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Students Examine Human Impacts on Coastal Systems

Night-time pitfall trapping

Mark and recapture survey

Coastal Conservation field trip group

Marine and Coastal Conservation academic staff, Dr Marnie Campbell and Professor Chad Hewitt, recently took the second year ecology and conservation biology students to Anglesea on the southwest Victorian coast for a week long field camp.

Students evaluated rocky intertidal platforms, sandy beach and estuarine environments using a suite of ecological sampling techniques learned over the course of the semester. These evaluations compared and contrasted locations that were subject to high and low impact by humans.

Example activities included:

• Night-time pitfall trapping to determine encounter rates of mobile fauna on sandy beaches between dusk - midnight and midnight - dawn. Despite 30kn winds that buried traps, students still managed to collect over 30 taxa.
• Intertidal mark and recapture studies of gastropod populations provided students with practical understanding of species mobility and territoriality, as well as the art of applying nail polish to over 1000 individuals.
• Comparison of a pristine and an urbanised estuary.

Despite a week of intense activity (and the sacrifice of the ANZAC holiday) the tired students gave the trip a resounding thumbs up.