AGRICOLA - Indexes more than 5,000 professional and technical publications on agriculture, including books, serials, audiovisual, and other materials.
Ecology – the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
Subject search (Thesaurus): suggests broader, narrower terms and related terms. Terms used by the database.
“earthworms” + “plant growth”. Connect the terms with an "and" to find articles where both are mentioned.
Keyword search (Advanced mode): searches for your terms and suggests more terms to narrow your search down.
“earthworms” + “plant growth”
or use autofill “earthworms effect on plants”
Example of narrowing a broad topic:
"effect on non-native plants"
Rapid Ecological Study (RES).
Explore the steps of the scientific process.
Formulate a research question on a topic of your choice
Do a background literature search
Develop hypotheses that can be tested
Devise study design
Perform original group research
Analyze your results
Present in written and oral form (group presentation and individual paper)

Alla Powers
- Librarian (Humanities, Social Sciences, Special Collections
- alla.powers@oit.edu
- 541-885-1774
1. Build two or more identical miniature land or water ecosystems in a large covered jar or aquarium (edible plants, soil, small herbivores, pond water, air, source of light) and then alter one factor in the ecosystem while keeping all other factors constant to see what changes occur.
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2. Study the behavior (response to a stimulus of some sort – temperature, light, food, etc.) of small, easily managed animals like aquarium fish, hermit crabs, isopods, or annelids.
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3. Study the population ecology of those same small, easily managed animals placing different densities in habitats and observing their behavior, aspects of their health, etc.
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4. Study the growth of plants to various environmental factors (light, soil pH, etc.)
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5. Test the presence of heavy metals such as lead in water of various environmental sources (lake, link river, parking lot puddles, etc.)
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6. Test the pH of soil in different environments (burned versus unburned; cultivated versus wild area, etc.)