Introduction to Ecology and Lab

Course Description

Introduction to Ecology and Lab examines natural history, evolution, and the adaptation of organisms to their surroundings, with a focus on East Central Florida ecosystems. The laboratory emphasizes wetlands through field-based sampling, identification, and delineation technique.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, PCB is the Biological Science (Process) prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 4 credits with a $43.00 lab fee, prerequisites BSC1010C and MAC1105 with STA2023 as prerequisite or corequisite, offered fall. That gives approximately 75 contact hours, consistent with the published PCB3063C in this repository.

The laboratory emphasis is what makes this course unusually practical. Wetland delineation is a regulated professional activity in Florida with a defined methodology and a real labour market behind it — every development project in a state this wet requires someone who can identify where a wetland begins and ends, and defend the determination. A student who takes the field component seriously leaves with an employable skill rather than only a general education science credit.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the levels of ecological organization from individual through biosphere.
• Describe the relationship between evolution by natural selection and ecological adaptation.
• Describe organismal adaptations to abiotic conditions, including temperature, water, and salinity.
• Describe population ecology, including growth models, density, and limiting factors.
• Describe species interactions: competition, predation, herbivory, mutualism, and parasitism.
• Describe community structure, succession, and the concept of the niche.
• Describe measures of biodiversity and apply diversity indices.
• Describe ecosystem energy flow, trophic structure, and productivity.
• Describe biogeochemical cycles, particularly nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon.
• Describe the major biomes and the ecosystems of East Central Florida.
• Describe Florida wetland types and their ecological functions.
• Identify the three wetland delineation parameters: hydrology, hydric soils, and hydrophytic vegetation.
• Apply field methods for vegetation sampling, including plots, transects, and cover estimation.
• Identify common Florida wetland plant species and use indicator status.
• Assess soil characteristics relevant to hydric soil determination.
• Recognize hydrologic indicators in the field.
• Sample and identify aquatic organisms and use them as bioindicators.
• Record field data accurately and maintain a field notebook.
• Analyze ecological data using appropriate statistical methods.
• Write a scientific report presenting field results.
• Describe conservation issues, invasive species, and human impacts on Florida ecosystems.
• Apply field safety practices appropriate to Florida conditions.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe the regulatory framework governing wetlands in Florida.
• Describe wetland functional assessment methods.
• Use GPS and mapping tools to record and map field data.
• Describe restoration ecology and mitigation.
• Participate in a citizen science or monitoring project.
• Design and conduct an independent field investigation.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Levels of ecological organization
• Evolution, natural selection, and adaptation
• Abiotic factors and organismal response
• Population ecology and growth models
• Species interactions
• Community structure, succession, and the niche
• Biodiversity and diversity indices
• Energy flow, trophic structure, productivity
• Biogeochemical cycles
• Biomes and East Central Florida ecosystems
• Florida wetland types and functions
• The three delineation parameters
• Vegetation sampling: plots, transects, cover
• Wetland plant identification and indicator status
• Hydric soil indicators
• Hydrologic indicators
• Aquatic sampling and bioindicators
• Field notebooks and data recording
• Statistical analysis of ecological data
• Scientific report writing
• Conservation, invasives, and human impact
• Field safety

Optional Topics

• Wetland regulation in Florida
• Functional assessment methods
• GPS and spatial data
• Restoration and mitigation
• Citizen science
• Independent field investigation

