You could say that Scott Mangan began his ecology field work as a child, exploring the forest in his own back yard in rural Wisconsin. As a child, he was always fascinated by the multitude of species interactions that occurred in the small woodlot near his home. His early interests led him to complete undergraduate and master’s degrees in Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. It was there where community ecologist, Dr. Gregory Adler, first introduced him to the extreme diversity of tropical forests of Central America and Southeast Asia. He completed his PhD at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana with Dr. James Bever. For both his Masters and doctoral research, he focused on determining the ecological importance of soil-borne fungi to tropical forest regeneration. Most tropical trees are dependent on the symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. These belowground fungi colonize tree roots and effectively increase the surface area of the tree’s root system. The fungus provides the tree with the ability access scarce nutrients, whereas the tree provides the fungus with sugars.
A Sense of Place: Discovering the Environment of St. Louis - Go exploring in and around St Louis. rivers, prairies, caves and more. You´ll learn about the St. Louis backyard, and your "home" for the next four years. Through field trips, readings, interviews and discussion, you´ll see first-hand what challenges face the environment and the people who live here.
The Tyson Seminar: Grounding Research in Nature - Join Washington University faculty on the Danforth campus and at the Tyson Research Center, the university´s "living landscape for environmental research and education," to explore and reflect on issues of environmental literacy. The topic of the relationship between humans and their environment is compellingly urgent at this time in history.
Focus: Missouri’s Natural Heritage - Missouri´s Natural Heritage is a multidisciplinary two-semester Freshman Focus course. The first semester of the sequence will focus on Missouri geology, climate, archaeology, and native megafauna. This will provide a foundation on which to examine the ecology, restoration, and management of our diverse habitats (prairie, forest, glade, and stream) and the biology of our diverse plant and animal wildlife (arthropods, mollusks, fish, salamanders, lizards, birds, and mammals) in the second semester. In addition to weekly lecture and discussion, students in this class will visit sites across the state during 3 weekend camping trips and a longer camping trip during winter break.