Italy field course

Explore alpine ecosystems and study organisms in their natural environment at Field Station Baita Torino.

This course unit offers second-year students a challenging framework to explore the biological dynamics within different alpine ecosystems. These include mountain scrubland, wet forests, dolines, high pastures, meadows, scree, and moraines.

The two-week residential, located in the Italian Carnic Alps, provides a unique opportunity for you to immerse yourself in exciting research.

You will learn a variety of sampling methods to measure habitat variables and study and identify organisms found in forest and mountain areas, including plants, animal, fungi and lichens.

You will be taught how to quantify ecological characteristics. You will also learn how to use taxonomic keys for identification, with particular focus on comparing and contrasting the different habitats studied.

You are also encouraged to formulate working hypotheses based on ecological observation. You will transition from being relatively passive consumers of scientific information to active and competent researchers of new facts.

By the end of the course, you will have acquired a degree of self-sufficiency and independence in your understanding of how to plan and carry out a scientific investigation.