Biodiversity Stewardship Study: Harriman State Park

To gain a base knowledge of ecology and biodiversity before diving in too deep to biodiversity at my study site specifically, I put together the slides below for a broad introduction to the topic! Be sure to read speaker notes for in depth information, and feel free to reuse this presentation with your groups! As an educator myself, I included lots of opportunities for audience participation and engagement too.  Enjoy! Ecology Fundamentals & Biodiversity by Alicyn Formica EDIT: It looks like this doesn't allow the speaker notes to be viewed on this page, to view the presentation in its entirety you can view the link below and hit the small down arrow next to "Present" and select "Presenter View", feel free to leave a comment below if you encounter any issues! (Note: this seems to only work for folks with an existing Canva account, so I'll just copy the notes below in case you can't access). Slide 1: Intro Welcome everyone! Today we’re going...

Understanding Biodiversity in Harriman State Park and Beyond      Biodiversity refers to the variety of life at multiple levels of biological organization, including genetic diversity within species, species diversity within communities, and ecosystem diversity across landscapes (Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992; Cardinale et al., 2012). Rather than simply counting different species, biodiversity goes further to include the interactions among organisms and the ecological processes that sustain ecosystems.     In the context of this project, biodiversity provides the framework for understanding Harriman State Park as an interconnected ecological system. Studying biodiversity in the park means examining how forests, wetlands, lakes, streams, and wildlife communities interact and contribute to ecosystem function. It also means considering how human activities and environmental changes influence those relationships over time.     At the local scale...

     For this semester's biodiversity study, I selected Harriman State Park in southeastern New York. Harriman is a place I have known for much of my life, from attending summer  camps there as a kid, to later hiking, camping, and even spent a summer working there during my undergrad years. These experiences have given me an appreciation for the park's natural landscapes and recreational opportunities, but definitely have left me wanting to learn more about the local ecology supporting the area, and I thought that this project would be an ideal opportunity to combine my firsthand experiences with scientific investigation!     Established in 1910, Harriman State Park spans about 47,000 acres across Orange and Rockland Counties, and is one of the larges parks in the New York State Parks system (New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation [OPRHP], 2025). The park contains 31 lakes and reservoirs, more than 200 miles of hiking trails,...