field trip report. - Ecological Society of America

SEEDS Regional Field Trip
Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS):
a program of the
Ecological Society of America
Archbold Biological Field Station
Venus, Florida
November 12-15, 2015
Photo of participants with career panel by Dustin Angell, Archbold
Partial support for this fieldtrip came from:
I.
Summary
Nine undergraduate students from three institutions participated in the fall SEEDS
Regional Field Trip from November 12-15, 2016 at the
Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida.
http://www.archbold-station.org/ This fieldtrip was
made possible with a grant from the Edith and Curtiss
Munson Foundation and financial support from ESA
members.
The students were from Bethune-Cookman University,
Florida Atlantic University, and Florida International
University. SEEDS director, Teresa Mourad, coordinated
the fieldtrip with Archbold Executive Director, Dr. Hilary
Swain, as well as researchers and staff from Archbold.
Two faculty, Dr. Kenneth Feeley (FIU) and Dr. Evelyn
Frazier (FAU) as well as SEEDS alumna, Dr. Luanna
Prevost, University of South Florida also participated.
Arrival and signing in at
Archbold Lodge
Students were housed at Archbold’s new Lodge and Learning Center, an ‘ultra green’ LEED
Platinum facility, nestled amidst a preserve of globally imperiled Florida scrub habitat.
Located in south-central Florida, the Archbold Biological Station boasts a 5,200 acre
preserve largely pristine, where the original upland habitats of the Lake Wales Ridge still
predominate. Its headwaters flow south into Lake Okeechobee. The station also owns and
manages the Archbold Reserve, stretching more than 3,600 acres and includes a working
cattle ranch.
The field trip featured:
1. A “behind the scenes” tours of the facilities with opportunities to see rare species
such as Florida Scrub Jays, Gopher Tortoises and many endemic plants, reptiles and
scrub bugs.
2. A swamp buggy tour of Archbold’s working cattle ranch, the MacArthur Agroecology Research Center with an emphasis on research associated with enhancing
water quality, reduction in nutrient loadings, and wetland restoration
3. A hands-on authentic field experience data investigating the relationship between
the production of acorns vs. oak galls in scrub oaks
4. A career panel with regional professionals from academia, government agencies,
private consulting and non-profits.
5. A self-assessment of leadership styles
6. Time for fun and relaxation at Lake Annie, and around a campfire.
This was also the first time that Archbold designed an authentic field study experience for
such a short trip for undergraduate students. We are very grateful for all the support,
enthusiasm and welcome we received from Dr. Swain and everyone at Archbold.
II.
Reflections from Students
Friday November 13, 2015
Team 1 (Friday AM): Jodi Sanderson, Michelle Poletti, and Laura de Souza
This morning we talked about the ESA which stands for Ecological Society of America. ESA
has about 9000 members and half are graduate student. They will soon have all their
journals available online. The organization is 100 years old and has partnership with Wiley.
It is projected that about 3,500-5,000 will attend the Fort Lauderdale 2015 conference. As a
member of the ESA, you can choose a section to exclusively learn about. ESA SEEDS also
offers research fellowships.
Identifying oak galls
We traveled by a truck to quadrant 6052 that was divided into four segments to look for
oak galls. The area overall wasn't heavily dense, but in some areas there were a lot of
canopy coverage. Half of our tagged trees had zero to one galls and the other half had quite
a few galls. We spotted two scrub jays and were able to observe some of their territorial
defense behavior. One fun fact that we learned was that scrub jay can bury anywhere from
5-7000 acorns individually per winter. We were also able to observe a rusty staggerbush
with gall growth induced by fungus. Multiple groups agreed that there is a possible
correlation between tree height and the number of oak galls present. Another fun thing we
saw was a blueberry plant growing.
Team 2 (Friday PM): Niki Koukoulidis, and Tiany Hernandez
For Friday afternoon, we enjoyed lunch after a long day
of field work, entered data in excel spreadsheet. For the
data analysis, we noticed that although we greatly
enjoyed the field aspect of the gall research, however
the data analysis was a tad more of a challenge than
anticipated. We had many data points from all the FAU,
FIU and Princeton* data gatherings and it was a lot to
take into account to find a pattern.
Using Excel is an important skill to be proficient in;
entering data points and finding a way to depict
findings is a critical part in conveying the message of
our work (and the work of others). Ken and Luanna
offered their insight on data analysis and explained
ways to include mean, median, mode and effectively
incorporate statistical analysis
explaining how to ensure we use
facts and not just conjecture.
Counting oak galls
along with
data points that are
After seeing various ways of statistical analysis and some
previous knowledge of the tool, we were able to come up
with a graph for the data points. Afterwards we relaxed
and had the social dinner with graduate students,
research assistants and interns, which was highly
informative and motivating. Casual conversation is a
wonderful way to communicate with like-minded
individuals on important topics. We also had dinner
together, which was amazing as ever. Overall, it was a very
informative and fun experience.
Working with data
*another group visited just before our arrival and had the chance to do the same exercise
Saturday November 14, 2015
Team 3 (Saturday AM): Ana Rojas, and Sarah Mitchell
We started the 2nd day of our exciting field trip with a delicious breakfast provided by the
Archbold Crew. The FAU advisor, Dr. Evelyn Frazier arrived and explained that she is not
an entomologist but an insect ecologist. Then we prepared for the career panel and headed
into the East Meeting Room. This career panel was to give us, the students a bit of
knowledge about career paths in ecology. To introduce the panel, Teresa began by asking
each of the panelists a question.
