Field biology encompasses many topics and sub-diciplines of biology. It is a bit of a catch all that many people don't realize is an actual profession (or part of one anyway). I didn't really know it existed until I started college. As a first year, I got involved in research that involved fieldwork, and I was hooked. The following summer, funding became available to pay for assistance in the field. This amazed me; I could not only go out to a stream and look for salamanders with the purpose of learning more about them, I got paid to do this!?! This opened my eyes to the wonders of field biology.
The idea behind starting this blog is to share my experiences as a field biologist and to increase awareness about field biology (more generally) and salamanders (my study animals). I was inspired to start this blog by a number of incidental encounters with cool creatures and plants while doing fieldwork for various projects.
I am currently a PhD student and amphibian ecologist/salamander biologist/herpetologist/field biologist (take your pick) at the University of Georgia. This year I am starting fieldwork for a few projects in the southern Appalachian mountains. There are many challenges to conducting fieldwork on nocturnal, cryptic species, but there are an abundance of rewards as well.
I hope you (the reader) enjoy reading about these encounters and it inspires you to get outside :)
If any fellow field biologists would like to share some of their fun or exciting field stories, contact me! It would be great to have more perspectives. *Note: only overall positive stories please. I know sometimes things go wrong in fieldwork, but that is not the purpose of this blog.* Thanks!
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