Dr. Brent Sewall has dedicated his life's work to preserving and protecting biodiversity in all of its forms.

His research, which focuses on understanding critical and emerging threats to biodiversity and developing effective strategies for its conservation, has taken him to caves, forests and grassland communities in eastern North America and tropical sub-Saharan Africa. It has also brought him closer to home at the Ambler Campus as a researcher, professor and now Director of the Temple Ambler Field Station.

"Between teaching courses at the Field Station, conducting research hosted by the Field Station and participating in interdisciplinary studies of forest ecology led by the Field Station, I found myself increasingly invested in what was taking place at the Ambler Campus," said Sewall, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology in the College of Science and Technology, Principal Investigator of Temple's Sewall Lab and the faculty advisor for the Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity major. "It felt like a natural next step to engage in a deeper and more formal way. The director position also offers me the chance to work with our extraordinary Field Station staff to provide exceptional training opportunities for our wonderful student research interns."

Sewall arrived at Temple 15 years ago and has decades of research experience and accomplishments.

"What brought me to Temple initially was the opportunity to provide a quality education for students from all walks of life, while undertaking cutting-edge research," he said.

His ongoing research focuses on protecting hibernating bats from a deadly disease known as white-nose syndrome, conserving rare prairie butterflies threatened by land use change and understanding how invasive spotted lanternflies impact native forests.

According to Sewall, the overarching goals of his research are "to identify factors underpinning the resilience of ecological communities, to understand threats to biodiversity — the incredible variety of life on Earth — and to develop strategies to conserve nature and even recover what has been lost."

This interest arose out of Sewall's early experiences in the outdoors, he said. 

"As a kid, I'd often be outside dawn to dusk mucking around in forests and fields and lakes," he said. "Seeing nature up close makes one curious, and that curiosity led me to seek out answers by studying biology." 

Sewall has been involved with the Temple Ambler Field Station in some capacity almost since its inception.

"In addition to leading its own research initiatives, the Field Station hosts research by other Temple and external researchers," he said. "I started out by leading one of the hosted research projects — our spotted lanternfly research continues today in the Field Station Research Array and throughout the Ambler Campus."

He also has been increasingly involved in educational initiatives at Temple Ambler.

"In partnership with the Field Station, I've also been able to bring a few courses to campus, including a new Field Research in Community Ecology course, and courses in Conservation Biology and Advanced Study in Biology," he said. "I've brought students to campus to use the Field Station as both an outdoor classroom and living laboratory, illustrating scientific concepts and using inquiry-based learning within the meadows, forests, streams and wetlands here, as well as the more built areas of campus and Ambler Arboretum gardens."

All of the outside locations on campus, Sewall said, "became areas where we could experience in a more hands-on manner the concepts we were learning in the classroom."

"The resources available at Temple Ambler bridge the gap between the classroom and the outdoors. The campus is a tremendous resource for an urban university to have. There's just so much that's possible here and you see that in the diversity of programs that are provided through the Ambler Campus," said Sewall, who was also part of an interdisciplinary collaborative project led by the Field Station to investigate forest resilience after disturbance. "The Ambler Campus has also been a wonderful, welcoming host for the Field Station since it was established in 2020. So many of the programs, initiatives and entities here are just so complementary to what we do in the Field Station, from the Landscape Architecture and Horticulture programs to the Greenhouse to the Park Ranger Law Enforcement Academy to the forward-thinking ways in which the facilities are managed."

The Temple Ambler Field Station, Sewall said, is "a tremendous example of interdisciplinary collaboration."

"Interdisciplinarity is an area of increasing emphasis in the University, and the Field Station is really at the forefront of that. We've had students and faculty from five different Colleges that have been involved with the Field Station and engaged in research," he said. "We've had a variety of courses that have attracted students from several different majors. We have helped facilitate cutting-edge research led by Temple faculty and students from across the university, including studies of agrivoltaics, forest ecology, environmental chemistry, ecophysiology, engineering, data science, education, sociology, anthropology and geography, as well as several collaborations involving national or international networks of researchers."

One of the things that the Field Station has done a great job with, Sewall said, "is the development of data streams and resources that support research, allowing researchers to undertake larger, more integrated and more detailed investigations than would be possible by any one researcher or research group alone."

"That's really to the credit of my predecessor Dr. Amy Freestone and of Dr. Mariana Bonfim, who is continuing with the Field Station as Managing Director," he said. "The foundational studies they initiated mean new researchers at Temple Ambler are not starting from scratch but building on an existing foundation of data — everything from soil to weather to trees to seedlings and seed dispersal and much more. It is fertile ground for new questions dreamed up by undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty and we're here to support them in their research initiatives."

One of the many things that makes the Temple Ambler Field Station unique among field stations, Sewall said, is its accessibility.

"When you think about a traditional field station, it is typically in some remote location. But there's an increasing need to study the interface between people and nature," he said. "Further, the Field Station is home to beautiful and fascinating natural areas just footsteps from Philadelphia. The close proximity enables students and researchers to integrate focused field research into busy schedules. You can immerse yourself in nature, test your hypotheses, and still be back in time for class."

It's accessible research that also "allows our students to expand their skill sets and advance their understanding," Sewall said.

"Graduate schools and employers look for evidence of not only classwork but also the technical skills, problem-solving capacity, collaborative abilities and deep understanding of a subject that can be gained through research, all of which the Field Station offers every day," he said.

Students gain advanced training by engaging in hands-on research internships that bring alive the excitement of science through an inquiry-based experience. Student interns work alongside researchers in the field to support ongoing projects and lead investigations of their own with the support of experienced research mentors.

Students interested in becoming a Field Station Research Intern should reach out to the Temple Ambler Field Station at fieldstation@temple.edu to learn about current opportunities.

Learn more about the Temple Ambler Field Station at https://ambler.temple.edu/fieldstation.