Field Notes

	Through a monkey's eyes U of C primatologist Amanda Melin is spending five months studying capuchin monkeys in the tropical forests of Santa Rosa National Park in Costa Rica. She is investigating whether the monkeys' colour-blindness has any bearing on their selection of food. >> more Amanda Melin, 26, is completing her PhD in Biological Anthropology in the University of Calgary's Department of Anthropology. As a field researcher, Melin has to see the world through a monkey's eyes, as she studies the effect of colour vision on the foraging behavior of capuchin monkeys. All males and some female capuchins are colour blind, and Melin wants to find out if deficiency of colour vision has any bearing on their food selection. Melin is part of Alberta's SCIberMENTOR program, which provides mentorship opportunities for girls in science and engineering. She is keeping a weekly blog of her experiences on the SCIberMENTOR website.
	To the Canadian Arctic Environmental Science student Ofelia Rempillo is part of a team of researchers doing climate change fieldwork this fall aboard the Canadian Coast Guard's "floating science lab" - the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. >> more Profile: I came from the Philippines to pursue graduate studies in the U of C’s department of Physics and Astronomy as a member of the Atmospheric Science and Environmental Physics Research Division of the Isotope Science Laboratory. My study involves determining the changes in the emission of sulfur compounds in the atmosphere over the changing Arctic environment. In the Fall of 2007, my research takes me to the Canadian Arctic on board the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen to measure Dimethyl Sulphide, sulphur dioxide and sulphate emissions. I will be accompanied by my supervisor, Dr. Ann-Lise Norman and fellow graduate student Michelle Seguin.
	Orchids in South Africa U of C PhD student Nina Hobbhahn is spending eight months studying the reproductive biology of orchids in the Drakensberg Mountains near Cape Town. >> more Profile: I am an International student from Germany and have been in Canada since January, 2006, enrolled in a PhD program in plant reproductive ecology with Dr. Lawrence D. Harder in the U of C’s Dept. of Biological Sciences. I completed my Master’s thesis from the University of Rostock, Germany, on the pollination biology of several bladderwort species in the Indian Western Ghats. I am also an Alberta Ingenuity Scholarship recipient. I will be comparing the pollination outcomes of more than a dozen species of rewarding and rewardless wild Disa orchids. I will be spending much of my time observing pollination taking place and following bees, butterflies and other pollinators as they travel from flower to flower. It’s very intensive fieldwork that involves a lot of dashing, running and stumbling, while trying not to crush the flowers I’m studying!