‘Vertebrate Life and Evolution’ will provide you with a broad overview of vertebrate life and evolution from a variety of perspectives, including:...

Vertebrate Life and Evolution (BIOL0035)

This field-based module provides an introduction to various methods of sampling and quantifying terrestrial and aquatic animal and plant biodiversity and is...

Introduction to Field Ecology (BIOL0007)

This field-based module provides an introduction to various methods of sampling and quantifying terrestrial and aquatic animal and plant biodiversity and is complementary to the module BIOL0014 Fundamentals of Ecology. The module will run for two weeks in June (usually the two weeks after the week that includes the Spring Bank Holiday) and be split between two sites. During the first four days, we will be based in London and focus on sampling terrestrial plants and invertebrates on Hampstead Heath. The second part of the module will take place at Blencathra Field Centre in the Lake District where we will focus on species identification and the ecology of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and birds.

Learning Objectives

This course will help you being to develop skills which are important for a field ecologist, including:

Key field skills, including better knowledge of:
	Biodiversity sampling
		Common grassland plant and tree species
		How to classify invertebrates to their Classes, Orders and Families
		How to identify major groups of freshwater invertebrates
		How to characterize the niches filled by insects, and how to examine these in the field
		How to calculate simple biodiversity indices, and use them to make comparisons between the faunas of different habitat types
		Use of simple allometric equations
		How to identify and census populations of common bird species
	
	Use of statistical tests to analyse field data
	Ability to make inferences on the basis of data collected
	Project planning
	Co-ordination of group work
	Written presentation of a scientific study
	Oral presentation and discussion of results