This week, we brought the students from my undergraduate class "Biology of Marine Organisms" out to our Baruch Marine Field Laboratory to conduct a series of experiments. The class is big enough (almost 80 students) that we split the class into 3 groups and bring them down on 3 consecutive days. At Baruch, the students run transects through the salt marsh to count fiddler crab burrows, use a scope to measure marsh elevation changes, and collect sediment samples that they bring back to the lab to determine how much microalgae (chlorophyll) is in the sediment. Students also go out on the boardwalk to conduct a secretive marshbird playback experiment. We play bird calls on a loud speaker, then listen quietly to see if any real marsh birds, like the least bittern or the clapper rail, respond to the calls. The last day of the trip was rainy, but the students were in high spirits! Comments are closed.
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AuthorErin Meyer-Gutbrod is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her lab researches human impacts to marine ecosysems. Archives
April 2024
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