First Day in the Field

First Day in the Field

During our fist day in the field our eucalyptus team encounter a few problems, but ended with positive feedback for our next survey. We plan our method of attack before stepping into the field by mapping out of population and documenting possible transects. Our original plan was to transect sample at least ten vertical lines through our population with a ten meter long transect. As we soon found out that would be too difficult due to the amounts of branches and obstacles on the ground, so we reduced the transect size by 5 meters.




After Random selecting our first transect based on latitude and longitude within our population area, we measure 10 meters to the next transect location. Due to the under calculated slope of our terrain and the overestimated stamina of our team we were only able to count 5 transects within a 3 our window. We were not able to record as much data as we liked, but we were able to get consist data.

The transect measurements were accurate but very exhausting so we tried spot counting. Spot counting gave us a very similar range of data and required a lot less energy on our part. We were only able to do a few spot counts but we feel confident in that method. Our next field day will focus on spot counting a in order for us to begin compiling data for analysis.

The only other issue we had during our first field pay was some patches of poison oak. All in all we learned a lot more while being out in the field on the method we should use and the amount of data we will need for an accurate population estimate.

-Adam Ibrahim