Biology Fieldtrip to Nettlecombe

Posting by Hina Khan, Year 12 student

Year 12 Biology students at The Sixth Form College, Solihull went to Nettlecombe Court Field Centre in Somerset on 17-20^th June to study Ecology.

The aim of the trip was to analyse different ecosystem and carry out a number of practical investigations. Upon arriving, we went to a rocky shore in a town called Watchet, where we used quadrat sampling along a belt transect to measure the distribution of populations of rocks shore organisms. We came across a variety of different organisms such as several types of seaweeds, sea slaters and quite a few crabs!!!

The next day a river study was conducted in the middle of Exmoor National Park, where the aim was investigating whether named abiotic factors affected the number of invertebrates present. We were able to use our results to complete the statistical test ‘Spearman’s Rank’ to see if the results showed any significance. We were also lucky enough to spot wild red deer and wild horses running openly on the moor.

On the Sunday, we set off to Brauton Borrows in North Devon (which is part of the UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve) to have a look at plant diversity and succession. Using random sampling, the different amount of species that are present were counted, in order to see whether plant diversity increased.

Finally, a bit of terrestrial Ecology was done on grassland before heading back home in the afternoon. Overall, all the students greatly enjoyed the trip and we remained enthusiastic throughout despite the wet weather conditions. The field trip was focused on their curriculum and gave them a good insight into Biology.