My time in the land down under

Post date: Mar 7, 2014 4:45:06 PM

Lab undergrad Sarah Poulin shares her adventures in Australia with us, from a semester abroad last summer:

My summers have always been a time for travel and adventures, my chance to take a break from the busy school year. This past summer I was able to combine both the fun of exploring a new place while also being in a school setting by taking “Ecology and Resource Management of Northeast Australia”, a biology course offered through Wake Forest abroad in Australia, during the summer session.

Bugalow Bay, Australia

When I got to college and started looking into study abroad options, I was unsure if I was ready to delve into an entire semester of being in a completely different country. I knew that I still wanted some sort of abroad experience though, so when I came across the summer Australia course offered by Wake I immediately became interested. The overall experience I had with the program was phenomenal. Just the atmosphere and scenery of Australia was enough to make me enjoy my stay, but being able to learn so much about the ecology and history of the area from both our Wake professor Dr. Browne and local professors from the Australian universities made the trip so much more meaningful.

We were able to go on day hikes with locals and see firsthand the plants and wildlife we learned about in our lectures. One moment that I will never forget was a night hike that we did while staying in the rainforest. Being led through the immense forest in the dark made for a totally different experience than the other day hikes we had already done. Every noise was heard, every animal’s movement in the trees could be followed, and we were even able to spot a few rare owls and birds sleeping that normally would be out of sight during the daylight. Although we had flashlights with is to lead the way for the majority of the hike, at one moment our group stopped on the path, in the middle of the forest, and shut off all our lights and headlamps. For five minutes, we sat there in silence and complete darkness. Suddenly the forest came alive with noises we hadn’t even heard prior on the walk. This showed me how much our inculcation into these natural areas truly affects the organisms that live in them. When we went silent, when we went dark, the true life of the forest could come out to play.

The following day on a nature walk through another part of the Daintree Forest we were led by a tour guide who taught us a lot about the new trend of Eco-tourism. What we hadn’t noticed was that the entire walk we had been doing was on an elevated platform, only the beams were touching the floor of the forest. He explained that this aspect was a new introduction to the idea of tourism, to get people exposed to the beauty of the land with less of a mark left on it. By elevating the platform, there was no ground plants completely covered or cleared in its production. The trees and plants could continue their growth along the forest floor while we were still able to get a true feel for the natural habitat. The act of bringing tourists into the forest, he went on to tell us, was a mechanism to get us to care more for its protection and conservation. With a distinct memory of being in the forest and seeing its beauty, it is proven that later people are more likely to put in effort to protect it. This is why they had developed this particular walkway, to make all of us tourists aware of what it could give us aesthetically in order to care more about the other benefits it could provide us as well.

Later on the trip we spent two days snorkeling out on the of the Great Barrier Reef, a wonder I had not only been learning about in our lectures the weeks before but something I had dreamed of doing my entire life. Learning before a lot about the coral reef system, I was aware of the phenomenon of coral bleaching that was becoming a prominent issue in this environment. Coral bleaching is a result of the death of the mutualistic organism zooxanthallae in the coral that gives it its color and provides it with the necessary nutrients to survive. These small organisms are very sensitive to the environments they reside in, so when things such as temperature and pH levels change they can die and be expelled from the corals. As the oceans have begun to be affected by global climate change, the occurrence of warming ocean temperatures is having a drastic effect on the coral reefs. Coral bleaching is becoming more evident in the global coral reef systems and these beautiful and important habitats are being destroyed at a rapid rate.

Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.

From the moment we entered the water though, I was mesmerized by the vastness of the life and organisms below us. From the brightly colored corals, to the endless amounts of fish, and even a shark spotting, there was so much to explore that even two days of snorkeling couldn’t capture. Although we had just been learning about the downfall of the coral reefs, from this one patch we were in I couldn’t imagine there ever being a problem. What we learned later on the boat though was that the region we had been swimming in was a protected spot, where commercial fishing was not allowed. We did transects in both this region of the GBR and then the following day in a different zone that was not protected to see if we could find some differences in the abundance of both corals and other fish and organisms. Although our own data was hard to find any significant differences with because of lack of replicates, our professors presented us with years of data to show how different these regions are in terms of abundance of all of these organisms. It was evident that both fishing of the animals and damage due to fishing procedures and boats were having a clear effect on the livelihoods and productivity of these coral reef systems. The issues comes down to, how much protection can be done on them? With the influence of multiple stakeholders on this problem, it is nearly impossible to make everyone happy with a decision like this. The fishers need the corals to be open because they provide high rates of fish that provide them with an income. The environmental activists call for protection of these reef systems, for they provide us with not only aesthetic beauty but stability and security of other systems surrounding Australia. Even the tourism industry has a say in this market, as they need both the access to the corals for their income but they also need its protection to ensure for its longevity. These issues were all addressed in our discussions and even we, with little in-depth knowledge of al that goes into it, could not decide on a solution.

I also got the opportunity to talk with the Aboriginal people in the areas where we were about the real effects of events we had read about in our textbooks on their lives today. The suppression they had experienced by the Australian modern society was shocking, as I had never even heard of any of the prejudices that they were up against. These people were so passionate about their heritage and culture, proud to show us Americans their homes and art and truly made us feel welcome into their lives. It was powerful to hear their personal stories, as some of them had a direct tie to the peak times of discrimination against them.

I learned so much about this incredible place in the short month we were there. Between the flora of the Daintree Forest, the vastness of the Outback, and the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, I made so many memories that I will never forget and opened my mind to so many new things. I am so fortunate that Wake gave me the opportunity to take this class in such an amazing place. Whenever asked about my experience with summer classes, I strongly encourage others to take a chance on a program like this one, where you can do something new and exciting with your summer while still furthering your education as well.