I guess I should tell you first about the second faculty led project I participated in, which involved some flashbacks to this past summer with the Echinacea project in Minnesota. Kathleen Kay, a pollination and evolutionary biologist from UC Santa Cruz (who also, crazily enough, has a friend of Hart's and mine from Grinnell working as a lab assistant right now), set up a project for us involving observing the effects of floral display (like petals) and pollinator reward (in this case pollen) on pollinator visitation rates at a flowering vine. The project was actually originally supposed to be studying the effects on pollinators of a florivorous carpenter bee that is supposed to cut windows out of the flowers to get some nectar from the flower, while not even pollinating the flowers. However, in the first day students went out there, nobody was able to see the carpenters florivorifying the vine, so we were forced to change our objectives a bit. So goes science.
A lot of the students really disliked sitting for several hours observing flowers and recording pollinator visits, but I have experience with tolerating the tedium, and actually enjoyed the day. I do like flowers, and the systems involved, in which one organism is utterly reliant upon another for sexual reproduction, which is equivalent to your very existence on an evolutionary timescale, are fascinating.
And now, we're planning out our first independent projects, for which we have been allotted four days of data collection, beginning the day after tomorrow. I began considering a project relating to scorpions, either in their cannibalistic behavior or in the microclimates surrounding their refuges. But that idea sort of faded, and I began working with a couple other guys to develop some ideas. They originally were aiming for a crocodile project, probably involving playing recorded sounds in the marsh and gauging croc reactions. But that wasn't really feasible/interesting, and we hit upon a project with anoles (small lizards) abundant in this area. We wanted to measure the density of anoles in relation to the trails and roads, to examine the edge effects created by such paths. This seemed promising, but we actually switched one more time! I think the anole project would've been difficult to work out anyways, because we had to visually sample the anole density, and somehow eliminate the bias created by increased visibility on a trail or road because of less litter cover and other cover.
Our final idea is actually building upon the pollinator behavior ideas we began with the faculty led project. Now, we're testing the effects of flower height and local flower density on the pollinator visitation rates on the same flowering vine. Should work well. Alright, I need to go work on our presentation of the project idea. See you all later.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
a great day
Well, I could explain some of the things I've done in the past days here at Palo Verde, but to hear about that it would really be much better for you to visit Hart's blog, which I will link again. More productively, I'll tell you about my day so far, which has been pretty great.
We began working on our first faculty-led projects today, the first two of five total that will occur throughout the semester. The two projects at Palo Verde are about the effects of group size on howler monkey behavior, and the pollination biology of a flower and it's interactions with a couple insects. Today I worked with the howler monkeys, which means waking up at 4:45am to get out and find a troop of howlers (by their howls). We did this with some difficulty, but ended up finding them by 6:30. On the way, some of us got to see some owls up close, which was cool.
Then we proceeded to observe their behavior, which consists of observing individual monkeys for fifteen minutes, taking point observations of its activity once a minute, such as traveling, foraging, eating, resting, or being vigilant (watching for predators). This was quite a bit of fun, I thought, despite the crick in my neck and back pain. Here's one of the monkeys I observed.
While we followed the troop of monkeys (until 11), we got some great wildlife viewing in as well. There was an anteater species, which isn't common, and had huge claws. Also, a yellow naped parrot, another uncommon species. We had a good snake encounter, a good sized brown one which I don't know the name for. On top of the owls, a pretty good list.
Then, for lunch there was my first mango of the trip (delicious), and a big pile of beets, accompanied, of course, by my now-customary rice, black beans, and syrup mixture. After lunch: beet-induced naptime, also known as a beet coma.
Two days ago, on our day off, Hart and I hiked around, part of the time with one of our friends from the program. Crown jewel: from a high point we saw a pair of scarlet macaws zoom over the forest. Unmistakable, beautiful, and what I've been told is the only pair of scarlets in this park. Awesome. Here's pictures of our day-to-day schedule, and from the same day off, here's a panorama from a viewpoint (La Roca), and Hart and I from the same viewpoint. My parents will be excited about having another picture of Hart and I. You're welcome!
We began working on our first faculty-led projects today, the first two of five total that will occur throughout the semester. The two projects at Palo Verde are about the effects of group size on howler monkey behavior, and the pollination biology of a flower and it's interactions with a couple insects. Today I worked with the howler monkeys, which means waking up at 4:45am to get out and find a troop of howlers (by their howls). We did this with some difficulty, but ended up finding them by 6:30. On the way, some of us got to see some owls up close, which was cool.
Then we proceeded to observe their behavior, which consists of observing individual monkeys for fifteen minutes, taking point observations of its activity once a minute, such as traveling, foraging, eating, resting, or being vigilant (watching for predators). This was quite a bit of fun, I thought, despite the crick in my neck and back pain. Here's one of the monkeys I observed.
While we followed the troop of monkeys (until 11), we got some great wildlife viewing in as well. There was an anteater species, which isn't common, and had huge claws. Also, a yellow naped parrot, another uncommon species. We had a good snake encounter, a good sized brown one which I don't know the name for. On top of the owls, a pretty good list.
