Trees vs Snags:

Species Richness Smackdown

Hazel Wolf
Funky Turtles

Introduction
Research

question: Do snags provide more habitat

than living trees?

Hypothesis:

We think that there will be a greater

species richness of vegetation on snags than live
trees because snags are decomposing and are able
to provide a nutrient rich soil.

Definitions
Species

richness- number of different species

represented in a defined space

Snag-

a standing dead tree

Materials and Methods

Materials:

fox tail, journals and pencils, magnifying glass, measuring

tape.
Methods:
1.

Walk the Trail of Giants

2.

Divide into 3 groups and stop every 125 ft.

3.

One member of each group throws the fox tail

4.

Each group then finds the closest snag and living tree

5.

Measure 5ft from the base of snag and living tree

6.

Count all the different species of plants below that 5 ft.

7.

Repeat steps 2-6, 3 more times

Data
Average number of plant species on snags vs live trees

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Stop 1

Stop 2

Stop 3
Snags

Live Trees

Stop 4

Results
Our

hypothesis was supported!

Limitations
Confusion

identifying some plant species

Not

being able to tell if a plant is growing on the

tree/snag or just near it

We

couldnt always decide which snag or tree was

closest to the fox tail

Not

identifying the type of tree we observed

Tree

size

Discussion
Something
Collect
Only
Go

better to write on

more data

look at one tree species

farther on trial

Keep

track of all species looked at

Larger Implications
Snags

are more important!