User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Designing and implementing a field research project for this class was a great way to provide practical experience in the work required, and difficulties encountered by a practicing field biologist.
While I had a concrete idea of what I wanted to study (impact of different habitats on bird species presence and abundance) it took quite a while to determine the correct location in which to implement this study to minimize confounding variables and ensure that the results between study sites would truly be comparable. I began my project at Surrey Bend Regional Park but with the help of Dr. Hebert quickly determined that the sites in this location were not similar enough to compare, and I would essentially be comparing species diversity and presence between two different habitats with differing levels of anthropogenic influence. As a result, it would be nearly impossible to determine if it was the habitat type or past human impacts that were influencing the birds present on the site. In the end, I changed my location to Burnaby Lake Regional Park and the surrounding area and evaluated bird species presence and abundance along an urbanized gradient.
Once my study site was selected I had no real difficulty in implementing the project design (point count surveys within each of the three habitat types representing different levels of urbanization). However, despite all my sites being relatively close to one another it still took a considerable amount of time to visit two point count survey locations in each of the three habitats on a number of different days. This really helped me understand the difficulty in ensuring that enough replicate samples are taken in a study to ensure that the data collected is truly representative of the conditions on the site.
Overall, this research project has given me an appreciation for the amount work and forethought that is required in developing and implementing successful research projects whose results can be robust enough to help develop and further the principles in ecological theory. I look forward to applying the skills I have acquired in this class to my work as an applied field biologist.
