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Biology 3021
Community and Ecosystem Ecology
Blogs by E. Carmen Bell
Blog Post 1: Observations
Already, this Ecological Field Study has taught me many things. It has taken me weeks to settle
on potential field study locations and considerations. I believe this has to do with my perspective being
originally too narrow for the assignment. I was searching for a particularly interesting angle from
which I could make a detailed study and inventory and may have been attempting a prescibed outcome.
However, I now understand that my scope needed to open to a wider lens. Time spent in two situations,
as well as, revisiting the Biology 3021 requirements, guided me to observe the patterns of interacting
species of flora and fauna.
Comparing two potential field plot locations, situated across the Esowista Peninsula from each
other, may provide an interesting exploration into the similarities and differences between coastal
shorelines on the inside and the outside of the peninsula. The inlet plot location is slightly NE from the
Ecolodge on the satellite image below. The outside coastal plot is towards the bottom of the image,
along Chesterman Beach and before the spit that looks like the tail of a ‘Y’.
Credit to Google Maps
Salt water tidal fluctuations make contact with the inlet plot location at high tides when close in time to
the new and full moons. Both sites are close to high tide levels, the Eastern site is less than 5 meters and the Western site is approximately 20 meters to high tide water lines at this time of year. Both sites surely receive wave action during storm surges. During today’s observations, it was a flooding tide, less full by one to two hours.
Picea sitchensis, Thuja plicata and Tsuga heterophylla trees were interwoven with Gaultheria shallon
and Vaccinium parvifolium, whom still had the odd berry dangling. There were Blechnum spicant and
Polystichum munitum ferns and grasses of which I have yet to identify. I observed patterns of layered
growth on nurse logs and transitioning ecotones over depths of 5 meters from where the forest becomes
the beach. While on location at the sites, I have observed an eagle, osprey, heron, robin, blue jay and
today, a delightful small bird with a yellow patch that I must identify. Different times of day may
provide for different observations of bird life.
East side of Esowista Peninsula West side of Esowista Peninsula
My visits to these locations have been at high tide and low tide, morning and late afternoon.
They are each approximately ten meters wide and 5 meters deep from the shoreline into the forest. The
gradients have a similar topographical slope upwards into the bush. Today, 3-10-2019, I was at the inlet
location at 1500 hours and the sandy beach location on the outside of the penninsula at 1700 hours.
There was a light wind of about 10 km/hr, the temperature was 13 degrees Celsius, there were cumulus
clouds in a patchy sky that gave pockets of gentle sunshine. No fog was visible at these times. The inlet
plot is roughly 5km South of the Tofino community within the property of the Tofino Botanical
Gardens. The western beach plot is about 3km Southwest of the inlet plot, “as the crow flies”, is of
District of Tofino designation closest to the ocean and private land on the forested aspect. The
coordinates of Tofino, British Columbia, are 49°08’N 125°54’W. The Esowista Penninsula lies on the
western side of Vancouver Island and is not sheltered from the open ocean by large land masses.
Flora of the western (beach) site. Flora of eastern (inlet) site.
As I develop my field journal, it will be valuable to sketch the layers of plant
life as I am expecting to see new members of the population with each visit. I question whether there
are differences among plants of the same biological species in the different locations? Being that the
temperatures have been above twelve degrees on my previous visits, I question whether there will be
observable changes in the flora and any animal species interacting with these communities? I question
whether the ecotone transitional vegetation, as well as yet to be discovered small creatures, will be
different over the 5 meter depth that spans forest to beach contrasting the two locations? I look forward
to exploring what these organisms are doing in their environments and discovering the patterns of
interactions exhibited.
Carmen Bell, 03-10-19
Chesterman Beach, Tofino, British Columbia, Canada.