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Tyler, works on Snail Kite conservation for the Fish and Wildlife Service explained
that what he likes best about his job is getting to work in all the different parts of the
Everglades ecosystem.
Erin, works for a company specifically in Clean Water Act compliance in an Air Force
station and her main challenge is working around the Department’s of Defense
management and getting creative with how she does this working around.
Jackson, a Florida State Park manager’s main influential person was actually an
Archbold staff and entomologist Mark D. whom he got to personally work with
when he was an intern at the station.
Bea, working for The Nature Conservancy did not think she would end up at that
influential organization and as an undergrad didn’t even know about TNC.
Steffan, completing his M.S. and soon to be Archbold Research Assistant chose his
thesis based on previous interest in GIS and as he calls it a ‘chance’ conversation
with a past intern about invasive snails at MAERC and urged us to be open to
opportunities.
Luanna, Assistant Professor at USF began as an ecology student but has moved into
biology education research and began this while being a TA in graduate school and
gaining an interest in how students learned.
Pedro, Professor of Biology and Researcher at UCF, wants to see the field of ecology
involve into a more integrated discipline with the arts and social sciences. Students
then asked questions to the panelists.
What were the most important key points you might ask? Students need to network with
professors, graduate students, and even each other because volunteer opportunities and
interesting conversations can lead to career opportunities. Field experience is critical
because it allows you to really put your educational background to work or even gain a lot
more knowledge. It is okay to not know everything because all the career panelists were at
that point in their lives and they are now successful. Just keep trying and never lose that
passion and drive in ecology because even at discouraging/ challenging moments there is a
lot to gain in terms of perspective.
Next we moved onto our leadership workshop in which we first answered a short 20
question Myers-Briggs assessment. It was very interesting because there were a lot of
people that agreed with some parts and then strongly disagreed on the parts of the
personality traits results. Teresa asked us to first talk in groups of 2-3 about certain
improvements that could be
made in our leadership styles.
Then we gathered in a circle and
shared each of our thoughts. A
majority of us agreed that we
need to gain self -confidence and
that we may be our harshest
critic yet give others
reassurance.
Reflecting
on leadership
styles
This
is important
in leadership
because an effective leader will believe in themselves and
convey their message better. Furthermore we spoke about trying to get others excited
about the environmental work we do and how people go with the flow rather than stand up
and speak out especially in environmental topics. This was particularly true across our
college campuses where students pretend not to care but deep down understand the
implications and consequences of environmental degradation and understand that their
help is crucial in stopping disaster. It was honestly a very empowering talk because we
shared a lot of concerns and felt connected. We finished off by talking about how women
tear each other down in society so we decided to give compliments to each other to remind
each other that we are beautiful, incredible individuals that need to believe in themselves
more often.
Team 4 (Saturday PM): Marie Colom Llavina and Cynthia Raaijmakers
We started the afternoon with a tour of the Buck Island Ranch led by Federico, a research
assistant at the ranch. We first learned about the Caracara bird, which is a threatened
species. We also learned about John D McArthur, who bought the ranch in 1968 and in
1978 he was given 10 years to figure out what to do with the ranch. He then leased it to
Archbold for $1 a year.
One of the major studies they do is the ecology on a working landscape that deals with
methane emission from wetlands. The results thus far have been that there is more
methane produced in the ungrazed wetlands during the wet season compared to the
grazed wetlands in the wet season.
Another study deals with knowing about the amount of phosphorous in the soil and they
have found that the amount of grazing in the soil has no effect on it. Phosphorous levels are
managed by man operated canals.
Later we went to Lake Annie; the water was warm, a group of us tried to catch water
beetles, others read and the rest relaxed next to the lake. Dinner was good. Verna is an
amazing cook! Then we proceeded with presentations which were very enlightening.
List of Participants
Students
 Laura De Souza, Florida Atlantic University
 Ana Rojas, Florida International University
 Michelle Poletti, Florida International University
 Tiany Hernandez, Florida International University
 Marie Llavina, Florida International University
 Niki Koukoulidis, Florida Atlantic University
 Sarah Mitchell, Florida Atlantic University
 Cynthia Raaijmakers, Florida Atlantic University
 Jodi Sanderson, Bethune-Cookman University
Faculty Advisers
 Kenneth Feeley, Florida International University
 Evelyn Frazier, Florida Atlantic University
SEEDS Alumna
 Luanna Prevost, University of South Florida
Archbold Staff
 Hilary Swain, Executive Director
 Sharon Hawkins, HR Administrator
 Dustin Angell, Education Coordinator
Archbold Scientists
 Reed Bowman, Associate Research Biologist [Avian Ecology, Endangered Species
Management] and Program Director
 Mark Deyrup, Senior Research Program Director and Research Biologist
[Entomology]
 Eric Menges, Senior Research Program Director and Research Biologist [Plant
Ecology, Fire Ecology, Conservation Biology]
 Frederico Borghese
 Shane Pruett
 Kye Ewing
 Verna Dunbar
ESA Staff
 Teresa Mourad, Director of Education and Diversity Programs