This experiment was devised to discover the effect of Soil Salinity on the health of a Bald Cypress sapling. This is highly relevant to the people of Southeastern Louisiana. Ever since more land has begun to be lost, salt intrusion has affected the freshwater swamps causing Cypress Trees to die and continue the cycle of land loss ("Salt Tolerance of Southern Baldcypress"). This experiment’s results were to help the understanding of Cypress Tree salt tolerance and discover why the Cypress Swamps are struggling to recover.
At the end of two weeks, Independent variable levels of 2 and .03 mmhos/cm had the best health with ratings of 7.7 and 8; 3 mmhos/ did the worst, ending at 5.7, and 1 mmhos/cm didn’t experience much change, starting at 7.1 …show more content…
There is not a pattern to the data that was collected from the Cypress saplings. Groups 0.3 mmhos/cm and 2 mmhos/cm both fared better than 1 mmhos/cm. This leaves a hole in the pattern that was predicted to occur. I assumed that a gradual rate of health was going to appear from the results but no consistency was revealed. The most obvious course of conclusion is to say that not enough time was put into this experiment. The USGS conducted a similar experiment to this one on a three-month time period and still seemed to have less conclusive results than hoped for ("Salt Tolerance of Southern Baldcypress"). This experiment may have had more conclusive results with more time, but every possibility must be considered. One possibility is that the salt was not evenly distributed and steered clear of the saplings’ roots in group 2 mmhos/cm. Another possibility is that group 2 mmhos/cm was able endure the salt intrusion longer due to the other two groups slightly shading it from the sun on both sides. On that logic, better shading would be able to help the sapling grow with more salt, but that is a whole other topic to cover. Whatever the case, the results were puzzling and
At the end of two weeks, Independent variable levels of 2 and .03 mmhos/cm had the best health with ratings of 7.7 and 8; 3 mmhos/ did the worst, ending at 5.7, and 1 mmhos/cm didn’t experience much change, starting at 7.1 …show more content…
There is not a pattern to the data that was collected from the Cypress saplings. Groups 0.3 mmhos/cm and 2 mmhos/cm both fared better than 1 mmhos/cm. This leaves a hole in the pattern that was predicted to occur. I assumed that a gradual rate of health was going to appear from the results but no consistency was revealed. The most obvious course of conclusion is to say that not enough time was put into this experiment. The USGS conducted a similar experiment to this one on a three-month time period and still seemed to have less conclusive results than hoped for ("Salt Tolerance of Southern Baldcypress"). This experiment may have had more conclusive results with more time, but every possibility must be considered. One possibility is that the salt was not evenly distributed and steered clear of the saplings’ roots in group 2 mmhos/cm. Another possibility is that group 2 mmhos/cm was able endure the salt intrusion longer due to the other two groups slightly shading it from the sun on both sides. On that logic, better shading would be able to help the sapling grow with more salt, but that is a whole other topic to cover. Whatever the case, the results were puzzling and