Field study proposal: distribution of tide-influenced organisms in rocky shore ecosystem Álison Luís Cara, Amanda Aparecida Carminatto, Walter Barrela

Abstract

The rocky shores are found in an extensive area of ​​the Brazilian coast that have great ecological and economic importance. The fauna and flora present in rocky bounded substrats are composed of sessile and sedentary organisms that are distributed in horizontally arranged areas, where each species is more abundant within the zones with the best survival conditions. There are three main zones that reflect the distribution of organisms: the supra-littoral, mid-littoral, and the infra-littoral, in which the overlapping of species from different zones is observed. The objective of this work is the teaching-learning of 1st year undergraduate students of the Biological Sciences course, in the verification of the distribution of species that inhabit well-defined areas in a consolidated rocky shore, according to the influence of the tide. The study will be developed on the rocky shore of the  Urubuqueçaba island, located in the Santos, São Paulo. The main activity performed in the field will be the verification of the distribution of species that inhabit well defined zones in consolidated substrats in the rocky shore, given how the height of the shore and the level of the water in the low tide. The method of sampling is a visual estimation, which consists of estimated percentage values ​​to the species found in each zone of 30 cm, in which the students should record in the table which organisms will be found in each zone delimited in the rocky shore. It is expected that the students will obtain the knowledge of the organisms in the rocky shore, where each species is more abundant within an area where the conditions and adaptations to the existence of tide, favor its survival in that environment. Teaching methods such as this proposed lesson are the basis for local conservation work.