Vegitation Data

This past Friday and Saturday my group (the vegetation group) went out to the GTM NERR. Despite bad weather conditions we were able to collect all the data we needed. What we did was on Friday we set up all of the markers for the quadrants that we were to be sampled; however due to rain and the non-water proof camera none of the data could be collected. So Saturday afternoon we went back out and took the photos and measurements for each of our 17 transects. We based this number of transects on the sites that a previous experimenter had set up using her markers as the base points for our transects. We took quadrant samples for five quadrants along each transect at 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 meters. We used the camera set up provided by the NERR which allows for aerial photos to be taken. We also measure the average canopy height of each species within each quadrant as well as the distance between the base point markers and the edge of the shoreline. This was done with the intent of it being the initial reference distance to determine whether the shoreline is eroding behind the reefs or if is is accreting. Now we have to use the computer program provided by the NERR to quantify the photos that were taken and analyze the trends in the data.

Image of the aerial camera set up in the field