20132013
What is Operation Wallacea?• Tropical scientific expeditions in 9countries
• 200+ academics running more than 120 projects
• Results published in peer-reviewed journals
What is Operation Wallacea?• 30 new vertebrate species to science discovered
• Large temporal and spatial data sets obtained from tuition fee funded model
• Data used to assess the performance of conservation management programs
Global Research and Conservation Strategy• Stage 1 - Assessing ecosystem diversity and function• Stage 2 - Monitoring ecosystem change• Stage 3 - Monitoring socio-economic change• Stage 4 - Establishing & monitoring the effectiveness of conservation
management programs
Team Members
Principal Researchers
Assistant Researchers
Visiting Academics
Dissertation Students
Research Assistants
Medical Staff
Pre –med Expedition Medicine
Operations Staff
Joining as a research assistant
•Research Assistant•Gain experience for CV or for helping to choose career direction
•Fixed Itineraries (Madagascar, Egypt, Cuba, Guyana, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, )
•Personalized Itineraries (Indonesia, Honduras)
•Pre –meds: Expedition Medical course
Spiny Forest Biodiversity Survey
Data gathered for Biosphere application for Mandrare Valley
Madagascar wildlife and communities course in week 1
Rotate between camps across Ifotaka North
Scan and focal sampling of Verraux’s Sifaka and Ring Tailed Lemurs
Spotlight and trapping surveys for nocturnal lemurs
MadagascarMadagascar
Spiny Forest Biodiversity Survey
Invasive plant surveys
Vegetation surveys using Gentry plots
Bird point counts and mist netting
Iguana activity budgets
Day time and spotlight surveys for chameleon diversity
MadagascarMadagascar
Mountain Desert Biodiversity Survey
Data contributing to biodiversity atlas survey of St Katherine Protectorate
Desert living training in first 3 days
4 days surveying in mountain desert and living in Bedouin camps
Surveys are for target plants, reptiles and bird surveys from transects, small mammal trapping, grazing pressure of ibex etc
EgyptEgypt
Dive training or Red Sea Reef Ecology Course
EgyptEgypt
Reef surveys on Isle of Youth
Data contributing to management plan for southern Isle of Youth Sustainab;e Management Zone
Based in remote hotel and working off research ships
Week 1 learning to dive and training in reef fish identification ori if already dive trained completing a Caribbean reef ecology course
Week 2 rotating between research ship surveying remote reefs with stereo video, helping the manatee surveys and analysing the stereo video data
CubaCuba
Stereo video surveys
CubaCuba
Analyzing stereo-video footage
Guiana Shield Forest Biodiversity surveysData being used to assess effects of selective logging on biodiversity
Based in remote forest field camps
Week 1 Guiana Shield forest ecology and jungle survival course
Weeks 2 and 3 working from 2 different camps
Mist netting for birds and bats
Herpetofauna surveys from transects and night spotlighting
Large mammal transect surveys
GuyanaGuyana
Burro Burro river surveys
GuyanaGuyana
Mayan Forest Biodiversity Surveys
First large-scale surveys of the vast Calakmul Biopshere.
Data collected for REDD+ application and data for setting sustainable hunting quotas
Mayan forest ecology course and visit to the Mayan ruins
Butterfly and moth surveys
Mist netting for birds and bats
Pitfall traps and transect searches for herpetofauna
Transect sampling and camera trapping for mammals
MexicoMexico
Forest elements of the Mexico programme
MexicoMexico
Marine elements of the Mexico programme
MexicoMexico
Amazonian Forest surveys
Data collected for REDD+ application and data for setting hunting quotas
Based on research ships
Amazonian wildlife conservation course in week 1
Bird mist netting and water bird transects
River dolphin surveys
Fish community surveys
PeruPeru
Amazonian Forest surveys
Amphibian surveys
Macaw counts
Large mammal transects
Camera trapping
River turtle population counts and nest transferring (depending on wate r levels)
Primate niche separation and time budgeting
PeruPeru
Caiman surveys
PeruPeru
Elephant carrying capacity surveys
Two low veld sites – one in Kruger and one inThanda in KwaZulu Natal
How do you determine elephant carrying capacity?
Bush training and savannah ecology course in week 1.
