estamos perdidos
Science update, anyone?
After 6 weeks of general uselessness, I've finally designed my OWN project. I know I must be a huge science nerd, because I've been really excited to set everything up. I have some awesome resources here. The plants in the family I am studying (CYCLANTHACEAE) are especially interesting because there are epiphytic, hemiepiphytic, 'climbing,' and terrestrial species all within the family. In addition there are individuals within two of the terrestrial species that also climb and appear to be genuine hemi-epiphytes. So within the family and even within species I have the opportunity to look at different environmental factors that might influence the succress of different growth strategies. The ecology of these plants, although many make a huge biomass contribution in the understory, is virtually un-studied. There have only been systematics and identifiation studies done on the cyclanths in Costa Rica. So I'm going to be doing the FIRST ecological investigations. Which i find really exciting, but I'm a nerd. Although I'm going to have my hands much more full than I thought. My boss has decided that he really likes my experimental design and wants me to try to sample the aroids and understory monocots in addition. That is basically EVERY PLANT except iding trees to species. Fabulous. So I guess I'm flattered? I haven't decided yet.
There is an awesome GIS lab here as well, so I've been able to utilize the GIS to set up a truely random sampling within 4 different soil types (alluvial, residual, swapy, and stream associated) within the primary forest. I can look for patterns in distribution of the 18 cyclanth species here with respect to soil type and topography. And I got to make a bunch of cool graphs! hooray for GIS. La Selva is also unique in that it has a grid system set up throughout the forest. Metal tubes with a lat and long numbering are set every 50 by 100 meters. So all I need to do is find my randomly selected tube that is the corner marker for my plots. Exciting, isn't it? I can tell y'all must be riveted.
Today I got to go out in the field to try and sample my first alluvial plot. With my map, compass, and grid, you wouldn't think it would be so hard to find my markers. HAH! We found the first 2 markers (only 50 meters apart) but still had 2 more (100m) to go, when my assistant and I somehow lost them completely. I think it was when we had to scale down the steep muddy hill, dodge around the 3 tree falls, and then cross the river. Somewhere in there. DUDE, who would have thought it would be this hard to find a spot only 250 meters off the trail? The vegetation is incredibly dense! These poles are marked with bright orange flagging tape and we still had trouble. One we found had been sunk so far into the ground only 6 inches were above the mud (probably the result of an old tree fall) and some others are missing entirely. We ended up tromping for almost 3 hours through the forest, before we hacked across to one of the other trails and called it a day. But it was great fun slipping around and getting muddy and slightly lost. Just not so great for getting my research done in a timely manner. I'm hoping to head out this weekend and try again to find it. Vamos a ver.
After 6 weeks of general uselessness, I've finally designed my OWN project. I know I must be a huge science nerd, because I've been really excited to set everything up. I have some awesome resources here. The plants in the family I am studying (CYCLANTHACEAE) are especially interesting because there are epiphytic, hemiepiphytic, 'climbing,' and terrestrial species all within the family. In addition there are individuals within two of the terrestrial species that also climb and appear to be genuine hemi-epiphytes. So within the family and even within species I have the opportunity to look at different environmental factors that might influence the succress of different growth strategies. The ecology of these plants, although many make a huge biomass contribution in the understory, is virtually un-studied. There have only been systematics and identifiation studies done on the cyclanths in Costa Rica. So I'm going to be doing the FIRST ecological investigations. Which i find really exciting, but I'm a nerd. Although I'm going to have my hands much more full than I thought. My boss has decided that he really likes my experimental design and wants me to try to sample the aroids and understory monocots in addition. That is basically EVERY PLANT except iding trees to species. Fabulous. So I guess I'm flattered? I haven't decided yet.
There is an awesome GIS lab here as well, so I've been able to utilize the GIS to set up a truely random sampling within 4 different soil types (alluvial, residual, swapy, and stream associated) within the primary forest. I can look for patterns in distribution of the 18 cyclanth species here with respect to soil type and topography. And I got to make a bunch of cool graphs! hooray for GIS. La Selva is also unique in that it has a grid system set up throughout the forest. Metal tubes with a lat and long numbering are set every 50 by 100 meters. So all I need to do is find my randomly selected tube that is the corner marker for my plots. Exciting, isn't it? I can tell y'all must be riveted.
Today I got to go out in the field to try and sample my first alluvial plot. With my map, compass, and grid, you wouldn't think it would be so hard to find my markers. HAH! We found the first 2 markers (only 50 meters apart) but still had 2 more (100m) to go, when my assistant and I somehow lost them completely. I think it was when we had to scale down the steep muddy hill, dodge around the 3 tree falls, and then cross the river. Somewhere in there. DUDE, who would have thought it would be this hard to find a spot only 250 meters off the trail? The vegetation is incredibly dense! These poles are marked with bright orange flagging tape and we still had trouble. One we found had been sunk so far into the ground only 6 inches were above the mud (probably the result of an old tree fall) and some others are missing entirely. We ended up tromping for almost 3 hours through the forest, before we hacked across to one of the other trails and called it a day. But it was great fun slipping around and getting muddy and slightly lost. Just not so great for getting my research done in a timely manner. I'm hoping to head out this weekend and try again to find it. Vamos a ver.
posted by erin at 7:17 PM
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