Organisms that inhabit northern climes face the incessant challenges of dramatic seasonal changes, intense cold, limited energy resources, and long-term snow and ice cover. These factors have provided selection pressure for a remarkable series of adaptations. Winter Ecology examines the physiological, anatomical, and behavioral adaptations of plants and animals to winter in the North. A comprehensive winter course, Winter Ecology also includes discussion and practical application of winter survival skills, avalanche hazard evaluation, and tracking methods. Winter Ecology consists of 50 hours of lecture time as well as complementary field experience.
Students remember it as rigorous, demanding, and immensely rewarding.
You can't help but retain the stuff. All participants come out of the course with a great appreciation for the winter world and the organisms that have learned to live in it. Formation of snow, snow metamorphism, and the subnivean environment. Freezing resistance and winter hardiness of plants. Winter identification of Vermont's flora.