Thesis Idea!

seaview36

hi there,
In desperate need for a thesis idea, looking to carry out a thesis based on agriculture/environment/ forestry or wildlife kind of area. I need to check the effect of something and the impacts it has. any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated, also I'm in fourth year and do not have any funding to do an expensive project....I am not very fond of carrying out tedious work in labs either so if anyone has an idea you think id like I would be very grateful! maybe something to do with biodiversity....
Thanks!

EganTheMan

How about the Viability of growing Lavender as a crop in Ireland?

I am from an agricultural background and have been told that Ireland has an ideal climate for Lavender yet we import tons of it?

EganTheMan

How about investigating link between feeding pregnant ewes and lamb birth mortality rates?

seaview36

Cheers Egan The Man but i need something which the tests could be carried out in a short period of time, Ill be starting after Xmas and would find it hard to get information on them, not bad ideas tho! i have to think of something by monday or i will be assigned one ..thinking maybe examining and comparing biodiversity of plants between raised bogs and blanket bogs...carry out some soil tests and throw a few quadrants here and there...

Interslice

seaview36 wrote: »

Cheers Egan The Man but i need something which the tests could be carried out in a short period of time, Ill be starting after Xmas and would find it hard to get information on them, not bad ideas tho! i have to think of something by monday or i will be assigned one ..thinking maybe examining and comparing biodiversity of plants between raised bogs and blanket bogs...carry out some soil tests and throw a few quadrants here and there...

Doesn't really tell you much as they are two different habitats. One has more species than the other. So what then?

May be easier to compare a variable within a fixed habitat. You could compare the biodiversity in cut raised bogs and intact raised bogs. It will give you more to discuss and you could tie it in with legislation conservation etc. It would be a large enough survey to do properly with enough replicates to produce a statistical difference. You could do something simpler like compareing the results of different surveying methods within a site for invertabrates, plants. Line transect, random quadrats etc. Look at other papers that have been done on bogs and see if you can change a subject or variable or analyse the results using different survey methods. I'd come up with a rough title like The analysis of different survey methods in surveying the biodiversity of angiosperms in a named raised bog. Bryophytes are difficult to identify particularly sphagnum. Not sure what your skills, backround are, if your academic or more applied but just a few ideas of the top of my head that might help you think of something. Then you have to figure out do you have the time, money, equipment and ability to do it and also if the exact same thing has been done before by someone.

tomatofruit

the Viability of Forestry as an alternative to conventional farming.

seaview36

Cheers Interslice, i suppose your right about that, think that could be a much better idea to check about bogs which have been left intact and bogs which have been cut! thanks! now to find these bogs ...I dont think it will matter that much if someone has it done before, i will have from mid january to start and need to get my thesis done by mid may i think. and money will be scarce unfortunatly ... and my knowledge of plants and invertebrates would be limited but we have done some work in it a year or two ago....I dont want a project carrying out lab work really, much rather be out in the field...Thanks a million for this advice i will send some of it onto my supervisor and see what he says ..

Tree

Is this for a final year BSc project?

seaview36

Yes Im in fourth year, doing the level 8 ....turned out someone within the class was actually doing that exact idea of cut and non cut bogs so basically I have been assigned one....Not exactly sure what i'm doing yet but something to do with examining plant biodiversity in bogs and forests which were planted on bogs....seems to be an awful lot of work in it but should have good statistical work at the end (hopefully)

challengemaster

Rather surprised you weren't just assigned a project from the start. Quite rare at undergrad to have to come up with a project idea, considering the time constraints involved.

Black Swan

If you visit your science library on campus and search through the published masters and doctorates in your field of interest, you will often find in their final chapters suggestions for future research. Depending upon your requirements, you can follow up on all or a part of one of those suggestions, narrowing the scope of your research appropriately.

Annual conference proceedings of a scholarly association that is in your field of interest often makes their papers available online. Search those papers for recommendations for future research.