ESRM 472 Wetland Ecology

Term Project

The purpose of the term project is to get you into a wetland to make measurements. The measurements may be of vegetation, productivity, bird activity, fish presence, insects, soil development, salinity, hydroperiod, redoximorphic characteristics, tides, elevations, etc.

You should make measurements that you can use for comparisons. Examples of comparisons could be samples taken at different points along an elevation gradient, or from a permanently flooded and an ephemeral wetland, or from a salty and a less salty coastal marsh, or from a newly created wetland and an older created wetland. Just something that you can compare, using measurements that you can make, so that you can hypothesize a reason for your results based upon what you have learned in the course.

Your paper should be between five and ten pages long. You should describe your site or sites. Then you should detail the methodology that you have used. Then discuss your results and conclusions. You may use a photo or two, or maps, aerials, etc.; just do not give me a photo essay.

It is up to you to decide if you want to work on your own or with one or more other persons. If you work in a group, you will need to fill out an evaluation form, grading the performance of your other group members.

Examples of things you can measure:

vegetation, birds, amphibians, mammals, soils, organic matter, redox, salinity, duration of flooding, presence of bullfrogs, tidal influence, disturbance, pH, number of snags, hours of sunshine, etc.

Examples of conditions or processes that you can use to explain what you have measured:

succession, competition, salt stress, terrestrialization, sedimentation, erosion, shading, herbivory, pollution, flooding, pulsing, stagnation, agriculture, urbanization, invasive species.

Just give me a good story that shows that you went to a wetland, thought about what was happening there, made measurements, thought about the results, and tied the results to biological/ecological theory.