What a journey! I’ve finally come to the end of my field research experiment and it was certainly a valuable experience. I really enjoyed working through the entire process of designing and carrying out my field experiment. Through this experience, I learned and/or developed my skills in compiling initial observations, developing a hypothesis, designing a study, collecting data, trascribing data into figures and tables, writing a formal research report, and creating an annotated bibliography.
Luckily, I didn’t encounter any major issues in the implementation of my study. The only alteration I had to make in the beginning was to change the number of times I visited the study site per day from three to two in order to make the time commitment more reasonable. Other than this, my experiment proceeded smoothly and correlated with my predictions.
Engaging in the practice of ecology through this project definitely increased my appreciation for the development of ecological theory. Prior to this course, I had limited exposure to ecological studies. I have now realized the level of time investment required to produce results as well as the amount of background research required to understand the complex web of relationships that exist between the many organisms and their physical surroundings. By gaining first-hand experience with ecological studies, I have a better appreciation for the efforts of ecologists to better understand the world around us.