Nur Ritter

Unido: 10.ene.2018 Última actividad: 28.mar.2024 iNaturalist

I’m a botanist (by training) but am interested in all the living things that I come across. My doctoral research involved a comparison of vascular plant diversity in Neotropical wetlands with that of temperate wetlands. During this work, I had the amazing good fortune to spend three and a half years in Bolivia. I had 48 study sites throughout the country, ranging in elevation from the lowlands up to ca. 15,000 feet. Unfortunately, this work predated iNaturalist, and all my images from that research are on slides, so …

I’ve been employed as a restoration ecologist since 2001: first with the Endangered Species Recovery Program in California, then with The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire, and since 2016 I’ve been the Stewardship Manager for the Robert B. Gordon Natural Area for Environmental Studies: a 126-acre preserve that’s owned and managed by Pennsylvania’s West Chester University.

Formerly, I possessed ‘botanical blinders’, i.e., I’d be out in the natural world and would only see vascular plants. But through my work in the Gordon, I’ve started noticing many other biotic groups (particularly lots of tiny things!). I started trying to learn the fungi and slime molds of the Gordon in 2017 and beginning in 2019 started working on bryophytes, invertebrates, and lichens. Truth to be told, I haven’t excelled with any of these groups, but I’m still smitten by all of them.

As you would guess, iNaturalist and the iNaturalist community have been a tremendous help with identifications and I really enjoy the ‘digital camaraderie’.

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