Key facts

Overview

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Field techniques for surveying invertebrates is a short, stand-alone training course that is taught entirely online. It can be taken from anywhere in the world and is international in its use of case studies. It will appeal to a variety of students and practitioners in conservation and management who want to improve their ability to conduct invertebrate surveys.

This course can be taken with academic credit (assignment of up to 2,000 words) or without academic credit. This page relates to taking the course WITHOUT CREDIT. For information about taking this course with academic credit, please click here.

Description

Each topic is covered via guided reading, online activities, and discussion forums. All the reading material is embedded into the course, but students additionally have access to the University's electronic resources and online journals, which they will need to use for some of the activities. Participants are expected to study on, and contribute to the course for 10-15 hours per week. Additionally, if the course is being taken for accreditation, participants will have to complete an assessment. There is a suggested calendar of activity that participants can use to assist them in completeing the course within the allocated five weeks.

Minimum IT Requirements

Please note that this course is taken online; to participate in our online courses we recommended a minimum computer specification.

Accreditation

Those wishing to may apply to take the course with accreditation. The University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education offers Credit Accumulatiom and Transfer Scheme (CATS) points for the course. Participants contributing to all the forums and successfully completing the assessment will obtain 10 CATS-equivalent points (FHEQ level 7) which may be counted towards a postgraduate qualification.

Assessment will be based on submission of an assignment, not exceeding 2000 words.

Programme details

The topics covered in the course are:

• Rationale and practicalities of invertebrate surveys
• Before starting - planning and preparation
• Field methods 1 - active methods
• Field methods 2 - interception trapping
• Field methods 3 - responsive trapping
• Sorting, indentification and taxonomic considerations
• Sampling strategies
• Invertebrate habitat description and evaluation
• Invertebrate survey for monitoring
• The end result - specimens, data, analysis, interpretation and reporting

Staff

Dr Jocelyne Hughes

Role: Director

Biography

I am Programme Director in Ecological Survey Techniques. Since 1998, I have been a Departmental Lecturer in the Department...more for Continuing Education responsible for directing a portfolio of environmental courses. Previously I was a college lecturer at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford, a research fellow at University College London, and I have held University Lectureships at the University of Reading (1990-98) and the University of Melbourne, Australia (1987-89).

I am a Trustee of the Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum; member of the Institute of British Geographers and the British Ecological Society; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; member of the Commonwealth Scholars alumni network; organiser of my local Wildlife Conservation Group working with volunteers to carry out wildlife conservation projects.

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)1865 286948
Email: jocelyne.hughes@conted.ox.ac.uk

Teaching

I direct the Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques; previously I directed the two OUDCE Undergraduate Diplomas in Environmental Conservation; and I have organised and developed a variety of short courses for professionals and the general public in the Environmental Sciences and Biology, including the annual Oxford Energy Futures conference.

I teach and supervise on a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Oxford, including the MSc in Water Science, Policy & Management in the School of Geography & the Environment, and the Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice in the Department of Zoology (WildCRU). I am an external examiner at the Open University.

Research interests

My research focuses on the ecology, hydrology and management of wetlands. I have a particular interest in the ecological importance of microflow environments provided by aquatic plants in rivers and wetlands; water and nutrient cycling in wetlands; wetland vegetation dynamics; constructed wetlands.

Currently I carry out field research and monitoring into plant-water relationships at Marley Fen in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire. I have carried out field work in a diversity of wetland habitats in Tunisia, Australia, Antarctica, Guatemala and the UK. I am a research associate at the School of Geography & the Environment at Oxford.

Publications

Selected Publications: Zhong, S & Hughes, JMR 2002 Laboratory flume studies of microflow environments of aquatic plants Hydrological Processes 16, 3279-3289

Zhong, S & Hughes JMR 2001 Turbulent structure of open-channel flow over aquatic plants: a laboratory flume study. In (ed LI Guifen) Proceedings of the 29th International Association of Hydraulic Engineering & Research, Beijing

Hughes, JMR & Heathwaite, AL (eds) 1995 Hydrology & Hydrochemistry of British Wetlands , John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. 486pp

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Dr Roger Key

Role: Tutor

Consultant ecologist and former Senior Invertebrate Ecologist for English Nature and Natural England. Originally from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire,...more most of my career has been in nature conservation, especially of invertebrates, first with the Radnorshire Wildlife Trust and then the Nature Conservancy Council/ English Nature & Natural England for over 25 years, before capitalizing on the educational work that I undertook (from tots’ minibeasts safaris to PhD studentships), to become Senior Education Specialist for Natural England. I’m now retired (early!) and an independent entomological/ environmental education consultant, where my work has included lecturing/advising course content for 11 universities, undertaking habitat evaluation, survey and management advice and continuing children’s invertebrate work. I’m probably best known for my invertebrate photographs (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/roger_key/), which have been published by over 300 organizations in 19 countries. In 2009 & 2011, I undertook 6 week research expeditions to South Georgia and St Helena, surveying for new alien invasive invertebrates, unfortunately being very successful at finding them on both islands. Other than that I’ve done much media natural history with the BBC, presenting on Countryfile, the Countryside Hour etc. and made the Christmas special ‘Auntie’s Bloomers’ with a spectacular trip over an old tree! I was awarded the Royal Entomological Society’s Marsh Award for a lifetime’s achievement in invertebrate conservation in 2010. close

Dr Ben Woodcock

Role: Tutor

Dr Ben Woodcock currently works as an Ecological Entomologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK. His research focuses on the...more way we manage the modern agricultural environment to maintain not only food production, but to support wider biodiversity in the form of invertebrates, plants and birds. He has worked extensively in both arable and grassland systems, with his research focussing specifically on the interaction between plants and invertebrates. Much of his research has considered approaches to recreating either degraded or destroyed grasslands, including floodplain meadows, hay meadows and chalk grasslands. Ben has over 65 articles either in press or published. His work has involved collaboration with a suite of government and non government organisations, including Defra, Syngenta, RSPB, BTO, as well as many UK based universities, including Oxford University and Imperial College, London close

Certification

If participants apply to take the course without accreditation and successfully complete the course, they will receive a Certificate of Attendance. In order to successfully complete the course participants must actively contribute to all the discussion forums.

Teaching methods

The course is taken entirely online but is tutor-led by an experienced invertebrate ecologist.

Scholarships

Details of funding opportunities, including grants, bursaries, loans, scholarships and benefit information are available on our financial assistance page.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Non-accredited course fee: £375.00

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Programmes including this module

This module can be studied as part of these programmes:

• Ecological survey techniques