Week 2 onwards field surveys for half a day each day
Other half in camp completing African wildlife conservation course
South AfricaSouth Africa
Sodwana Bay, South Africa
South AfricaSouth Africa
Personalised itinerary options
2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks
Select the training course and research assistant options for your itinerary
Options in Indonesia and Honduras
Training courses
Jungle training and Wallacea wildlife course
Canopy Access
Dive training
Indo Pacific reef ecology
Dive Master training
IndonesiaIndonesia
IndonesiaIndonesia
IndonesiaIndonesia
Marine research assistant projects in Indonesia
Training courses
Jungle training and Neotropical wildlife course
Canopy Access
Dive training
Caribbean reef ecology
Dive Master training
HondurasHonduras
HondurasHonduras
HondurasHonduras
Expedition medicine
Expedition medicine
Expedition medicine
Expedition medicine experiential course (4weeks; jungle training, DNA, biodiversity monitoring, and dive training. Includes a week long course on expedition medicine)
Medical Electives(8 weeks shadowing different doctors supporting the Opwall expeditions in the cloud forests and reefs of Honduras)
Dissertation research topics
• Complete data collection over summer
• 90% + of students get top two grades for field projects
• Opwall projects at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Toronto, Birmingham, Manchester etc have won best departmental dissertations
Academic support
Botany and Invertebrate Research Topics
• Environmental impacts on leaf formation• Epiphytes in cloud forests•Forest disturbance impacts on butterflies•Orchid bee diversity•Niche separation in tarantulas•Dung beetle communities in cloud forest
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras
Herpetofauna Research Topics
• Impacts of habitat on Sulawesi herpetofauna
•Abundance and distribution of threatened amphibians in cloud forest
•Population ecology of Hog Island Boas
•Behaviour and ecology of ctenosaurs
•Niche separation in caimans
•Herpetofaun acommunities in Mexico
•Sea turtle behaviour and nest site preferences
•Colour change in chameleons and leaf tailed geckos
•Population levels of Nile crocodiles in Madagascar
•Population levels of colubrid snakes
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Madagascar
Bird Ecology Research Topics
• Habitat associations of Sulawesi birds• Behaviour of island birds• Cloud forest bird communities• Assessing detectability of forest birds• Effects of fire on winter bird communities• Bird communities in different Amazonian habitats• Water bird communities in the Amazon• Endemic bird habitat associations in Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, South Africa, Peru, Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, South Africa, Peru, Madagascar
Mammal Research Topics
• Sulawesi forest bat communities
•Civet ranging behaviour
•Arboreal marsupial ecology in Sulawesi
•Population levels of Sulawesi megafauna
•Vasectomy impact s on elephant behaviour
•Carrying capacity of reserves for elephant
•Distribution patterns of large herbivores
•Niche separation in Amazonian dolphins
•Occupancy modelling and camera trapping mammals in Amazonia , Mexico or Madagascar
•Comparison of mist net and sonogram surveys for bats
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, South Africa, Peru
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, South Africa, Peru
Primate Research Topics
• Effects of forest disturbance on Buton Macaque behaviour
•Sleeping tree selectivity in tarsiers
• Niche separation in Amazonian primates
• Spider monkey grouping patterns
•Feeding ecology, habitat selection and activity budgets in Coquerel’s and Verreaux’s Sifakas
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Madagascar
Marine Ecology Research Topics
• Resource utilisation of reef fish across environmental gradients•Association between anemone fish and host anemones•Competition between hard coral species•Comparison between reef and reef fish survey methods•Island biogeography of coral reef patches•Sea urchin ecology in the Caribbean•Changes in reef fish from stereo video surveys• Reef fish and benthic communities in Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, Madagascar
Intertidal Research Topics
•Niche separation in fiddler and sentinel crabs• Physiological adaptations of rock pool species•Seagrass ecology•Impact of mangrove degradation on functionality
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras
Environmental Science Research Topics
• Impact of coral growth forms on biodiversity•Photoacclimation response of reef building corals• Effects of Crown of Thorns starfish on reefs•Effects on corallite morphology of sedimentation•Spatial variation in coral mortality•Environmental impact of seaweed farms•Hydrography & water quality of coastal lagoons in Mexico
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras
Marine Physiology Research Topics
• Effects of noisy soundscapes on settling crabs•Physiology of cephalopods•Temperature preferences of intertidal fishes•Water loss resistance of intertidal crabs•Emergence patterns in mudskipper species in relation to water loss•Resistance of tropical frogs to water loss•Ecophysiology of mangrove corals
Dissertation topics – IndonesiaDissertation topics – Indonesia
Fisheries Research Topics
• Changes in the Kaledupa reef fishery 2007 – 2013• Effects of fish fences on fisheries•Cleaner fish behavioural strategies•A comparison of fish diversity in different Amazonian habitats•Stream fish diversity in cloud forest
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, Peru
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Honduras, Peru
Genetics Research Topics
• Barcoding diversity of Cusuco cloud forest•Landscape genetics of amphibians•Chytrid fungus impacts on frogs•Genetic diversity in tarantulas
Dissertation topics - HondurasDissertation topics - Honduras
Spatial Ecology and GIS Research Topics
• Mapping forest change in Sulawesi•Species distribution modelling•Landscape ecology in Madagascar•Remote sensing and environmental modelling in Madagascar•Developing monitoring protocols for REDD+
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Madagascar
Conservation Management Research Topics
• Resilience of marine dependent communities•Impact of ecotourism growth in the Wakatobi Islands•Forest land tenure in Madagascar•Economic impacts of tourism in southern Madagascar•Natural resource dependent livelihoods in Mandrare Valley•Assessment and valuation of ecosystem service provision in Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Madagascar
Dissertation topics – Indonesia, Madagascar
Dates and Prices
Expeditions run over the summer vacations
Itinerary advice emailed
Prices
2 weeks - $17504 weeks - £3200
6 weeks - $43508 weeks - $5500
Professional fundraising support with information about grant opportunities
Masters field placements available for 6 months from January 2014
PhD grants available
Staff positions
After your Opwall expeditionAfter your Opwall expedition
Feedback from the 2012 expeditionsTremendous, this trip clarified for me what I want to do for my Masters and inspired me to pursue a career in conservation within herpetology. Opwall scientists are amazing role models. Josh Twining, Birmingham University; Research Assistant, Indonesia Expedition
You come for one reason but want to stay for another. I was most profoundly affected by the knowledge I learnt outside the traditional learning environments.Natalia Paine, Harvard University, USA; Research Assistant, Indonesia Expedition
The most amazing six weeks anyone could ask for. Great fun was had on an amazing reserve with outstanding rangers. So much learnt and so many amazing friends made. I cannot recommend this research program enough.
Eleanor Rendells, University of Southampton, UK; Dissertation Student, South Africa Expedition
Brilliant, the guidance of the science staff was invaluable and will likely aid me through the remainder of my degree and any future academic prospects. Robert Martin, Bangor University, UK; Dissertation Student, Madagascar Expedition
20132013
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