Ecology Field Studies

Scientific Study of an Ecosystem

There are diverse ecosystems available to study at Knockree and Killarney. The main ecosystem study area selected is in an ‘Alder dominated woodland’. Like most Irish habitats, a woodland habitat provides the most diverse range of native species to study.

Students have an opportunity to see countless habitats, such as a ‘newly planted oak woodland’, ‘wild garlic meadow’, ‘petrifying and tufa formation spring’, ‘wet woodland’ habitats, carpeted with bluebells, wild primrose, wild strawberry and many other typical woodland field layer species.

The activities and content of the field study are based on the mandatory activities set out by the secondary schools curriculum for biology leaving cert/junior cert syllabus. So you can be sure that the mandatory activities/experiments are covered by our various programmes.

Activities:
Emphasis in this special study is placed on the techniques of fieldwork and the recording and analysis of collected data.

We aim to cover the following items.

(Note: We would recommend this program to Transition year students and Leaving Certificate Honours/Pass Biology Years)

• Broad overview of the selected ecosystem.
• Identify any five fauna and any five flora; using simple keys, magnifying glasses, forceps, and collection jars.
• Identify a variety of habitats within the selected ecosystem.
• Identify and use various apparatus required for collection methods in an ecological study e.g. pooters, pitfall traps, and beating trays.
• Conduct a quantitative study of plants and animals of a sample area of the selected ecosystem; using quadrats.
• Transfer results to tables, diagrams, graphs, histograms, or any other relevant mode.
• Identify possible sources of error in such a study.
• Investigate any three abiotic factors present in the selected ecosystem, as listed; such as pH, Light intensity, and soil/air temperature.
• Relate results to choice of habitat selected by each organism identified in this study.
• Theory of pyramid of numbers, and food web; sample leaving cert ecology questions provided in the student’s booklet.

Download our Ecology brochure by clicking here.