Rainforest to Reef

This course prepares students to distinguish hidden assumptions in scientific approaches and separate fact from interpretation, cause from correlation, and advocacy from objectivity.

Students learn specific tools including:

• experimental design
• field techniques
• basic descriptive statistics
• parametric and non-parametric quantitative analysis

Emphasis is placed on succinct scientific writing, graphic and tabular presentation of results, and effective delivery of oral presentations.

In this course, you will obtain a broad appreciation of the diversity and dynamics of tropical terrestrial & marine biomes. You will be introduced to the current and past distributions of tropical rainforests, dry forest, savannas and coastal biomes, their biodiversity, and their relationships with the abiotic environment, human use, present threats, and restoration practices. This course aims to bring together an understanding of the underlying ecological processes that affect different biomes with the role of human society in shaping the present and future rainforests of the Wet Tropics & the coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. The course will take the rainforest Australian Wet Tropics & the coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) as case studies to investigate this field, yet many of the skills you learn here can be transferred to other systems. Topics covered will include: biophysical determinants vegetation and coral reef distribution; past, present, and future threats to Wet Tropics rainforests & GBR; and the theory and practice of rainforest and coral restoration.

The course also has a practical component. You will be taught field techniques for carrying out field research, data analysis, and communication of results.

This course identifies threats to wildlife populations, how to obtain data on the impact of these threats on wildlife populations and how to select and apply appropriate conservation methods to mitigate these threats. We will look at these aspects in general and then demonstrate them in case studies of species in the Wet Tropics. To formulate a background understanding of habitats of the Wet Tropic’s wildlife, we will explore the origin of the main landscape formations of this part of Australia by looking at geological and biogeographical factors that shaped the landscape and its biota. You will be introduced to Australia’s fauna and the unique species that inhabit the diverse habitats of the Wet Tropics. We then will deal with some basic ecological concepts of biodiversity and why so many species can co-exist in one place.

The course is a mixture of class lectures, field lectures, field laboratory courses, workshops, field trips, and readings to complement the material presented in the lectures. A major emphasis is placed on field skills, the collection, management and analyses of data, and skills of writing a scientific paper.

This course explores the contemporary environmental and sustainability issues and also touches broadly on the historical, social-cultural, economic and political factors that determine the use of natural resources, with particular emphasis on, but not limited to, the Wet Tropics of Australia. Topics to be covered in this course include; environmentalism, sustainable food production and livelihoods, the impact of human activities on terrestrial and marine biomes, conservation conflicts, resource governance and so on. In addition, students will be introduced to social science research methods, while a visit to a local Aboriginal community will help them gain a better understanding of the first Australian’s enviro-cultural heritage values.

Throughout the course students will be introduced to, and are expected to gain hands-on experience on social research techniques.