Ecological Society of America

Chapter Directory > University of Puerto Rico - Bayamón

"Leading Initiatives for Future Ecologists (LIFE)" » Bayamón, Puerto Rico

The students at the University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón want to promote ecology as an area of interest to the student body and larger island community. Our goals include creating awareness of the status of various ecosystems composing Puerto Rico and promoting the conservation of our island's biological resources.

Plans for 2007-2008

• We are planning to increase the number of student research proposals as well as student interest in the study of ecology.
• We want to continue with this exciting way of involving people into ecology by continuing the BioBlitz activity.

2006-2007 Activities

• We started the year with an initiation ceremony of LIFE celebrated on October 2006.
• In November, we had an Orienteering course in preparation for field trips.
• In March 2007 we celebrated a BioBlitz in which we managed to identify, with the help of scientists, 252 species. To us this was a totally new way of presenting the science of ecology to others students from different faculties.
• Also in March, we started a research project about the population dynamics of hermit crabs in Puerto Rico.
• We invited an expert with a specialty in biology (or ecology) to present a seminar of their research.
• We had seminars about the diversity of Collembola, about the National Estuarine Research Reserve fellowship opportunities, evolution of limbs, coral reefs in Puerto Rico, reptiles in Mona Island, arthropods in the Guánica Dry Forest, among others.
• To fund our activities, we (sold pizza, burritos and other food during our many fundraising activities.