NR
260
Wetlands
Ecology and Management
Class
Project
A requirement for
completion of NR 260 is the
production
of a web site focused on a wetland or wetland region of the student's
choice. Case studies are excellent
vehicles for gaining understanding of how physical, chemical and
biological processes combine to give an ecosystem its character and how
human activities modify ecosystems.
The primary purpose of this project is to involve the student in
a
case study that will integrate knowledge of wetlands gained in class
with
details obtained from the literature and other web sites.
Occasionally, a student may petition to develop a website
focused on a particular topic rather than a particular wetland (for
example, wetlands mitigation banking or using wetlands for wastewater
treatment). In this case, the student and instructor must work out an
outline that ensures that the site has as much breadth and depth as
other sites.
A secondary purpose of the project is more
technical, and
practical.
Web sites are an important medium in today's world.
A well-educated person should be as capable of conversing
through
this medium as writing for print or giving public speeches. This project will ensure that class members
are familiar
with use of web site software, and also know how to create links, scan
images,
and import material in electronic form. In
addition,
some previously acquired skills - writing, artistic design and
searching
for information on the Internet and in the library- will be called into
play. Students should come away from the
class with the
skills needed to set up a web site for a favorite club, business or
NGO.
Elements to be included in your
web site:
A. A home page (always named index.html and
placed within a folder on
your
public html called nr260)
It should have a title,
introductory
paragraph and links to the other pages, and indicate authorship. 10
B. A biography of the author (you)
At a
minimum
indicate that you are a student at UVM in a particular major. Many
students
also write about where they come from, their families, their pets,
their passions
outside
school, career goals, etc. 10
C. Natural History, with subsections on the following:
1. The
wetland's
location
(include a map) 5
2. The
geology of
the
site (including how the wetland was formed, or why it exists) 7
3. Climatic
conditions
5
4. The
wetland's
hydrology
7
5. The
type of
vegetation
present 13
6. Common
animal
life
13
7. Ecological
functions,
such as rate of primary productivity, nutrient retention, detritus
trapping
or export, flood control, corridor for migration, etc. 5
D. Human Interactions
1. Indigenous
peoples
use of the wetland 5
2. History of use/exploitation since European discovery (for an American wetland; for a Eurasian wetland you may want to divide D1 and D2 differently)
Include discussion
of settlement in the area, activities such as draining/filling, water
diversions,
logging, road building, peat mining, hunting and fishing 15
3. Current Issues
Describe current stresses on the wetland
and controversies regarding what is to be done. Be thorough; try to say
something
about all relevant
issues, rather than focusing on one, and bring out different points of
view.
20
4. Concluding
Remarks
Summarize the wetland's condition and speculate as to
what the future may hold; make recommendations 5
E. Reference page (or Bibliography)
Listing of sources of information
and
pictures 15
Points also are assigned for site readibility (20), visual
appeal
(20), and organization (mostly ease of movement between pages,
It may be that students will not find extensive information on
all of
the
topics above. In some cases a little
extrapolation may be in order. For
example, if you are examining
salt marshes in Connecticut but have no information on invertebrate
life,
you can write about the fauna of New England marshes in general.
My suggestion is to make a "short list" of
wetlands
you may want to study, then do enough searching on the web or in the
library
to know that material exists on both natural and social aspects of
the
wetland before you make your final choice.
A sampling of suitable wetlands follows:
2. The Everglades
(a real
hotbed of wetland controversies; this region might be sub-divided among
two
or three students)
3. The Kissimmee
(north
of the Everglades, and under reconstructed)
4.
The Louisiana
Delta
region (Would Katrina have been less severe had these wetlands been
better preserved?)
5. The wetlands of
California's
Central Valley
6.
7. The "pocosins"
(bays)
of North and South Carolina
8.
9.
11.
The Great
Dismal
Swamp of Virginia/North Carolina
12.
The salt marshes of Puget Sound
13.
AlaskaÕs muskeg
14. The marshes of
Iraq (possibly the Garden of Eden; drained by
Hussein to drive out the Marsh Arabs, reconstruction plans underway)
This list is very far from exhaustive. Its
purpose is just to give you an idea of
what to
look for. Many students have had great
success
examining smaller wetlands in urban areas. One caution: you
must
choose a wetland. Web sites on lakes,
rivers,
marine bays or terrestrial ecosystems will get no points.
I would like to avoid having multiple students
working
on the same wetland, unless the wetland is large enough to be divided
into
portions. The idea is to avoid both
competition
for library books and students "borrowing" information or images from
another
student's site. With the web sites open to
class scrutiny the latter could be tempting. You
can
ÒclaimÓ a site by emailing the instructor, who will enter your name and
wetland
on the ÒStudent WebsitesÓ page of the class web site (look here to see
if
a wetland is already claimed).
1. Doing an
Internet search
(or continuing what you've started). If
you don't have a favorite search engine, try www.google.com.
2. Going to the UVM
web
page, clicking on libraries and then on "find books" or "find
articles".
Many of the literature search engines provide abstracts of
journal
articles. My favorite is Water
Resource
Abstracts (under the environmental sub-heading). Books are available in
the
library on some of the larger wetlands (there is more than one on
the
Everglades and the Okefenokee).
3. Don't be afraid
to
write to state and federal offices about sites. They
may be willing to send you pamphlets and reports about the wetland.
The Wetlands Hotline (1-800-832-7828) is a
useful
clearinghouse regarding environmental issues and regulations.
References
You must acknowledge sources of
information
and pictures. Picture acknowledgements are probably best made as a line
under
each image. Information sources may be noted at the end of each
section,
or you may create a separate reference page. Below is the proper
procedure
for the referencing of articles and books:
e.g.: Butcher,
J. 1950. Where
does bacon
come from? Agriculture News 5: 9-50.
For
an article in a book, use this format:
Butcher, J. 1950.
(i.e., author, year, article title, page
numbers,
editor, book title, publisher, location of publisher)
For a book, give the total number of pages in
the
reference:
e.g., Butcher, J.
Web sites should be referenced with address and
date.
Plagarism
It may be tempting
to grab paragraphs off other people's websites and
paste them into yours. Don't do it!! You could be
sued! You could be dismissed from UVM! UVM instructors are
told that any suspicion of copying must be reported to Student Affairs
for invesitgation and possible disciplinary action. How much easier to
just translate into your own words. (Having hear the excuses
before, I need to point out that having the site you stole from in the
Bibliography does not mean that you have properly acknowledged the
author.)