FULFILLS:
BIOS 491 (section 001)/891 (section 592)
PREREQUISITES:
BIOS 207 or NRES 220 for BIOS 491
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Dr. John DeLong, contact: jpdelong@unl.edu
DATES:
July 26th at 5:00 PM (MT) to August 3rd at 12:00 PM (MT)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
An exploration of biodiversity sciences through the lens of the Nebraska Sandhills. We will read influential papers on biodiversity and grapple with the why, how, and so-what of biodiversity research. We will collect our own data on biodiversity each morning of the trip and learn to calculate biodiversity metrics and analyze patterns in diversity. Each pair of students will choose a taxa to inventory and present their work on the last morning of the course.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY:
The general daily routine will be to sample in the mornings, have lunch at our site, travel to the next site in the afternoon, have dinner and camp. We will discuss papers on biodiversity at lunch and/or dinner, with some micro-lectures in the evenings. Only some campsites will have showers. We will have dinner or lunch at a couple of iconic western restaurants during the week, but mostly we'll be cooking for ourselves. On our last full day, we'll take a canoe trip down the Middle Loupe and retire to UNL's Gudmunsen Ranch. We'll do our presentations on the last morning over breakfast and enjoy the super scenic drive back to Cedar Point, where we'll have lunch, clean up, and head home.
COST:
$400 for the trip, $100 due when signing up