More field course fun!

This year’s field course in Tropical rainforest ecology and biodiversity (BIOS4218) was held between 19th August and 7th September. As last year, the host was the Ferreira Penna Field Station at Caxiuana. Seven students and two teachers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and the University of Oslo (UiO) travelled to Brazil and were joined by 10 Brazilian students and five teachers.

Student projects included plant-insect interactions, animal seed removal, palm and lichen distributions, behaviour of amphibians and more.

The course also exposed the students to some of the current Amazon challenges, such as selective, low-impact logging, large-scale aluminum mining, and subsistence farming by local communities.

In the next phase of the course, the Brazilian students will come to Norway together with three of their teachers. Together we will learn more about different lab and data analyses techniques, including DNA analyses.

We look forward to seeing our Brazilian colleagues here in Norway in November!