BENA4034 Research Methods in Environmental and Water Sciences 1 (4 cr)

A field course that focuses on human impact on environment. The course will start with a planning session in spring. The field course will be arranged in August. During the field course, environmental state will be assessed with methods, which may target fish communities, water quality monitoring, examination of sediments and benthic animals, the structure of forest, vegetation in field layer, and lepidopteran communities. Environment can be examined with drones (if weather is good) and with Global Positioning devices. The collected data will be analyzed for a seminar presentation. The course will end to a seminar, where the students will present the results collected during the field work.

After completing the course, a student knows basics of field work, and how to collect samples from the environment and analyze those in laboratory. (S)he can apply simple methods of geoinformatics for planning and reporting of environmental research. A student can identify human impact on the environment.