Amber Arrington |
Name: Amber Arrington
School: Rust College Major: Biology Mentor: Dr. Jason Hoeksema Expected Graduation Date: April 2009 Organizations & Honors:
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ABSTRACT
How Do Abiotic Environmental Factors Vary from Ridges to Hollows in a Mixed Upland Forest?
| There are two types of factors that affect the composition of species in ecological communities: biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living). Much of recent community ecology ignores the fact that real communities occur on gradients of abiotic factors such as temperature, moisture, and soil chemistry. Multiple abiotic factors including soil texture, moisture, and sunlight (directly and also indirectly as canopy openness) across a gradient between ridges and hollows in a mixed upland forest in northern Mississippi were sampled for this study. It was found that soil texture at 15 cm depth was significantly denser and canopy openness was significantly higher on ridges. On the other hand, soil texture at 7.5 cm depth, soil moisture, and sunlight did not differ notably between ridges and hollows. Thus, knowledge of how abiotic components of the environment vary along a gradient can be beneficial in understanding interactions among ecological communities and their environment. |