Tag Archives: nature

Research and Conservation in Samos, Greece

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I spent my summer doing Research and Conservation in Samos, Greece for the Archipelagos Marine and Conservation Institute. I had been placed on the terrestrial team, focusing on pollinators and plants. While I was there I conducted research surveys on pollinator abundance and species diversity in urban areas as well as outside of urban areas. I also created an herbarium for the Institution, which entailed going out on surveys and collecting various plant species and preserving them. This project included adding onto a plant field guide for the Island of Samos. Before starting my research, I had to memorize all the pollinator species on the island and their roles in pollination for a test. There are over 10 different bee species and 15 species of butterflies and moths on the island.

My first day on the internship site was a lot to take in, there were about 90 interns to meet from all around the world. About 20 other interns had arrived with me so I did not have to feel alone and out of the loop. Most of the other interns were from the Netherlands, France, the UK, and America. My daily routine begins with waking up early and attending the morning meeting with all the interns and supervisors. These meetings cover updates about the institute, team projects, and any issues—such as those related to our living arrangements. After the meeting, if there are no scheduled surveys, I focus on research for my project.  I especially enjoy the days when I go out on surveys. We hike nearly six miles every other day, identifying pollinators and the flowers they’re attracted to. After surveys, we have lunch from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. The workday ends at 5:00 PM, and afterward, many interns head straight to the beach to cool off with a swim in the hot weather. My language skills are slowly developing—I have the basics down, like “please” and “thank you.” I’ve been using a small pocket dictionary religiously to keep up with practice. Since none of the food is labeled in English, it’s been a fun way to practice reading the alphabet and learning how words are pronounced.

My global theme is resources and sustainability, with the challenge of how we can protect understudied biodiversity and conserve ecosystems. This experience has deepened my understanding of both my GLI theme and challenge by highlighting the difficulties involved in researching understudied biodiversity, such as pollinators and jackals. Since this is primarily a marine institute, the terrestrial research team is still being developed, which means there has been limited research on the island’s terrestrial wildlife. I learned what it’s like to contribute to a small dataset and to collect plant species in order to support the growth and impact of the research institution.

My impression of Greece hasn’t changed much—I came in knowing it would be rich in history, and it has absolutely lived up to that expectation. I visited the Archaeological Museum of Pythagoreion, which showcases the cultural evolution of the ancient city of Samos. There, I saw ancient artifacts such as pottery, coins, and basic stone tools like cups and lamps. One exhibit that stood out included burial urns used for children and other ancient graves. That surprised me, as I’ve always understood burial sites to be places typically left undisturbed for historical reasons. What did surprise me, however, was the number of rundown buildings. I learned that many people purchase property and begin building homes but are unable to complete them due to financial limitations. One of the things I truly admired was the strong sense of collectivism. In Greece, people tend to have close-knit relationships—there’s a strong focus on community and togetherness, rather than individualism. It’s all about “us.” The steps I took to ensure that I became an asset to the organization included, but were not limited to, researching Archipelagos Marine Institute—its mission, values, and the types of projects currently underway. I also researched the island itself and its local wildlife, including pollinators, golden jackals, and seagrass ecosystems.

Reconstructing Past Climates in Ireland

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Sláinte! My name is Sophia Mahoney, and I am a junior majoring in Earth, Water and Climate Sciences, with a minor in Wilderness Studies. For my Beyond the Classroom Experience, I spent part of my sophomore year studying at the University of College Cork (UCC), in southern Ireland. My global theme is Resources and Sustainability, which I was able to study in a past ecological context. Rather than look at resources and sustainability from a current perspective, I took classes focused on paleoecology, palynology and paleoclimatology. Here I studied the ecology and past abundance of vegetative species across Ireland, past climatic events and how they impacted resources without human influence, and how those resources were then managed as human settlers arrived. We looked at vegetative composition dating back to the last glacial maximum, the distribution of trees in comparison to shrubs and grasses, and how that composition shifted as human settlements spread. By studying how these shifts occurred in the past, we gained insight into how resource management could progress and be managed in the present.

A live sample from Irish peat, when doing pollen count analysis for historic native vegetation composition in the area. Two betula (birch) grains are visible.

In addition to the courses I took at UCC, I spent a lot of my time traveling and hiking, to see less traveled parts of the country. One of the most interesting things for me was learning what was considered to be native, or “wild”, from an environmental standpoint. I had completed my Wilderness Studies minor the semester before, which focused on wildland management in the States. In the case of Ireland, the strawberry tree is considered both an introduced species and a native one due to how long it has existed on the island. It is believed to have been brought over about 4,000 years ago from the Iberian Peninsula. Likewise, hazel is considered a wild native plant, but is nowadays more commonly found almost exclusively in hedgerows, as a large amount of it was harvested by early settlers. Ireland is called the Emerald Isle, a name earned from its extensive coverage of grass fields. Though pre-settlement Ireland was around 80% covered by native trees and woodland, now less than 1% of the island is wooded, most of which is a non-native species that have been planted for timber production.

Over 70% of the country of Ireland is now farmland; you can see cleared farmland bordered on the upper left by homogeneous conifer plantations.

I spent half of my spring break backpacking through the Scottish Highlands in Cairngorm National Park, considered to be one of the last wild places in the British Isles. Everywhere I turned, I saw that the park had been stripped and hunted of most of its natural resources, from the trees that were removed during the world wars, to the native deer populations hunted for sport by local communities and nobility alike. In both cases, it allowed me to take a step back and look at how historic resource removal became so commonplace that now that these places lack most of their resources, it is considered normal, wild, and beautiful. What does this mean for other places natural resource extraction? Is the reasoning that something else will replace it, like in the case of Irish woodlands to farm land, an acceptable answer? These are some questions that I wish to explore further.

Hiking through a few remaining trees along the valley floor, with many smaller saplings starting to become established, you can see the bare hills in the background. Historically this would have all been forested by the tall trees on our left.

Looking down on the valley where a few lone trees can be spotted along the valley floor that have started to regenerate following the mass logging of the world wars and over consumption of natural resources. Historically, woodlands would have spanned up the majority of the hillside before the conditions would have become too hostile.

These questions and my learnings are building blocks of the whole of my education that I will carry with me forever. As I think back on the time I spent in Ireland, I think back on everything I experienced, all the people I met, and all the things I learned, and how I will carry every moment of it forward with me.