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

University of Washington, Tacoma
Summer 2005

This year the international field portion of TESC 404, Costa Rica Field Studies: Ecology & Community ran from 7-23 July, 2005. 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 Dr. John "Buck" Banks, ten students from the UWT and UWS campuses along with 4 research assistants from UWT participated in the 17 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 frog/toad distributions, paca behavior, butterfly distributions, moss distributions and river dynamics, bromeliad community diversity, pioneer tree species and soil characteristics, ecotourism, and fish diversity.

Links to individual projects :

• Frog/toad diversity: Ryan Moss & Trevor Shaw
• Paca behavior: Barbara Parsons
• Butterfly distributions: Catherine Crook & Simone Hoffer
• Moss distributions and river dynamics: Petya Martinez
• Bromeliad community diversity: Brigitte Raines
• Pioneer tree species and soils: Amber Robison
• Ecotourism analysis: Heidi Comfort
• Fish diversity: Zachary Hughes

Links to projects from 2004 course:

• River dynamics: Courtney Randazzo & Megan Mach
• Pollinator study: Mark White
• Butterfly diversity study: Lori Montgomery
• Ant diversity study: Lee Ann Acker & Anthony Kirkendall
• Rural village sociology: Adrienne Arnold
• Video documentary: Jamie Batson
• Rain forest tree species succession and diversity: Christopher Self

Link to photo gallery from 2004 trip

 

Buck's homepage

Environmental Science at UWT

Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences 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: December 5, 2005