Course description:
The course will focus on the communities (groups of interacting
plant and animal species in a given area) of coastal Maine, as
represented by the communities within Acadia National Park on
Mount Desert Island, ME. The course will begin with the geological
history of Mount Desert Island and a consideration of the oceanographic
features of the surrounding waters that, in conjunction with geology
and climate, have lead to the wide diversity of communities found
in the region. The students will visit and characterize (through
species identification) many of the diverse forest, freshwater
and marine communities represented on the island. We will also
consider how variations in abiotic factors, such as soil type,
ground slope, and exposure to wind, moisture and salt can shape
communities.
Prerequisite: BIO 112.
A word about our sampling techniques:
Since the course is run in a National Park, all of our sampling
techniques are non-invasive. We do not remove animal or plant
species from their habitat, rather we identify them on the spot.
We remain on the trails and sample along them, reducing our impact
on the habitat. When characterizing terrestrial communities we
use a quadrat of varying size. The quadrat is simply a rectangle
of stakes and brightly colored nyoln tape. We identify and count
the number of each species within the quadrat, providing not only
a community species list, but data that can be used to calculate
a species diversity index. Species diversity is a measure of both
the number of species in a community (species richness) and the
abundance of each species (species evenness). A species diversity
index provides a tool with which very different communities can
be compared directly.