Past Expeditions, 2007–2012

Led by Dr. Shannon Bennett, the Academy's Chief of Science and Associate Curator of Microbiology, Academy scientists traveled to Oahu and Hawaii's Big Island to document the distribution of mosquito species that play a role in transmitting infectious disease. Two invasive species—Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito) and Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito)—are vectors of dengue virus. Bennett and her team discovered ecologic factors that seem to inhibit the spread and efficacy of these species.

In collaboration with the Juneau Icefield Research Program and the U.S. Forest Service, this expedition aimed to inventory the plants and beetles of "Paradise Valley." A lush, isolated valley virtually surrounded by ice—yet apparently ice free for hundreds if not thousands of years—Paradise Valley is an ideal spot to examine the differentiation of new species. Academy botanists, entomologists, soil biologists, glaciologists, and geologists pursued different lines of research in an effort to estimate exactly how long the valley has been ice-free.

As part of a National Science Foundation Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) program, Academy researchers participated in a two-month, multi-team expedition to lowland rainforests, cloud forests, and high-elevation environments above the tree line (paramo ecosystems) in search of nearly 500 Colombian species that make up a large branch of the Princess Flower family tree called Miconieae.

Academy scientists collaborated with researchers from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina under the auspices of the SISBIOTA-MAR project to survey fish and corals in Parcel Manuel Luiz, the northernmost known coral reef in Brazil. One key objective was to evaluate the status of the fire coral (Millepora laboreli), a species that was almost completely decimated by bleaching during the 1999 El Niño. Researchers were pleased to find that many of its colonies had recovered in the years since.

Continuing the baseline survey  than began during the 2011 Hearst Philippines Expedition, Academy scientists Dr. Terry Gosliner and Dr. John McCosker visited Raja Ampat, Indonesia, to lay the groundwork for a future, multidisciplinary expedition. The oceanic area encompassing the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia is known as the "Coral Triangle"—an area that's home to the highest known diversity of marine life in the world. The Raja Ampat archipelago is thought to be the richest biodiversity hotspot within the Coral Triangle, making scientific knowledge key to its conservation.

Academy scientists journeyed to the field station of the Nigerian Montane Forest Project to conduct the first in-depth survey of amphibian and reptile fauna on the Mambilla Plateau in eastern Nigeria.

In 2002, Academy scientist Dr. Brian Fisher created "Ant Course"—a public workshop for biologists, researchers, and students that teaches ant taxonomy and field research techniques. In 2012, the Ant Course was held for the first time in Africa at the Makerere University Biological Field Station, located in the heart of Western Uganda's Kibale Forest. 

As members of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA), Academy scientists and graduate students searched for spiders across South Africa from Cape Town to the Zimbabwe border. They found new species of assassin spiders, sheet and lace web builders, giant goblin spiders, and tree trap-door spiders. These data are being used to map the distribution of biodiversity in South Africa, understand the history of biogeography and climate change in Africa, and to study the evolution of predatory behavior in assassin spiders.

Members of the Academy's Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy conducted five weeks of field research in one of the world's oldest and largest deserts—100,000 square miles of vast, open, arid plain. Drs. Jack Dumbacher and Galen Rathbun studied one of the smaller and lesser-known species found there: the elephant shrew—a small mammal who genetics can be used as a proxy to understanding evolution in Africa.