This joint award from the Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Office of International Science and Engineering supports the continuation of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana. This REU site program focuses on ecology, biodiversity and conservation biology in the tropics. Students from US universities will spend six weeks at UCC during the summer working on defined research projects under the mentorship of Ghanaian scientists. A total of twelve students will participate in the program during this award period (2007-2010). This program has two main research foci: i) bioprospecting for potentially useful plants and ii) ecological and biodiversity studies. Participants will design experiments in collaboration with their mentors, collect and analyze their data, and present their results in Ghana. Upon their return to the US, students will make presentations at regional and national meetings. Field sites will include the Kakum National Forest and Elmina beach. Participants will acquire skills in ethnobotany, tropical biology, aquaculture, ecology, entomology, taxonomy and analytical chemistry. They will be expected to publish their results in peer-reviewed journals. The ecological studies will yield new and valuable information on tropical species of insects and plants that may not have been described in the literature yet. Data gathered in the project will also contribute towards an inventory of potentially endangered species and conservation studies as a whole. Participants will have an invaluable cross-cultural experience. More information is available at www.honors.ufl.edu/ucc/ or by contacting Daniel Wubah at dawubah@ufl.edu.
This award supported the continuation of the international Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site program at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana that focuses on ecology, ethnobotany, biodiversity and conservation and environmental biology in the tropics. The project took place from the summer of 2007 through 2010. Eighteen students from US universities spent eight weeks at UCC during the summer working on defined research projects under the mentorship of Ghanaian scientists and faculty members. Students were selected based on their academic record and motivation to attend graduate school. The home institution of the students include Baylor University, James Madison University, Marshall University, Virginia Tech, University of the Atlantic, University of Florida, and University of New Mexico. This program had two main research foci: i) bioprospecting for potentially useful plants and ii) ecological and biodiversity studies. Students designed experiments in collaboration with their mentors, collected and analyzed their data, and presented their results in Ghana. They conducted full time research during the weekdays and attended seminars and group discussions during the evenings. Over the weekends, they went on field trips to cultural and historic sites such as the Cape Coast castle, Elmina Castle, Bonwire in the Ashanti Region and the Mole game reserve. Field sites that they visited include the Kakum National forest, rocky beaches of Elmina and the Kakum estuary. Upon their return to the US, students made presentations at regional and national meetings. Participants acquired skills in ethnobotany, tropical biology, aquaculture, ecology, entomology, taxonomy and analytical chemistry. The ecological studies yielded valuable information on tropical species of insects and plants that were not previously described in the literature. Data gathered in the project will also contribute towards an inventory of potentially endangered species and conservation studies. Participants had an invaluable cross-cultural experience. Examples of the scientific articles published by the students are: Mayo, C., K. Yankson, D. A. Wubah and J. A. Wubah. Physicochemical dynamics and bottom sediment characteristics of the Sweek-Kakum estuary in Cape Coast, Ghans Submitted to Journal of Young Investigators. Sutton, A. K. Yankson, and D. A. Wubah. The effect of salinity on filtration of the West African mangrove oyster, Crassostrea tulipa. Submitted to Journal of Young Investigators Adjaye-Gbewonyo, D., Quaye E. C. and Wubah, D. A. 2010. Effects of extracts of Piper guineense seeds on insect pest damage to cowpea plants. Journal of Young Investigators. 20 (1).(www.jyi.org/research/re.php?id=3654) Branoff, B., Yankson, K. and Wubah, D. A. 2009. Seaweeds and associated invertebrates from Iture rocky beach in Ghana. Journal of Young Investigators. 19 (9) (www.jyi.org/research/re.php?id=1765) More information is available at www.undergraduate.vt.edu/GhanaREU/
