Ecology Explained

 

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Virtual Resources for Plant and Animal Identification

 eBird      eBird states that its goal is “to gather this information in the form of checklists of birds, archive it, and freely share it to power new data-driven approaches to science, conservation and education (eBird, 2024)”.  They also make tools to benefit birders, such as “being able to manage lists, photos and audio recordings, to seeing real-time maps of species distribution, to alerts that let you know when species have been seen, we strive to provide the most current and useful information to the birding community (eBird, 2024).” I have used this resource for well over a decade and find it incredibly useful for not only species identification but for its capacity for research and trip logs. It is very useful for finding different specific species or locations with a high diversity of species through species search, target species, bar charts, and hotspots. This tool also has an entire tab dedicated to science that mostly looks at population trends and ...
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Web Soil Survey

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       The USDA's Web Soil survey is a fantastic tool for discovering the properties of a soil in a specified area of interest (AOI). This tool can give you wonderful and in-depth information on a wide variety of a soil features such as its setting (topography and parent material), typical profile (composition of each layer), properties and qualities (hydrology, slope, and depth), interpretative groups (land use classification), and minor components. The Web Soil survey is very user friendly, however, the initial navigation of the website can be a little tricky when first learning and the Map Unit Descriptions use a large amount of Soil Sciences jargon. I am personally familiar with this tool and the terminology used from both my education and career, but, for a new user there a plenty of things to learn. Terminology such as the letters for each layer of a soil profile and their meaning, KSAT, land capability classifications, and hydric soil ratings are not common-se...
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Purpose of Study

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  The primary purpose of this research is to look at the Pocosin Swamps and Carolina Bays of North Carolina and the unique biodiversity that finds this habitat home. The acidic and nearly perpetually wet conditions of the Pocosin Swamps and Carolina Bays make them home to many unique species such as a variety of carnivorous plants. I find this incredibly unique habitat immensely fascinating and hope this research will better prepare me for a career in this region. In my research I would like to analyze current conservation methods taking place and use a variety of geological mapping tools to draw in depth comparisons that collectively compare the inter-dependent relationships of ecology, geography, geology, and anthropogenic effects taking place in this region. In addition, I would like to further research the hotly debated origin of Carolina Bays and understand how their creation and composition influence their contemporary use and biodiversity. Often, Carolina Bays occur in Pocos...
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