University of Canterbury students are gaining hands-on research experience while contributing to decades-long datasets tracking how native ecosystems recover from fire and other major disturbances.
Field Ecology students venture into the Southern Alps, where they contribute to long-term ecological datasets while building practical fieldwork, data analysis and scientific communication skills.
Dr Sara Kross, from the University’s School of Biological Sciences, says the course gives students a rare opportunity to contribute to real-world ecological research while developing skills that are essential for future science careers.
“It’s a mini kind of career training in a couple of days up in the mountains,” Dr Kross says. “For students who haven’t had much fieldwork experience, it can be truly life changing. A field course like this led me down the path of becoming an ecologist, because it opened my eyes to what it was like to collect data in the real world, where you don’t always know what’s going to happen, and it felt good to contribute to something bigger.”
Students learn practical research skills including plant and animal identification, ecological monitoring, data collection, field safety, data analysis and scientific reporting. They measure trees, assess plant cover, check artificial shelters for native lizards, monitor wētā hotels and set light traps at night to study insects in different habitats.
Based at UC’s Cass field station, near Arthur’s Pass National Park, the course gives students direct experience in alpine and subalpine environments that cannot be replicated in a classroom or online.
“At Woolshed Hill, students identify trees and shrubs across an area affected by a major windfall event and measure the diameter of trees to estimate how much biomass has returned as the forest recovers,” Dr Kross says.
In another exercise, students monitor native lizard populations in areas affected by fire, comparing burned habitat with nearby unburned sites. They check artificial cover objects to see whether grass skinks or geckos are present, record what they find, and use the data to track how lizard communities change as vegetation recovers over time.
The course’s findings are shared with conservation partners and researchers, including Department of Conservation staff, Environment Canterbury and herpetologists, contributing to wider knowledge about alpine ecosystems, fire impacts and post-fire recovery.
Dr Kross says the work is particularly important as fire becomes an increasing challenge in New Zealand.
“The incidence of fire has increased substantially in New Zealand. It’s not naturally a fire-prone system, and most of our plants and animals have not evolved to deal with fires.
“Having the kind of long-term data that we collect from a course like this allows us to look at not only what happens immediately after a fire, but also what happens five to 10 to 20 years after a fire.”
Dr Kross says the course also builds strong human connections. Students live, eat and work together at Cass Field Station, completing research in teams and supporting each other through the physical and intellectual challenges of fieldwork and data analyses.
