Overall Objectives

Students explore topics in regional natural history, practice field sampling skills, develop research hypotheses, assist in ongoing studies in landscape and ecosystem ecology, and learn from local and indigenous experts.

Two Main Features

Education/Research: The course provides the experience a beginning research scientist needs to ask relevant questions and collect the right data in the unique setting of the Caribbean islands of Mona and Puerto Rico.

Students:

• Learn the regional flora and fauna
• Discuss current research topics in tropical ecology
• Generate research questions and proposal ideas
• Meet with working scientists, local "nonscientist" experts with close connections to the land, and other students to discuss our activities
• Gain confidence and knowledge to design and conduct original research

Exploration: We encourage students to explore the regions we visit in a variety of ways. Scientists rarely have the opportunity to spend a great deal of time observing, listening, and gathering knowledge about the physical and natural systems of these remote areas. The program permits you to take hikes, maintain a field journal, and gain insights into this special region of the earth.

Note: These very adventurous journeys do not require any special experience. We use the best equipment available, and have personal safety at the top of every list. Each participant receives a detailed set of information to help prepare for all aspects of the program. Credit will be offered for the courses through the University of Minnesota Itasca Field Biology Program.

The Caribbean course setting

Our tropic courses take place on the Caribbean islands of Mona and Puerto Rico.

We will begin by camping for a week on the beaches of the uninhabited island of Mona, off the west coast of Puerto Rico, exploring the coastal and dry inland habitats known for their rich biodiversity and cultural heritage.

The second two weeks will be spent investigating ecosystems along a transect on the island of Puerto Rico, from coastal mangrove swamps, through lowland dry and moist forests to the rain forests and cloud forest of El Yunque national park.

Puerto Rico is a mix of African, Caribbean, and Spanish cultures with increasing U.S. influence in the last several decades. Past cultural use of the landscape encompasses a wide variety of ecological knowledge in danger of being lost. We will meet duing the course with local residents who have traditional ecological knowledge of Caribbean ecosystems, and relate this to our growing understanding of the region.

More topics covered on each trip.