OCELOTS

Online Content for Experiential Learning of Tropical Systems

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    Vegetation Greening: A Snapshot from the Andean Tropics
    This online module explores how satellite images are used to study vegetation greenness and, using Ecuador as an example, demonstrates how tropical vegetation experienced increased greenness...
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    Colorful wings send messages: Why are butterfly wings colorful?
    Red postman butterflies live in tropical rainforests and have a mix of red, yellow, and black on their wings. These bright colors may warn predators or attract mates. Explore whether color alone or...
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    Cold blood and wet skin in hot and dry secondary forests. How do amphibian traits determine persistence in secondary forests?
    Students will synthesize information from biological and physiological traits of amphibians and characteristics of secondary forests in the tropics to form hypotheses about persistence of...
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    Causes and consequences of resisting herbivory: How long-lived plants avoid damage from diverse short-lived insect herbivores
    This module guides students through decades-long studies of tropical plant-insect interactions to elucidate the ecology and evolution of plant defenses while encouraging students to consider the...
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    A rainforest with a gold chain? The impacts of gold mining on the trophic web of an Amazonian rainforest of SE Peru
    The use of mercury in artisanal gold mining affects aquatic and terrestrial food webs in the Peruvian Amazon. Learn about bioaccumulation, explore data on mercury deposition in vegetation and how...
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    Restoring Tropical Forests: Implementing an online module in an undergraduate biology course in Indonesia
    This resource describes my implementation of a module on tropical forest restoration in Costa Rica for an undergraduate Ecology course at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia....
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    High technology to measure forest carbon stocks: How can advanced remote sensing improve biomass quantification in the Brazilian Amazon?
    A case study on the estimation of aboveground biomass using advanced remote sensors (LiDAR and hyperspectral) in the Brazilian Amazon. Students explore remote sensing (RS) data and compare RS-based...
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    Functional trait-based restoration. Can hybrid restoration enhance invasion resistance and ecosystem services?
    A hybrid restoration experiment in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, in an area of high biocultural conservation value, that address the ecological and philosophical issues involved in conducting restoration with a...
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    Implementing an online module on microbe-plant interactions in the context of ecological disturbance for Microbiology and Biochemistry courses in India
    This module explores tropical forest gap dynamics and helps students develop hypotheses about climate-related changes in plant-microbial interactions and was implemented in Microbiology and...
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    SNAPSHOT SERENGETI: Analyzing Wildlife Ecological Relationships in an upper-level Ecology course
    Two assignments were created to develop skills in ecological hypothesis testing, data analysis and interpretation using the Snapshot Serengeti and Gorongosa camera trap data and graphical...
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    Fish, forests, and phosphorus: How do tropical fish, rainforest canopies, and volcanic groundwater inputs affect stream phosphorus cycling?
    Rainforest stream nutrient concentrations vary with groundwater source, and different stream fish species feed on aquatic and/or terrestrial prey. Explore how phosphorus cycling changes with stream...
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    Sounds of the Tropics: Part 1. How can audio recordings improve tropical biodiversity conservation?
    This online module explores the terminology of sound and concepts of acoustic monitoring, the diversity of sounds produced by animals, how to study soundscapes, how humans modify soundscapes, and...
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    Plant-microbial mutualisms in canopy gap recovery: How do soil microbial symbionts help tropical forests recover from treefall gaps?
    This module uses tropical plant-soil microbial interactions in canopy gaps as a lens to better understand species interactions and disturbance ecology, while showing how scientists study these...
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    Implementing an online module about plant functional traits in the context of restoration ecology for an undergraduate class in Brazil.
    This resource describes my experience in implementing this OCELOTS module in a Functional Trait-based Restoration class for undergraduate majors in the Forest Sciences Department / Escola Superior...
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    Healing the scars: Tropical rainforest carbon cycling. Does it matter which tree species you plant?
    This online module explores how differences in traits of tropical tree species translate into differential effects on the carbon cycle, integrating ecological information across scales and the...
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    Implementing an online module about measuring carbon stocks in an undergraduate Earth Science course
    In this implementation of a case study in which high technology was used to measure carbon stocks in a tropical forest, earth science students in this 4-year college in Oklahoma applied concepts...
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    Biting into "Science Cookies": Are seed fates determined by seed size or chemistry?
    By understanding how animals make seed dispersal decisions, we can predict how plant traits affect seed survival and plant recruitment. Using wild agoutis, we experimentally tested how seed...
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    Restoring tropical forests: Is planting clusters of trees a cost-effective and ecologically-sound strategy to restore tropical forest?
    This module (available in four languages) provides a broad introduction to both ecological and social aspects of tropical forest restoration. It focuses on a long-term study comparing three...
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    Between a rock and a hard place. What can turning rocks tell us about land-use change impacts on animals living in a rock outcrop?
    Unique rock outcrops in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India provide a setting that challenges students to develop a study to assess the impact of land-use change on threatened animals...
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    Healing the scars: Implementing an online module about tropical rainforest carbon cycling in an undergraduate majors ecology course
    This resource provides a guide to classroom implementation of a Gala module focused on tropical carbon cycling. I adapted the module to include a discussion of the importance of carbon cycling in...
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