I had a lot of fun designing and carrying out my field research however I encountered many obstacles. In the early stages of designing my research, I was overwhelmed with many ideas of what to focus on and my plan ended up changing a few times by location and species of interest. For instance, I was interested in researching cone production of Douglas Fir trees however I was quick to realize that carrying out that study would be too difficult with my limited resources. Once I decided on researching herbivory, I had some challenges with how to carry it out such as measuring the elevation of the topography, calculating light abundance and measuring the percent herbivory of individual leaves. However, I found resources to overcome those challenges and am proud of the data I collected.
Engaging in the practice of ecology definitely increased my appreciation for the field because I learned how much time is needed to put into it. As many observations as possible are key to developing ecological theory.
solving problems re methods is pretty much what field studies are about!
glad you feel that you worked the problem until a good solution was discovered