Qualitative Analysis

Invasive Species and Their Impact

Invasive species are a huge problem for ecosystems and native animals in the United States. Originally they were brought over by humans from other continents and released into the wild. Some were released on purpose while others were released by mistake. Invasive species compete for natural resources and are capable of causing the extinction of natives in the area. They are also responsible for causing loss and change of habitat as well as reducing biodiversity. For something to be considered an invasive species it must be able to do all these things to the environment in which it is invading. According to professionals, if invasive species are not eliminated, the ecosystem will most likely become much less diverse. Less diversity would make the ecosystem more prone to further disturbances such as diseases and natural disasters. (Ericson, 2012 )

Some examples of invasive species are Nutria and bush honeysuckle. The first example is the nutria, a large, web-footed rodent that lives mainly in the water. They were brought to the states by humans for their fur in the early 1900s but were released into the environment and soon became invasive. They live in wetland marshes and eat tall grasses and rushes. These plants are necessary for the survival of the wetlands. They are a source of food, nesting sites, shelter, and also help secure the soil. Without them, there could be massive erosion and many of the native organisms could starve from lack of food. (National Geographic, 2011)

The other example is bush honeysuckle, which originated in Asia and was also brought over to the United States by humans. The bush is invasive and grows at a very fast rate, making it capable of easily outnumbering the natives in the area. If this invader continues to thrive, it will surely take over the region and greatly outnumber every native shrub living in it. (University of Missouri, 2015)

Because of these species and many other invasives becoming more dominant the environment is becoming less and less diverse, and in some cases even more prone to things such as erosion and disease. For example, the nutria is destroying the environment by eating a plant that is a valuable resource in the biome. Without this plant, the marsh becomes more prone to erosion and all the animals that live there more prone to extinction without one of their main sources of food. (National Geographic, 2011)

Qualitative data is a good tool for looking at human impact. Thanks to the research done through qualitative research, we can have a better understanding of what’s happening and people can take action and try to prevent these problems from becoming worse.

Works Cited

Ericson, Jenny, et al. “U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.” FAQs - Invasive Species - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, www.fws.gov/invasives/faq.html.

National Geographic Society. “Invasive Species.” National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/invasive-species/. Plant Sciences. “Weed of the Month: Bush Honeysuckle-an Ornamental Gone Wrong.” Weed of the Month: Bush Honeysuckle-an Ornamental Gone Wrong // Integrated Crop and Pest Management News Article // Integrated Pest Management, University of Missouri, ipm. missouri.edu/ipcm/2015/9/Weed-of-the-Month-Bush-honeysuckle-an-ornamental-gonewrong/.

Qualitative Methods

Qualitative Research appears at first to be fairly simple, but there’s much more to it. For qualitative research, the scientist needs to look at their surroundings and find evidence of the human impact that interests them. Once they’ve decided what their focus will be, they start to ask questions about what they are seeing in the field and record it. The Qualitative Researcher should then go ask other scientists about the data they’ve collected to help answer their questions. Once they’ve collected all the data, the Researcher creates a theory based on all the data collected using the data to back up their theory.

To gather data for Qualitative Research the researcher needs their journal, a pencil, their scientific mind, and the help of other scientists. They need to look around and record what they see in their surroundings that relates to their focus. The Researcher then goes and asks other scientists whose sciences overlap with the form of human impact they have chosen to research. They ask the scientists what their findings were.

Of the sight studies we did, the most prominent was at Goose Creek State Park, North Carolina and the Mississippi River, Illinois. The data I gathered at both sight studies further suggests that my theory, or the protection theory as I have named it, is more likely to be true since I have data from multiple places that support it. At Goose Creek, for example, I found

that there was a lot of variety in both plant and animal species and that zoologists hadn’t identified any invasives. While there were a more dominant species of plants in the area, botanists still hadn’t identified any invasives. These pieces of data suggest that the amount of species in each area is important since it could have something to do with what invasives could thrive there, etc. The human impact at the state park was relatively low in terms of invasives. At the Mississippi however, there was at least one type of invasive species, the Asian Carp, which lived in the river. They were also what seemed to be a more dominant species of the fish within the water. This told me that the human impact here was relatively high. After finding all these discoveries I immediately wrote them down in my journal. Now that I had recorded all this data I could use it to back up my theory.

