A Level Field Trip to Gava Sand Dunes

Succession is one of the topics covered in the second year of the course and the sand dunes at Gava are a perfect example of the process in action.

Students practised skills such as sampling using quadrats and transects and measuring abiotic factors such as temperature and wind speed. Successful demonstration of these skills and others is essential for achieving the Practical Endorsement, a module that is awarded alongside the A Level itself.

Students also studied the climax community of stone pine trees to establish whether there was a correlation between the biomass and age of the tree using statistical analysis. The day was punctuated by a lovely lunch in the shade at a nearby café.

A day by the beach meant that everybody slept very well that night!

Here are some of the things that the students said about the trip:

Roger: I enjoyed the field trip because it helped me visualise the effects of succession in real life. I also had the opportunity to measure abiotic factors such as light intensity using our ecology equipment.

Jee-Ho: It was great fun. It really helped my understanding of primary succession. Using quadrats developed my data collection skills, and I discovered an app to identify sand dune plant species.

Peter: My favourite aspect of the entire field trip was definitely the wildlife we encountered such as grasshoppers, jumping spiders, cats etc. It was the best day of the year, so far!

Lucas: My overall favourite activity was the tree ‘hugging’ where we measure the circumference of the established trees for statistical analysis.

Sania: This was an immersive experience for us, especially as we were able to apply all the theory we learnt in class to a real-world scenario.

Monica: It was interesting to see how some species outcompete others. I now feel much more confident with the topic.