Each fall, around the high tides of the equinox, a group of graduating students enrolled in the "Marine Bioecology" course carries out a sampling campaign in the mediolittoral zone around Pointe à John, near Bergeronnes. This course is part of the "Techniques de bioécologie" (Environmental and Wildlife management) program at the Cégep de Sherbrooke. The aim of this inventory is to introduce finishing students to work in the coastal marine zone. Sampling also allows them to plan work, prepare field equipment, collect samples, capture organisms, and measure physicochemical parameters. Back in the laboratory, they identify the organisms present in the samples, compile the results, and perform a few simple analyses of the results.
The sampling campaign includes several components: the harvesting of benthic macroinvertebrates sorted from collected sediment samples (endobenthos), the observation of benthic macroinvertebrates attached to the hard substrate (epibenthos), experimental fishing using fyke nets and bait traps, the measurement of salinity and water temperature, and the calculation of the percentage of algae cover.
As this is work carried out by people in training, the level of identification of the sampled organizations cannot be as accurate as the work carried out by professionals in the field. The field work is still supervised by the teacher in charge and by a practical work technician. The results of the laboratory analysis are also validated by the teacher in charge before they are published.
These inventories use a sampling protocol that has changed little since 2012. The results may therefore show some changes over several years in the invertebrate and fish community in the vicinity of Point à John.
