Post 9: Field Research

My field research project is finally complete. Implementation of the experiment mostly went well although I did have some trouble in some areas due to the terrain. Running a transect through a blackberry thicket was somewhat of a challenge. After a few cuts and scrapes, and more then a fair share of curse words, I was able to get the data I set out to get but it wasn’t easy. As far as changes from my initial design there were only a few which involved narrowing my study area from my probably too ambitious initial plans. My transects became smaller due to some slopes I could not climb, and I had to constrict the overall study area because of brush that was thicker then the blackberry which gave me trouble. Better preliminary research could have avoided these problems and even could have changed the whole nature of my experiment, which turned out to prove my hypothesis wrong.

I have to admit that going into this course I understood many of the concepts of ecology but not the processes in which it’s studied, so engaging in this field study has been a great asset and has changed my understanding of the subjects involved. This course has definitely led to a greater appreciation of ecology as a science, especially since much of its study can’t be done in a lab and involves being out in the field, getting dirty, pushing through blackberry thickets!