Coral Reef Ecology
This intensive two-week field course takes place on Roatan Island, Honduras, at the Institute of Marine Studies (associated with Anthony’s Key Resort.) Students will learn to recognize and classify the major floral and faunal components associated with coral reefs, mangrove communities, and tropical terrestrial habitats. The course is designed for a minimum of nine contact hours per day, except Sundays (six contact hours). A typical day will be as follows: mornings snorkeling/diving, afternoons studying physiology, and evenings working in the lab or snorkeling/diving. Evening laboratory time will be spent either diving/snorkeling or reviewing these organisms and discussing their taxonomic position, natural history, and ecological relationships. Specific exercises such as transect surveys, and calculation of diversity, dispersion, and community similarity indices will give students experience in ecological quantification techniques. For information, contact Prof. David Kesler.
