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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

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