Geange, S. R. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2021

A rapid prototyping approach for intensive field courses to build scientific and professional skills

This paper reports on the design and evaluation of Field Studies in Functional Ecology (FSFE), a two-week intensive residential field course that enables students to master core content in functional ecology alongside skills that facilitate their transition from student to scientist. This paper provides an overview of the course structure, showing how the constituent elements have been designed and refined over successive iterations of the course. We detail how FSFE students: 1. Work closely with discipline specialists to develop a small group project that tests an hypothesis to answer a genuine scientific question in the field; 2. Learn critical skills of data management and communication; and 3. Analyse, interpret and present their results in the format of a scientific symposium. This process is repeated in an iterative cognitive apprenticeship model, supported by a series of workshops that name and explicitly instruct the students in hard and soft skills critical relevant for research and other careers. FSFE students develop a coherent and nuanced understanding of how to approach and execute ecological studies. The sophisticated knowledge and ecological research skills that they develop during the course is demonstrated through high quality presentations and peer-reviewed publications in an open-access, student-led journal. We outline our course structure and evaluate its efficacy to show how this novel combination of field course elements allows students to gain maximum value from their educational journey, and to develop cognitive, affective and reflective tools to help apply their skills as scientists.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Predicting species and community responses to global change in Australian mountain ecosystems using structured expert judgement

Conservation managers are under increasing pressure to make decisions about the allocation of finite resources to protect biodiversity under a changing climate. However, the impacts of climate and global change drivers on species are outpacing our capacity to collect the empirical data necessary to inform these decisions. This is particularly the case in the Australian Alps which has already undergone recent changes in climate and experienced more frequent large-scale bushfires. In lieu of empirical data, we used a structured expert elicitation method (the IDEA protocol) to estimate the abundance and distribution of nine vegetation groups and 89 Australian alpine and subalpine species by the year 2050. Experts predicted that most alpine vegetation communities would decline in extent by 2050; only woodlands and heathlands were predicted to increase in extent. Predicted species-level responses for alpine plants and animals were highly variable and uncertain. In general, alpine plants spanned the range of possible responses, with some expected to increase, decrease or not change in cover. By contrast, almost all animal species were predicted to decline or not change in abundance or elevation range; more species with water-centric life-cycles were expected to decline in abundance than other species. In the face of rapid change and a paucity of data, the method and outcomes outlined here provide a pragmatic and coherent basis upon which to start informing conservation policy and management, although this approach does not diminish the importance of collecting long-term ecological data. Article Impact StatementExpert knowledge is used to quantify the adaptive capacity and thus, the risk posed by global change, to Australian mountain flora and fauna.

ecology↗