Field methods in ecology

The EU will provide a scenario to which students will have to respond. The EU teaching team will represent the management of consulting firms responsible for conducting impact studies following a development project.

Students will play the roles of design office experts and will be required to conduct analyses of the project area. They will be required to provide a report on their impact assessment, in which they will identify environmental issues and rank them according to their importance. They will also be required to give an oral presentation of their studies.

The EU will consist of six 2-hour tutorials at the beginning of the semester, during which the following topics will be covered:

TD1: Presentation of the EU, presentation of what an impact assessment is and what is expected of such an assessment (this part will be carried out by a professional whose job is precisely to verify impact assessments), presentation of the status of the areas studied: ZNIEFF, Natura 2000.

TD2 to 6: Presentation of analysis methods for different groups of organisms (plants, arthropods, herpetofauna, avifauna and chiroptera, soil fauna, etc.).

For the rest of the EU, students will have to propose study protocols to estimate the potential impacts of the planned project. The protocols put in place will have to enable the impacts to be assessed as accurately as possible, and the studies will have to budget for their interventions. They will then have field sessions to implement their protocol, collect data and analyze it. The teaching team will mentor the groups to guide them in their work. They will write a thesis based on specifications provided by the teaching team. This deliverable must be supported by field data and data from the bibliography. They will defend their case before the teaching team in an oral presentation.

Several study areas were targeted in Montpellier to carry out the work: Triolet Campus, Mosson River, Vallet Park, Montpellier City Center, Meric Park, Banks of the Lez, Garrigues de la Lauze, etc.

- Fundamentals of ecology covered throughout the bachelor's degree program

- Fundamentals of statistics covered throughout the bachelor's degree program

- English

- Basic field ecology

- Sampling strategy database

- Field technique

- Method of analysis

- Writing and summarizing

- Time management, initiative, teamwork