Open University students have been working on new field course
"SXE288-Vegetation and Soils in the Field"
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| First evening on Preston Rough examining a soil core |
After an evening at Preston Montford of soils, vegetation and GPS students developed their skills of plant identification and soil description high on the Long Mynd above Church Stretton. This was followed up with laboratory work on soils chemistry and physics and matching the plant communities to the National Vegetation Classification system.
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| Looking North across Carding Mill valley to Caer Caradoc and the Wrekin |
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| Identifying and estimating abundance of plants |
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| Soil profile from Long Mynd grassland-almost a podsol |
The final couple of days involved students developing hypotheses and collecting data to study relationships between plants and soil at Stapeley Hill.
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| South towards the phacolith of Dolerite that forms Corndon Hill |
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| Bob's bottles and bags-an organised set of samples ready for analysis |
After final sessions plotting sites using a GIS system, analysing soils, dealing with data and discussing results students went home to write a report as part of the assessment process for the whole course.
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| Discussing results |
A good time was had by all...Good luck with writing up..any queries please get in touch
More photos available at URL; bit.ly/OUfiles
Adrian Pickles
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