Field trip for community ecology course, BI 2034 for this year was planned at Kongsvoll, south of Trondheim. It lies between Oslo and Trondheim and located in the Drivdalen valley in the municipality of Oppdal in Sør-Trøndelag county.
It was four days trip where students from Bachelor’s degree get information on how to conduct research and also collect some field level data themselves that can be used for writing a report. This is part of the course. Bente was already in Kongsvoll whereas Singrid and I drove in the morning from department at 8:00 AM on 23rd of August 2011. It took us nearly 3 hours to reach there. On the way we stopped at shopping centre to buy food and others because we are supposed to buy at least breakfast and other foods ourselves. The university owns some cabins there and the University Museum has a nice botanical garden in Kongsvoll. When we reached there some students were already in the research station. Some of them took train while others reached with their own car.
We were sleeping in a guest house near by the highway whereas students were living in the cabins near by train station.
After lunch, they had lecture. Bente took some lectures on the course and at the evening I have to take lecture on methods on community ecology and some statistical methods but because Bente took longer time for her lecture, we decided to postpone my lecture for morning. The students selected the possible research themes that they will produce report on and we discussed how they are supposed to collect data from the field. This was there first time that they are collecting data for producing reports themselves and they are using some basic analysis tools for their data. On the same day, the person taking care of the botanical garden, took us to the garden and gave information on environmental condition of the area and flora they have in the garden. Asst. Prof. Jenny from Department of Biology and her colleagues who were there for research meeting also joined the trip to botanical garden. Later in the evening, Dagmar from NINA gave lecture on what she is doing in Døvre Mountain.
The next day we went out to collect information and sampling. I spent few hours out in the field and returned back to the research station because I have to read some literatures from the PhD course in Abisko which is scheduled from 2nd to 8th September 2011. The same day, Thor Harald joined for his lecture. After students arrived from field, they worked on their samples. They have to clip out this years production from the collected samples because the research projects are based on primary production.
The day Thor Harald and Bente had lectures on some topics and students worked in lab processing their samples. The next day till 11:00, the students worked in lab, processing their samples. After they finished processing, all the samples were kept in the van which we were driving.
On the third day, Sigrid and I drove to Døvre Mountain to see Musk Ox. It is thought that Musk Ox was able to survive the last ice age by finding ice free areas away from prehistoric people. As I talked to Dagmar that I have not seen those animals before, se suggested me to go to Døvre Mountain to see those animals. The third day she ringed Sigrid and told that she noticed some Musk Ox near by the river on the way to Døvre Mountain from Kongsvoll. Sigrid and I drove to that area. We saw few Musk Ox on the way but I wanted to see them from closer. So, we drove to Døvre Mountain where we saw some individuals. On the way we meet one photographer from Netherlands who took some close-up pictures of Musk Ox. This is the first time I saw those rare animals. We returned back to Trondheim on 26th August at 12:15.
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