and disadvantage of : Mann Whitney U

Answer 32

+ Shows the median between 2 sets of data.
+ Good with dealing with skewed data so data doesn’t need to be normally distributed
+ You can decide the boundaries of the 2 groups.
+ Only needs one variable in a set of data

• More appropriate when the data sets are independent of each other.
• More appropriate when both sets of data have the same shape distribution.
• Have to have equal sample sizes.
• Becomes less accurate when the sample size is below 5 for above 20

Question 33

Land height conclusion

Answer 33

My first hypothesis regarding land height was proven by my results. As you move further along the transect, away from the shore, the height generally increases.

This is due to the processes of succession. As the level of the deposited material from the sea rises, it is less frequently covered by water. An in therefore there is less erosion, thus explaining why land height increases as with distance from the shore.

A further analysis I made with this graph was that the data was much less deviant after around 40m. This could be because; this was where the ground had existed without deposition and displacement from water for the longest. Therefore, the surface is smoother due to wind erosion and very little new material from the sea reaching this far.

Another reason for this change could be because of plant cover, a thick litter, would increase land height.

Question 34

Plant abundance conclusion

Answer 34

What I can conclude from the plant abundance data, is that it is generally barren land where the sea covers the area the majority of the time, no real plant life forms until closer to the high tide mark.

Cord grasses are able to survive in areas flooded by salt water because of the regulatory system they have developed that excretes unneeded salt on the leaf edges. It’s the only plant thriving until around 27 metres

We start to see around 40% Glass Wort. These plants can thrive in saline conditions, but generally need more nutrients so are therefore slightly further away than Cord Grass.

At about 40 metres we get up to 100% Sea Purslane. If the plant is under water for a long time during periods of prolonged floods, it will lose lots of its leaves; this is why it can only thrive from 40m out

Question 35

Substrate temp conclusion

Answer 35

My results reject my hypothesis for the substrate temperature change. I had predicted that because the land becomes drier the further away you move from the shore, the substrate temperature would increase.

However, my spearman’s rank value of -0.658 shows that as the distance increases, the temperature decreases. With my 0.02 critical values being above the value of 0.6484, I can be 98% confident that my results are reliable and not all anomalies.

It’s also a fairly strong negative correlation, meaning there is a significant pattern.

Without further research, it’s hard to say why it is that there is this kind of temperature change. One theory would suggest that perhaps the plant cover and the type of plant cover affected the outcome of the results.

Question 36

EVALUATION

Answer 36

As discussed in my methodology, each method had its faults, and had we had access to the saltmarsh for a longer period of time with more advanced technology, we had got more accurate and reliable results.

By increasing how often we took readings and enlarging our transect, and therefore samples, we could increase n and therefore have more reliable results.

More accurate technology like sonar for distance and more advanced thermometers would have enabled our results to be more accurate.

By using technology to measure values instead of using the human eye, you cut out human error.

By taking more than one reading at each sample, we would have been able to take averages and further strengthen the reliability of our results.

Further study could include looking at more variables such as substrate acidity, substrate water content, substrate nutrient content (i.e. Iron), wind temperate/ speed, wave speed, sea temperature, sunlight, soil texture etc.

Each variable can be used as research to investigate to processes of succession in a halosere. Over time we would also be able to see the succession over the years and we could go on to investigate how humans have impacted the area.

A further geographical investigation could be to test how human impacts interfere with the processes and how this influences the area.