Resources & Tools

• Ecology (Cain, Bowman & Hacker) or Elements of Ecology (Smith & Smith) — the standard texts.
• Ecosystems of Florida (Myers & Ewel) — the definitive regional reference and directly relevant to this course's focus.
• USACE Wetland Delineation Manual and the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Regional Supplement — free from the Army Corps, and the actual federal methodology.
• Florida's Unified Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM), Chapter 62-345 F.A.C. — free on flrules.org; the state's functional assessment method.
• USDA NRCS Field Indicators of Hydric Soils and the Web Soil Survey — both free, and the Web Soil Survey gives you the mapped soils for any Florida parcel in minutes.
• USFWS National Wetlands Inventory and the National Wetland Plant List — free; the plant list gives indicator status for every species you will key out.
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Natural Areas Inventory — free habitat and species data.
• iNaturalist and the Atlas of Florida Plants (florida.plantatlas.usf.edu) — free identification tools; the Atlas is authoritative for Florida distribution.
• Field kit: a hand lens, a soil auger or trowel, a Munsell colour book (the lab will have one), waterproof field notebook, GPS or phone app, and boots you do not mind ruining.

Career Pathways

• Environmental consultant / wetland scientist — the direct application; Florida's consulting sector is large because permitting is unavoidable here.
• Environmental technician — field sampling and monitoring for consultancies and agencies.
• Water management district staff — Florida's five districts employ substantial technical field staff.
• Florida DEP and FWC — regulatory review, monitoring, and habitat management.
• Local government environmental staff — county and municipal review of development applications.
• Land management and restoration — state parks, water management district lands, The Nature Conservancy, and mitigation banks.
• Mitigation banking — a genuinely large Florida industry built on wetland functional assessment.
• Park ranger and naturalist, and environmental education.
• Transfer to a baccalaureate — environmental science, biology, wildlife ecology, or environmental engineering. This course is a strong foundation and the field skills stand out on an application.
• SOC codes 19-4042 Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, 19-1023 Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists, and 19-2041 Environmental Scientists and Specialists.

Special Information

⚠ Wetland delineation is a regulated activity with a defined method — and it is employable

The most professionally valuable content in the course, and the reason the laboratory emphasis is what it is.

Whether a parcel contains wetlands determines what can be built on it, which means delineation is a determination with financial and legal consequences. Both federal and Florida law regulate wetland impacts, and the methodology is prescribed rather than a matter of judgement.

The three-parameter approach — the core of the federal method — requires evidence of all three:

• Hydrophytic vegetation — plants adapted to saturated conditions, assessed using the National Wetland Plant List indicator statuses (obligate, facultative wetland, facultative, and so on). This is why plant identification matters so much.
• Hydric soils — soils formed under saturated, anaerobic conditions, identified by field indicators: low chroma matrix colours, redoximorphic features, organic accumulation. A soil auger and a Munsell book are the tools.
• Wetland hydrology — evidence of inundation or saturation, which is frequently the hardest to demonstrate because you may be looking in the dry season. Secondary indicators — drift lines, water marks, sediment deposits, adventitious roots — carry the determination.

Points worth carrying:

• Florida has its own methodology as well as the federal one. The state delineation methodology and the Unified Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM) for functional assessment are Florida-specific, and a practitioner here needs both.
• Jurisdiction is contested and moving. What counts as a "water of the United States" under the Clean Water Act has been repeatedly redefined by regulation and litigation, and the scope has changed substantially in recent years. Florida's state permitting authority does not necessarily contract when federal jurisdiction does, which is precisely why practitioners must track both.
• Document everything. A delineation is defended on the data sheets, photographs, and GPS points, not on recollection.
• Formal delineator training exists and is a recognized credential path; this course is the foundation for it.

Rule 11 applies with unusual force here. Wetland jurisdiction, regional supplements, plant list revisions, and Florida permitting rules all change — sometimes annually. Verify against the current Corps manual, the current plant list, and current Florida rule, never against a textbook or this guide.

⚠ Florida's ecosystems are shaped by fire, water, and invasion

The regional content, and it reframes what looks like ordinary landscape.

