El Gullán Scientific Station received foreign students and teachers

From July 15 to August 1, students and professors from the University of Azuay, the University of California Riverside and Wheaton College were conducting different research related to the pollination of plants by birds and insects.

The participants of this project were Wheaton College students - Melissa Jernakoff, Rachel Crafford, Nicole Lussier - and Professor Jessie Knowlton, together with UDA students - David Ordonez, Gabriela Aguilar, Samantha Ríos and Santiago Cárdenas - in charge of the Professors Antonio Crespo and Boris Tinoco, from the School of Biology and Management.

The El Gullán scientific station, located in the community of La Paz, contains a great diversity of flora and fauna that allows this space to be ideal for scientific studies.

“We love the station, it is a very nice place, where we could work and live peacefully. It was nice, because every student in the United States was able to work with a student from the UDA. This was very enriching for universities, ”said Professor Jessie Knowlton and added that two of her students were doing their thesis:

“One of them was working on a study of the interaction in pollination between the native bees of the Gullán station and European bees, and how climate variables influence them. With the collaboration of the University of California Riverside we were able to use genetic analysis to determine the species of the plant that comes from the pollen that each bee we collect comes from. ”

“Another student was doing her thesis on a comparative study on the interaction of the different species of mixed bird flocks in the Gullán Station and the bird flocks in the El Cajas National Park, allowing her to discover her diet, symbiosis and life habits "

The American professor at Wheaton College added that her intention is to return next year because the scientific station lends itself to carry out all kinds of expeditions, due to its great biodiversity.