Malta Virtual Field Sites

ecosystems | field sites | flora | glossary

<<back To illustrate the methods of data collection in the field and the use and purpose of the relevant associated analytical techniques.

To produce a generic web based package which will allow academics from environmental science, geography, ecology and biogeography to construct their own customised simulation packages of relevance to their own field work programmes.

Construction of a Virtual Quadrat Tool

Instructions for constructing a virtual quadrat tool for other sites can be found at

http://www.toytribe.co.uk/vqt

Simulated Field Exercise

The simulated field exercise is based on work carried out by Environmental Science second year students at Plymouth University during their Easter field visit to the Maltese Islands. Two sites are used, the first at Ghallis and the second at Ghadira s- Safra on the north coast.

The vegetation community at both sites is investigated by use of standard techniques of field ecology namely by the

• carrying out an inventory of the macrophytic vegetation within the boundaries of the area of study

• construction of a transect

• positioning of quadrats at intervals and the recording of results

• identification of those species likely to play a significant ecological role in the community

• the determination of niche breadth of the most frequently occurring species

• the identification of species which are likely to behave as generalists and as specialists

• the calculation of the niche overlap between species

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