seashore ecology field trip

On Saturday the 9^th of March 2019, 60 students from Environmental Science, Science Education, and a cohort of Study Abroad students from the USA went on a seashore ecology field trip to Kilkee, Co. Clare. The purpose of the field trip was to examine both exposed and sheltered seashore habitats and to identify different flora and fauna present on each shore. The students developed the skills of using a cross staff, quadrat, seashore ecology key, and Ballentine’s exposure scale. The field trip gave the students the opportunity to use the identification techniques they had learned in their seashore ecology laboratory practical and apply them to a simulated ecological survey in Kilkee.