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Empirical research in biogeography requires field data on species’ assemblages, distributions, or populations. In this module, students learn techniques and tools to design and implement a field research campaign that considers statistical sampling design, sampling effort, and costs. Students will get acquainted with a wide range of methods to collect primary ecological field data, ranging from simple to more advanced techniques, and covering a wide range of taxa, and that are applicable to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Students will further train in specific methods in an intensive course in the field. There, students will conduct research projects that they design prior to the field trip. Course participants will also deepen their analytical skills in primary data analyses to answer research questions and test hypothesis; document their findings; and critically reflect on them in the context of the primary literature. Topics covered during this course include:
- Introduction to empirical data collection and the role of experiments in biogeography
- Planning and implementing a survey
- Statistical sampling design and sampling methods (incl. sampling bias, representativeness, repeatability, sample size)
- Introduction to field data collection techniques, for example, to assess forestry structure and biomass surveys, vegetation surveys, invertebrate trapping, point and transect counts, mark and recapture analyses, camera trapping, or radio telemetry
- Documentation of field surveys and organization of field data
- Statistical analyzes of data gathered in the field (e.g., descriptive analyses and hypothesis testing)
The five-day field excursion to Linde Research station in Brandenburg will take place from the 8th to the 12th of June. It will serve to deepen methods introduced in the seminar, and to gather the necessary data and implement the associated sampling design for two to three experiments (e.g., assessing species’ assemblages along gradients of land use intensity or forest fragmentation). Students will get additional hands-on experience on data acquisition techniques (e.g. arthropod trapping, camera trapping) and in identifying the species they capture.
We will stay in the fully equipped Linde Research station in Brandenburg, run by the Zwillenberg-Tietz Stiftung, also supporting the stay by providing free accommodation. Travel to/from the Geography Institute to Linde is usually organized by institute/university buses, keeping costs to a minimum (basically only for food).
Students will prepare some short group presentations on their specific project before the excursion, as well a poster on their main findings on one of the last course dates. The final grade will result from a written manuscript style report. |
