The Biological field Trip is organized every academic year by the Science department for both the lower and upper sixth form biology students of Lebanese International School Ltd.

The objectives of such visits was to have a first hand approach to the effect of pollution caused by sewage and domestic waste discharge both on land and on the marine ecosystem. It also focused on observing the effects and causes of deforestation affecting the forest ecosystem. It was also designed to give the students a practical
understanding of the diversity of both plants and animals within the ecosystem. Four localities were primarily chosen for these studies. It includes, the Botanical Reserve at Fourah Bay College, Coastal outline along government Wharf,
King Jimmy and Kroo-Bay, the Kingtom dump site (‘Bomeh’) and finally the Lumley and Goderich Beaches illustrating the rocky shore and the littoral zone.

The departure time for the trip from the school is around 8:30 a.m. and arrival time around 5:30 p.m. under the supervision of the subject (Biology) teachers concern and the Head of department of Science. The detailed findings in each of the
areas for 2006/2007 are described below:

At this site, the students were introduced to five artificial aquaria where water plants were grown, eg Salinia, Lemna, Nymphare Elodea and Pistia. Also in another two aquaria, eggs of toad and larvae known as tadpoles were carefully observed by the students to illustrates the life cycle of a toad.

Next the students’ attention were diverted to the forest scenery. At the beginning of the forest there were forest indicators such as Lianas, which show the start of a forest ecosystem. The forest was thick with tall huge trees and many kinds of speces such as ferns, like Pteris, Bolbitis, Cyclosorus, and Plathycerium. Epiphytic plants were also abundant and most were creeping plants. After about five to ten minutes of walk, we came across a stream.

This stream was used along ago for drinking but now it is unhygienic due to human activities such as laundering and the deposition of waste substances such as sewage, human faeces and the drainage of fertilizers from near by gardens and agricultural lands into this stream. Such human activities have led to serious water pollution in this environment, and making life very difficult for the survival of aquatic animals such as fishes; a phenomenon known as Eutrophication.

Beyond the stream, it was unbelievable because a large area of bare land which was once noted to be a forest area have now be destroyed by human activities such as building houses, farming and making of utensils. Such deforested area have led to massive soil erosion, and a decrease of plants and animals speces diversity.

However, the Botany Department of Fourah Bay College, has tried to combat such situation by planting fast growing trees (reforestation) such a Accacia in some of the areas that have been deforested. The two types of Accacia plants growi8ngi n such are Accacia auriculiiformis with small and slender leaves and Accacia marguim with broad leaves.

GOVERNMENT WHARF AND KROO-BAY
Here, the main focus was to enable the student to see the improper disposel of sewage on the land the coastal marine. Sewage disposal disposal pipes emptied the waste right on the coastal line of the sea and not in the middle where mixing processes are very severe and allows for dilution. Hence sewage piles up and becomes toxic exceeding the threshold value and polluting the waters and the coastal land. These sewages are also biodegradable and therefore can be acted upon by micro-organisms such as bacteria. This will use available oxygen in the water body thereby causing fishes and other marine organisms to be short of oxygen supply.; this will cause death and hence pollution of the water. The fishes when eaten by man and can cause serious health problems. On that day, the tide was high and water was splashing
around. The water was filthy black with faeces, gabbages, pigs, and children swimming in it. The walk in bay was hectic though tiring. The houses are made up of sticks and mud and the inhabitants use this dirty water for laundry and sometimes for cooking. They also place stones when the tide is low for land reclamamation, to provide them with more land for them to build houses and growing of vegetable crops. Such unhygienic conditions filled with lots of harmful micro- organisms causes poor health sanitation, which leads to diseases such as Cholera from Vibrio cholerae, and Typhoid from Salmonella Typhea.

KINGTOM DUMP SITE-BOMEH
Our main target of visiting this dump site was to see how the city’s gabbage is deposited. Bomeh is a large land filled with biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste materials piled up in batches, some of which is burnt. Beyond the gabbage are pits where faeces are deposited. The smell is awful and at the surface of the pits some plants are growing due to high concentration of nitrates which leads to algae bloom. This reduces the oxygen level and leads to death of the species due to insufficient oxygen for them to respire and hence they are acted upon by bacteria. This is called Eutrophication, which is a continuous cycle.

LUMLEY BEACH
The view of Lumley beach was much satisfactory. The students were taken to the rocky shore where we observed limpets and pedicles all concerned with biological design experiments. We learnt that we wave action determines the six of limpets since shielded limpets were much larger in size than those exposed. At the other end across the road, we saw
Mangroves grown on salty water. These plants are called halophytes since they tolerate high salt concentration. There are two types of Mangroves, the Red Mangrove and the White Mangrove. These species show adaptation to such an environment in terms of meeting the demand for oxygen by having aerial roots, which are provided with air bags called nodules or pneumatophores.

RECOMMENDATION
In view of the above observations made to the various areas visited, the following recommendations have been made:
-Strict regulations should be put in place to prevent the cutting down of trees in forested areas. Also, alternative sources of consumable energy should be considered, such as gas cookers in homes.
-As far as sewage disposal is considered, it will be proper for discharge to take place at about 300 meters off where mixing process are considerable significant.
-A scheme should be set out which would involve the recycling of disposed waste such as in the production of Biogass.