Lab Resources

Field Equipment

TopCon GTS 230-W Wireless Total Station

This high precision laser surveying instrument is used by members of the Marine Landscape Ecology Lab to conduct detailed topographic surveys of benthic marine communities.

Nikon D40X 12 Megapixel Digital Cameras

Two sets of high resolution digital photographic equipment are available to members of the Marine Landscape Ecology Lab to conduct photo surveys. Additional equipment includes flash strobes and telephoto lenses for more specialized photographic surveys.

Dewalt 18 Volt and 24 Volt Rotary Hammers

These battery powered rotary hammers are capable of drilling into rock and provide members of the lab with the ability to install experiments in the hard substrate of most rocky intertidal communities. The lab currently has two sets of these drills.

Lab Facilities and Analytical Capabilities

Facilities

The Marine Landscape Ecology Lab is housed in the Chapman Science Academic Center. An environmental chamber, two high powered dissecting scopes and water tables are available for working with marine organisms. The lab has wireless internet access.

GIS Analysis and Modeling

The Marine Landscape Ecology Lab possesses a full complement of ArcGIS software for the analysis of geospatial data as well as the construction of marine habitat models.

GIS visualizations depiciting photo transect (left image) and water velocity measurements (right image) rendered to underlying model of topography in the rocky intertidal.

Image Analysis

The Marine Landscape Ecology Lab has ARC-Map for manual classification of digital imagery as well as ERDAS remote sensing software for automated classification of digital imagery.

Manual classification of species in digital photo into raster model using Arc-Map.

Automated classification of species in digital photo into raster model using ERDAS remote sensing software.

Quantitative Analysis of Species Boundaries

Through the use of Boundary Seer Landscape Analysis software members of the Marine Landscape Ecology Lab can conduct quantitative analyses on the spatial distribution as well as the intensity of species boundaries in nearhsore marine communities.

Statistical Analysis

High speed computers, SPSS, FragStat and R statistical software are available through the Marine Landscape Ecology Lab for conducting parametric, nonparametric and spatial analyses of marine geospatial data.