Integration through delineation

The PLE wetlanders began the day by learning about wetland restoration and wetland-environment feedbacks. After a few in-class challenges about carbon storage and methane emissions from wetlands, the students then examined their macroinvertebrate collections from yesterday’s sampling at Pymatuning Creek Marsh. The diversity was extremely high, although there were a few groans about the leeches. This is why we save this activity for last – after everyone has spent multiple days slogging around in the marsh. 🙂

After lunch the students tackled the “delineation challenge” in Hartstown Swamp. In random groups, they laid transects from the swamp edge into the upland, traveling though areas of possible wetland along the way. Their task was to collect whatever data they deemed necessary to to determine the distribution of wetland along their transects (hint: vegetation, soils…). They returned to the lab and worked on analyzing their data, and creatively plotting their data supporting their interpretation.