TESC 404 -- Costa Rica Field Studies: Ecology & Community

University of Washington, Tacoma
Summer of 2011

This year the international field portion of TESC 404, Costa Rica Field Studies: Ecology & Community ran from 1-22 August, 2011. The field course was based at the Rancho Mastatal Environmental Learning Center in the rural village of Mastatal in Puriscal province, approx. 2.5 hrs. west of San Jose. Led by Drs. John "Buck" Banks and Erica Cline, students from the UWT and UWS campuses participated in the 22 day trip. As part of the course requirements, students designed and conducted independent research projects during their stay in Costa Rica. Student research projects focused on topics such as poison dart frog behavior, fungal pathogens in cacao, hummingbird foraging behavior, butterfly diversity, river sediment loads, antibacterial properties of medicinal plants, and invertebrate biodiversity in local rivers.

Links to individual projects :

• Using Insects to Assess Stream Health by Jake Asplund & Jessica Satterthwaite
• Relative Abundance of Cookeina tricholoma and C. speciosa by Antonia DeMillo
• A Comparative Study of Soil Erosion in Forested versus Deforested Land in Mastatal, Costa Rica by Brian Hite
• Relationships between Heliconia, Hummingbirds, and Ants by Brandy Prietto
• Butterfly Diversity Study by Cassandra Johnson
• Antimicrobial Properties of Traditional Medicinal Plants of Costa Rica by Jami Kovatch & Robert Tournay
• Behavioral Observation of the Black and Green Poison Dart Frogs by Nora Waddell
• Leaf Chemistry and Water Shedding by Sunni Wissmer
• Road Impacts on Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities found in Mastatal, Costa Rica by Anne Fredenberg & Danielle Morvan
• Frosty Pod Rot and its Impacts on the Chocolate Iguana cacao Plantation in Mastatal, Costa Rica by Tyler Argo
   

Link to photo gallery from 2011 course

Link to Research Project Haikus

Archive: Link to projects from 2007 course

Archive: Link to projects from 2005 course

Archive: Link to projects from 2004 course

 

Other links:

 

Buck's homepage

 

Environmental Science at UWT

 

UWT homepage

 

Link to archive of research conducted at Rancho Mastatal

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Please send comments to: banksj@u.washington.edu

Last updated on: September 14, 2011