Heidelberg College Research Interests Disturbance impacts on forest stand composition and structure Ecological effects of the 1998 ice storm on the Flat Rock Ecosystem Use of prescribed burning to manage fire-prone ecosystems Habitat selection by songbirds Ken Adams teaching his Field Ecology class at the Altona Flat Rock jack pine and pitch pine barrens. The consequences of human activities on wildlife populations and habitats deserve more attention. Lecture topics include interactions between plants and their biotic and abiotic environment, models of plant strategies, and roles of vegetation as an ecosystem component.
Laboratories emphasize vegetation sampling techniques and data analysis.
The ability to identify plants and animals is essential to most ecological research and enhances everyone's outdoor experience. This course is a first-hand study of plants and vertebrates in the major terrestrial ecological communities of northern New York and the Adirondacks. Interactions between natural processes can culminate in an event or disturbance during which the structure and composition of plant communities are greatly modified. The ice storm of 1998 was an extensive and intensive disturbance, affecting forested ecosystems across a regional landscape. Restoration Ecology is an AESP course.