Post Card From Oz

THE INTERTIDAL ZONE. Our first field trip was to North Stradbroke Island. Students spent the first few days studying the intertidal zone and carrying out experiments there. Here students gather data for a study on how species diversity on intertidal boulders varies with size of the boulder in test of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Theory suggests that small boulders are repeatedly disturbed by tides and will harbor little animal life. Boulders that are very large are almost never be disturbed and will be colonized by just a few species that can out compete the rest, again leading to low diversity. Intermediate size boulders will be disturbed just frequently enough to allow a variety of species to compete for space and will have the highest diversity.

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