Field Ecology - EEOB 513

This is our Field Ecology class, taught by Doug Kane (upper left, in green). I'm in the front wearing white. I really enjoyed the course, I learned a lot and had fun too. It's a pretty intense course, but it gives a great introduction to ecology with a solid background in statistics. It gave me a lot of ideas to use for the course I will teach to my high school students next summer. I'll post some pictures to give an idea of what was covered in the course.

Forests

The first major portion of the course focused on forests. We analyzed the tree composition of a forest on South Bass Island and compared it to a forest on Kelley's Island. This is us with all our stuff on Kelley's (right). We learned techniques for taking a random sample of trees, collected data on forest density, and learned to identify different species of trees (like the bladdernut).



While on Kelley's, we stopped to see the glacial grooves (left) as well as the abandoned quarries, and saw quite a bit of succession taking place. Great stuff for Earth Science, which I teach during the school year!

Water Quality

The second project of this course was to compare the water quality of several different nearby sites in Old Woman Creek, the Huron River, and Lake Erie. We did this by collecting physical and chemical data, taking samples of benthic invertebrates with dip nets, and using a seine to take samples of fish (right). I have never even been fishing before, so this was a brand new experience for me! I now can identify some fish! =)

While we were at Old Woman Creek, a sandbar that had blocked the mouth of the river was beginning to break open and we witnessed all these carp that had been in the river flopping over the remains of the sandbar to get back to the lake. It was really neat and Doug (the instructor) was trying to catch them with his hands, which was amusing! One of our classmates has that on video so I will try to get it and post it...

Lake Erie

The final project we worked on in this class was to compare two sites in Lake Erie: one rather calm (near Middle Bass Island), and one much more exposed (near Rattlesnake Island). We learned all sorts of techniques during this project, like using a trawl (right), measuring density of zooplankton, using an Eckman dredge, measuring light penetration etc.

We did a lot of discussion about invasive species, like our friends the zebra and quagga mussels (left), and the resulting ecological effects. We measured the amount of dissolved oxygen to find out how eutrophic the lake is and discussed the causes of this phenomenon.

Course Wrap-up

The final day of the course included a trip to Terwilliger's Pond where we learned a bit about pond ecosystems. We waded through the muck to collect invertebrates and look at different pond plants. We also caught site of this strange-looking bird. Someone identified it, but I can't remember what it was called now...


Then it was time to review for the final exam. The final consisted of 3 parts: a lab practical, a statistical portion, and a written portion. So there was plenty of studying to do... but I did most of it sitting on the west end of Gibralter watching this sunset! Not a bad way to spend my time...


Overall, the course was challenging, but very enjoyable. We had a great group of people taking the course who were hard-working but a lot of fun! I look forward to taking my next course, which is Stream Ecology. I leave on Sunday!