Metropolitan Chicago Data Science Corps (MCDC)

American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) Analysis at The Morton Arboretum ENV 403

Dr. Mark Potosnak

Team Morton – Sierra, Jackie, and Nicola March 14th, 2022

The objective of this ENV 403 Final Project was to conduct exploratory data analysis on American sycamore data from the Morton Arboretum. Specifically, we were interested in exploring various data visualization tools to examine trends in sap flow, which is an excellent indicator of tree health. This is especially true when sap flow data is complimented with temperature and other weather data, to confirm the effect of environmental factors on sap flow. If environmental factors are good for strong sap flow, but the tree does not appear to have strong sap flow, one could reasonably conclude that the tree may not be in good health. This assignment is broken down into six parts.

Introduction

Part 1: Based on Week 6 Assignment

Plot of Sap flow (known by the variable name “Sap_Flow_OutZ”) for only the month of July in 2021.

Part 2: Based on Week 7 Assignment

Find period (at least 20 days) of Sap flow data with a consistent daily cycle.

 Make a new variable that is hour of the day.

Plot Sap flow for this period versus hour of the day.

Part 3: Based on Week 8 Assignment

Improve plot from Part 3 by calculating our own filter by hand instead of using the geom_smooth() generated one.

Calculate standard deviation.

Plot points in addition to lines and add the standard deviation as error bars.

Part 4: Based on Week 9 and Week 10 Assignments

For the same period as your sap flow data, create a similar plot for temperature.

Average hourly data with standard deviation.

Using data from DuPage Airport near the Morton Arboretum.

Conclusion