Virtual Field Trips: Notes and Instructions

Remember, these are remote sites and will not have links back to this page. Nor do I have any control over how they might be revised by their authors at any time. If you have trouble with any of my links or become aware of other types of significant changes made to any of the sites I have selected, please let me know. Susan Woodward

I. Indian Peaks, Colorado

This virtual field trip is designed as a module for the Virtual Geography Department and is in the test stage. (This means that it is a more or less complete draft ready to be used and evaluated.)

The field trip instructs students on both alpine glaciation and vegetation zonation in the Colorado Rockies. For our biogeography class, you need only concern yourself with stops that deal with vegetation (Stops 1-4). I suggest you approach the field trip in the following order:

1. Read the Student Instructions.
2. Go to Background Information
3. Check the color map. Scroll right to find stops 1-4. Note the elevational differences. (After you complete the trip, try to find this site on a map of Colorado in an atlas.)
4. Go to Stop 1. Continue on to stops 2, 3, and 4 and be sure to takethe little side trips at some of these stops. Take notes as set forth in the student instructions.
5. Go to Wrap Up and follow instructions. (You need to scroll down to find them. When I last checked this page, an illustration was missing at the top of the page giving the incorrect impression that there was nothing but a title and caption available.)

II. Point Reyes, California: Ecosystem Field Trip

• Read the introductory material on plant communities. (Of course, you may certainly also look at information under the headings geology, landforms, and climate!)

• Work from the plant community page to visit the various plant communities
  • coastal strand communities
  • coastal prairie and rangeland
  • coastal shrub
  • marshland
  • Bishop pine
  • Douglas pine

While taking this virtual field trip:

Take notes and make sketch maps or diagrams of the ecological distribution patterns of each community. (For example, different habitats are described for coastal strand. Convert the verbal description into a diagram.)

Your final field trip report should address the following points:

• What environmental factor or factors appear to control the structure and ecological distribution patterns of vegetation in each community? Illustrate with clean, neat renderings of your field sketches.

• Describe and compare the geographic distribution patterns of Bishop Pine and Douglas fir. Look in a field guide to North American trees that contains range maps. Draw or otherwise include two maps showing the ranges of these tree species. Indicate on your map the location of Point Reyes. What does it mean that Bishop pine is a relict?

• Create a scenario that explains the distributions of these two pine species.

• Evaluate the field trip as it is set up in this draft form. Can you make some suggestions to the author as she refines the trip? What questions about the Point Reyes vegetation do you still have that author might clarify for you?

III. Vegetation of Madagascar

There are actually two sites of direct relevance to this course. The first deals with the Classification of Natural and Anthropogenic Vegetation. The second deals with the Biogeography of Madagascar, specifically with the origins, dispersals, and affinities of various taxa found on Madagascar and in the Indo-Australian region.

Both of these sites are abundantly and beautifully illustrated. The papers are aimed at an audience of professional botanists and the language may be a bit too technical for some of you. And there is almost confusing array of links. Yet with a little persistence you should be able to pick out the main biogeographic and conservation points and enjoy the splendid array of vegetation on Madagascar.

I suggest confining your virtual trip report to the following sections, but explore some in the other pages.

1. Classification of Natural and Anthropogenic Vegetation
   • Introduction
   • Vegetation Classification and Mapping
   • Principal Vegetation Types
   .
2. Biogeography of Madagascar.

Your field trip report should include the following:

• A description of the altitudinal zonation of vegetation on Madagascar

• Environmental (or ecological) controls of vegetation patterns on Madagascar, including specialized vegetation types. Use explanatory illustrations to supplement your text.

• Compare two different criteria by which vegetation on Madagascar has been mapped in the past.

• What is the newest approach to vegetation mapping and what is its purported value to plant conservation on the island?

• How did this unique flora come about? Briefly discuss Gondwanan relicts, stepping stone dispersal, and long distance dispersal as they apply to Madagascar.

IV. The Tropical Rainforest in Suriname by Marco Bleeker

This is a multimedia tour of botanical, zoological, and cultural aspects of the rainforest in which you can see the sights and hear the sounds of Suriname. Especially recommended if you have audio set up on your computer.

For this exercise, concentrate on the flora and fauna; that is, Introduction, Rainforest, and Epiphytes sections.

Your field trip report should cover the following points:

1. Where is Suriname?
2. What is the zonation of vegetation or habitat types apparent as you move inland from the coast?
3. What do you see (and hear) in the forest that reinforces descriptions of vegetation structure, growthforms, adaptation, and disturbance in tropical rainforests that you learned in class? Provide some specific examples of each.
4. Did you learn anything new about the forest or adaptations of living organisms to the rainforest environment?
5. Briefly evaluate the contents (relative to this course) and the ease with which one can navigate through the site.
6. Explore some of Bleeker's links. Recommend at least one other that should be of interest to students in this class. Give a brief summary of its contents and identify those aspects of the site which are most useful (as related to biogeography). Be sure to include the URL (the web address) of the site.