• Fire is not a disturbance here; it is a requirement. Florida's longleaf pine, sandhill, scrub, and flatwoods communities are fire-maintained, and many species depend on it — some pines require heat to release seed, and the wiregrass understory flowers after growing-season fire. Fire suppression degrades these systems, and prescribed burning is a major land management activity in this state.
• Hydroperiod defines wetland communities. How long and how deeply a wetland is inundated, and when, determines which species occur. Small changes in hydrology from drainage or development change the community entirely.
• The Floridan aquifer connects everything. Karst geology means surface and groundwater are intimately linked, springs are windows into the aquifer, and a surface impact reaches drinking water faster here than almost anywhere.
• Invasive species are a defining pressure. Brazilian pepper, melaleuca, Old World climbing fern, hydrilla, water hyacinth, lionfish, Burmese pythons, and Cuban treefrogs are all established, and Florida spends heavily on control. Understanding invasion biology here is not academic.
• Nutrient enrichment from fertilizer, septic systems, and agriculture drives algal blooms in springs, lakes, and estuaries — a live and politically contested Florida issue.
• Sea level and salinity are reshaping coastal communities, with documented mangrove migration and salt-tolerant species moving inland.

The Volusia-area advantage: this course's region includes the Indian River Lagoon — one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America and among the most studied, with well-documented seagrass loss and manatee mortality events — plus spring systems, scrub, and coastal habitats within easy reach. Local data is public and free from DEP, the water management districts, and USGS, which makes comparing your own field results to professional monitoring straightforward.

⚠ Field data is only as good as the field notebook

The professional discipline the laboratory should instil, and it transfers to every environmental job.

• Record in the field, not afterwards. Memory reconstructs, and a notebook written in the car park is already less reliable.
• Write down the conditions — date, time, weather, recent rainfall, observers, and location. Ecological data without context is uninterpretable, and recent rainfall in particular changes wetland hydrology indicators.
• Record location precisely. GPS coordinates, and a sketch. "The wet area behind the parking lot" is not a location.
• Record what you actually observed, separately from what you concluded. Note uncertain identifications as uncertain, and photograph them.
• Use waterproof paper and pencil. Ink runs; Florida is wet. This is not a small point.
• Never erase or remove pages. Strike through an error and note the correction — a field notebook can become evidence in a permitting dispute.
• Photograph with scale and direction. A photo without a reference object or a compass bearing is much less useful later.

The statistical connection: the STA2023 requirement is used. Ecological data is variable, sample sizes are small, and the honest reporting of uncertainty — means with ranges, appropriate tests, and stated assumptions — is what separates a scientific report from a set of observations.

⚠ Florida field safety — the hazards are specific and the heat is the likeliest one

• Heat is the most probable thing to hurt you. Florida field work in warm months carries real risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Hydrate before you are thirsty, take shade breaks, and know the symptoms in yourself and in others.
• Lightning — Florida leads the country in strikes, and summer afternoon storms are predictable. Field work stops when thunder is audible.
• Water bodies. Alligators are present in essentially every Florida fresh water body; do not wade where you cannot see the bottom, and never wade with an open wound — Florida has documented serious infections from warm fresh and brackish water.
• Venomous snakes, fire ants, and insects — closed footwear, long trousers, repellent, and watching where you put hands and feet.
• Sun exposure — cumulative and consequential over a career spent outdoors.
• Harmful algal blooms produce toxins hazardous by contact and inhalation; if water is discoloured or an advisory is posted, do not sample without instructor direction.
• Never work alone, and tell someone where you are going and when you will be back.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

PCB2033C is 4 credits with an estimated 75 contact hours and a $43.00 lab fee, offered fall. The C suffix denotes combined lecture and laboratory, and the laboratory is field-based — expect to be outdoors, in wetlands, in Florida. Assessment typically combines examinations with field data collection, a species identification component, and a written scientific report.

It transfers on the ordinary lower-division basis and satisfies a laboratory science requirement at most institutions — confirm against your degree audit, since which specific science courses satisfy general education varies. Students continuing to a baccalaureate in biology or environmental science should note that this course's field skills are unusually marketable for summer technician work, which is the standard route into the profession.