Location (Field Station):
Highlands Biological Station in Highlands, NC and Wildsumaco Biological Station in Ecuador

Start Date:
05/24/2020

End Date:
06/12/2020

Course Description:
Dr. James Costa, HBS & Western Carolina University, and Travis Knowles, WBS & Francis Marion University An introductory exploration of the ecology and biogeography of temperate-zone and tropical biodiversity hotspots, from the southern Appalachians to Andean Ecuador. Based at two mountain biological field stations (Highlands Biological Station in Highlands, NC and Wildsumaco Biological Station, Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador), we will take a field-based comparative approach to exploring southern Appalachian and Amazonian Andean montane ecology and biogeography in the spirit of the explorer-naturalists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will consider the geological context of the Appalachians and Andes, comparative biogeography / ecology of these regions in terms of the ecological and historical factors that shape their biota, big-picture patterns of latitudinal and elevational diversity gradients, principles of forest community structure and function, and representative plant, bird, and mammalian groups using camera traps and other techniques. Prerequisites: Introductory Biology sequence, at least one course at the 200 level or above in Biology, Environmental Science, or Geosciences/Natural Resources Management, or permission of instructor.

Web Address of Course Info:
https://highlandsbiological.org/summer-2020/