Terrestrial Ecology

SOUTH PACIFIC -

Terrestrial Ecology is, as a student described it, “a highly enjoyable field-based course with loads of great fieldtrips, informative lectures, and hands-on [experiences]”.

This course takes the Old Convent crew to the wet and rugged West Coast of the South Island where our classroom takes the shape of anything from a glacial moraine to an old-growth podocarp rainforest.

This semester Dave Warners from Calvin College ushered us into the unique ecology of NZ. Dave opened our eyes to the significance of island biogeography and the ways in which an ecosystem is not simply the sum of its parts, but the dynamics of interactions. Rare and endemic flightless birds like the Rowi Kiwi—which we encountered at the breeding program in Franz Josef—are indicative of how New Zealand’s landscape, history and isolation from other places has caused beautiful, delicate and one-of-a-kind interactions and organisms to come about.

One of our favourite things about Terrestrial Ecology is the hands-on experience of learning about and witnessing Creation in the field. Some of our field trips included:

-a glow worm cave where, in total darkness, pinpricks of bioluminescence shine like constellations (Punakaiki Cavern, Paparoa National Park).

-hiking up the titanic scrape of one of the only advancing glaciers in the world today to witness it close-up (Franz Josef Glacier).

-tramping through a temperate rainforest where moisture in the air is so thick that trees fall from the weight of epiphytes growing greenly on their trunks and limbs (Monro Beach track, Westland National Park)

-winding our way through NZ beech forest in the mountain to arrive at a beautiful alpine fen where delicate insectivorous plants lay in wait to snare their prey and the robins peck in our footprints as they once did when they followed the Moa (Bealey Track, Arthur’s Pass National Park).