Practical Field Ecology

Practical Field Ecology: A Project Guide introduces students to experimental design, field monitoring skills for plants and animals, data analysis and interpretation, as well as report writing and presentation. Clearly structured throughout and written in a student-friendly manner, the book concentrates on the techniques required to design field-based surveys for a wide range of organisms, habitats and ecological projects. The text is divided into six chapters. The first chapter covers planning, including health and safety and an introduction to the factors needed to be taken into account to enable the statistical analysis of data. Following a chapter dealing with site characterisation, chapters three and four describe the techniques used to survey and census particular groups of organisms (covering static and mobile species respectively). The penultimate chapter provides an overview of possible data analysis techniques appropriate for interpreting ecological field data. The final chapter covers presenting data and writing up the research, emphasising appropriate wording of interpretation and the structure and content of the final report Practical Field Ecology provides a complete resource for students taking them through all the stages of field research from inception, through implementation to presentation, helping them to develop the skills necessary for their academic and professional career.