The final step to being a Qualitative Researcher is processing the data that has been collected. This starts with the scientist looking through all the data collected and coding it. This can be done by making a key and writing down what everything means, then putting the codes by significant pieces of information. After coding they go back again and look at which of the codes seem to be occurring the most. Then they do this a few more times, focusing more and more on the most significant pieces of data to use to create their theory. This is an overview of what a Qualitative Researcher typically needs to know while doing their job.

Qualitative Data

I observed that invasive species seemed drastically less common in more protected environments, and environments with fewer species in general. There were a few exceptions to this since a couple of the places we went had a high variety of species and no identified invasive species. I included a graph of the different places we did site studies and the species richness at them. However, I did not include an invasive species column in the North Carolina graph, since no identified invasive species there. I’m not completely sure why this was, although it most likely had something to do with the environment and species richness.

At some of the places we went to, the environment and plants there were less protected. This meant that there might have been a higher chance that it had invasive species there. For instance, the Asian Carp that we discovered when doing a site study at the Mississippi Riverlands were the only invasive species identified throughout the trimester. The Riverlands was a much less protected environment and was more prone to invasives than any of the other places we did site studies on. However, the species richness was the secondhighest of all the places we studied. The number of species identified was 11.

There were far less invasive species identified in our site studies in more protected areas, which were mostly located in North Carolina. However, as we were driving across the state,

I saw entire forests of kudzu off the side of the highway while at the site studies we did, no one saw any trace of it. I found this odd since kudzu a huge problem in North Carolina and all along the East Coast. Meanwhile, at the site studies where Botanists and Zoologists had identified fewer species, there seemed a less of a chance that there were invasive species nearby. Take Fontana Lake or Fort Macon, for instance. Both of those locations didn’t have much of a variety of animals near us and no identified invasives. This was also odd since people tend to make a big deal about invasives and how they are everywhere. But, I presume that’s where my explanation for what’s happening comes in to play.

Qualitative Conclusions

Throughout the trimester, I found that that for the most part, invasive species seem to be drastically less common in more protected environments, and environments with fewer species in general. I have named this the protection theory. This is important because people can use this information to find ways to reduce the human impact made by invasive species within their yards, farms, or other properties they own that has the risk of being taken over by invasive species.

This data can be important not just to scientists but to regular people as well. If more people know how to stop invasive species, others could learn from them and invasives may finally be exterminated or at least no longer be a constant threat. Invasive species have proven to be a huge problem since they tend to do more harm than good to the surrounding environments they are in. If they were to be exterminated, more native species could thrive and have a better chance of survival. This data can be used by future 8th graders and others who want to use it since this is not being put into the BOK, or Body of Knowledge, for my enjoyment alone. With a better understanding of how something happened, why it keeps happening and ways to stop it, not only can human impact in the form of invasive species stop, but all types of negative human impact will be reduced as well.

In conclusion, this data could contribute to lessening the human impact, at least in terms of invasive species, and prevent humans from accidentally wiping out ecosystems and native species. The more people that know how to prevent negative human impact, the more likely it is to decrease.

Advice for Future Qualitative Researchers

The advice I would give to future Qualitative Researchers is that they should work together if there are two or more of them. If there is only one person, they’ll have to do everything alone, which has some ups and downs. It’s not necessarily much more difficult to work alone, but it can make larger tasks like the wall and collecting data more difficult than it would be if there were two or three people. They just have to take extra care to collect a lot of data and work efficiently.

To do Qualitative Research effectively, the scientist must record everything and always be asking not only themselves questions, but other scientists questions too. Other scientists have often already gathered important information about the topic they are studying, data that can’t be gathered just by glancing at something. For example, if the form of human impact that they have chosen to focus on is invasive species, a Zoologist may have important information about how many animals are in the area, and whether they identified any invasives.

Make sure that there is always a journal, or at least some paper and a pencil on hand. Qualitative Researchers do a lot of writing out in the field and it would be a shame if there wasn’t access to a functioning writing utensil or something on which to write all the data down on. The data collected in the field is very important for later on. If everything that is found doesn’t end up getting recorded, something that’s crucial could be forgotten or be left out and now it can’t be gotten back. Since all the data is recorded in a table and gets used for writing pieces for the wall after the trip, it would be much more difficult to complete those things if there were missing chunks of data.

Now, after reading all of this, I hope that future potential Qualitative Researchers will have a better understanding of what one does out in the field, and more. The job is a bit confusing and difficult at first, but hopefully reading this will make what they do in the field much more clear. With that, I wish the reader good luck on being a Qualitative Researcher!