User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My time spent on this research project gave me a greater understanding of how to conduct and implement a research study. It also allowed me to see why ecology is such a diverse field to study.
During my field research study I did encounter a couple of issues. A few of the issues I observed were prior to initiation of the field study and I was able to make the alteration to the designs. The one issue I ran into in the field study on site was as the morning went on the number of people that were at the park increased which increased the amount of disturbance occurring while I was trying to observe all the birds present. After the first day of sampling I decided to decrease the amount of time I spent at each survey location to decrease the chance of being interrupted by a third party.
Engaging in the practice of ecology has given me a greater appreciation of those who put the effort into all these studies on ecology. Before I came into this class I never conducted my own field experiment. I had only ever completed assessments on projects following standardized procedures for permitting purposes.