Then, for lunch there was my first mango of the trip (delicious), and a big pile of beets, accompanied, of course, by my now-customary rice, black beans, and syrup mixture. After lunch: beet-induced naptime, also known as a beet coma.
Two days ago, on our day off, Hart and I hiked around, part of the time with one of our friends from the program. Crown jewel: from a high point we saw a pair of scarlet macaws zoom over the forest. Unmistakable, beautiful, and what I've been told is the only pair of scarlets in this park. Awesome. Here's pictures of our day-to-day schedule, and from the same day off, here's a panorama from a viewpoint (La Roca), and Hart and I from the same viewpoint. My parents will be excited about having another picture of Hart and I. You're welcome!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Too much to explain?
Looking back, I'm not sure I can completely cover everything I should tell you about from the past days. Here's some of what I've got:
Cuerici was a much like a haven, I would say. From the heat, from the internet, from bugs. It's a private reserve that was established by one campesino (Don Carlos) from the area and several (probably wealthy) Ticos from San Jose and other cities. They bought land up in the mountains, combined with the old land of Don Carlos' family. It's now used only for conservation and for education, both of local schoolchildren and college students. Don Carlos also still runs a trout farm there, along with some blackberries, the primary crop of the area. I really liked the montane oak forest around it, and running and hiking the one loop trail. Here's a picture of the sunrise from a spot ten minutes up the road leading to the reserve, looking out towards the Pacific, which is normally visible when not covered in clouds.
I've already seen some great things here at Palo Verde. We've watched howler and white-faced monkeys, huge iguanas, the biggest cockroach I've ever seen, interesting ant acacias, walked out into the wetlands to look at storks and crocodiles, and seen this amazing sunset from a lookout up on a cliff. My pictures were stitched together into this panorama by a program.
For more descriptions and such, check out Hart's blog, who uses better words than I. Tomorrow, we visit sugar cane and rice fields. Also, it is my birthday, the third day in a row that we will have a birthday in the program. Cake every day!
Cuerici was a much like a haven, I would say. From the heat, from the internet, from bugs. It's a private reserve that was established by one campesino (Don Carlos) from the area and several (probably wealthy) Ticos from San Jose and other cities. They bought land up in the mountains, combined with the old land of Don Carlos' family. It's now used only for conservation and for education, both of local schoolchildren and college students. Don Carlos also still runs a trout farm there, along with some blackberries, the primary crop of the area. I really liked the montane oak forest around it, and running and hiking the one loop trail. Here's a picture of the sunrise from a spot ten minutes up the road leading to the reserve, looking out towards the Pacific, which is normally visible when not covered in clouds.
I've already seen some great things here at Palo Verde. We've watched howler and white-faced monkeys, huge iguanas, the biggest cockroach I've ever seen, interesting ant acacias, walked out into the wetlands to look at storks and crocodiles, and seen this amazing sunset from a lookout up on a cliff. My pictures were stitched together into this panorama by a program.
For more descriptions and such, check out Hart's blog, who uses better words than I. Tomorrow, we visit sugar cane and rice fields. Also, it is my birthday, the third day in a row that we will have a birthday in the program. Cake every day!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Back from Mtns
So, a long hiatus from internet was very enjoyable, although that's also related to the wonderful place that is Cuerici Biological Reserve. Montane oak forest, overlooking a beautiful valley, viewpoints from which you can see the Osa Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. Many cool things, I will post pictures when I get the chance, along with some details about what we did.
Now, we're at Palo Verde, both a national park and an OTS station, containing wetlands and very rare tropical dry forest. It's hot and dry, and luckily the wind keeps the bugs away so far. But beautiful as well. We'll be here for three more weeks, and do our first independent projects. Now, I have to do some reading and go to bed. The internet connection is monumentally slow, so I'm going to upload some pictures later when everyone else isn't using it at the same time.
Now, we're at Palo Verde, both a national park and an OTS station, containing wetlands and very rare tropical dry forest. It's hot and dry, and luckily the wind keeps the bugs away so far. But beautiful as well. We'll be here for three more weeks, and do our first independent projects. Now, I have to do some reading and go to bed. The internet connection is monumentally slow, so I'm going to upload some pictures later when everyone else isn't using it at the same time.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Last Days
This is our last night at Las Cruces, for tomorrow we head to Cuerici, a remote site in the mountains, for five days. I'll tell you all about that when we get back, because there's no internet, even the phone is only for emergencies. But hey, what did I do the last couple days?
Well, earlier today I had my first test of the semester, a plant ID practical. Just a bunch of plants on tables that we had to identify to family. I did well, but I'm not looking forward to more of the same tests, but with over twice as many families that we have to know by the end (this time it was about 20).
Yesterday was our free day, and Hart and I spent the morning hiking through the forest, all the way into the nearby town, where the shuttle that is set up for us on free days picked us up. It was a great break, and we saw some cool stuff. Also, we stopped and I climbed the strangler fig featured in one of my earlier posts. Here's a view from the top and a view of me:
That was great fun.
I spent most of the rest of the free day lounging about, finishing up my stats homework, as well as the identification of my ten required insects. Also: lots of futbol.
Now, I am tired and need to go to sleep. Look here for stories in six days or so. Hasta luego!
Well, earlier today I had my first test of the semester, a plant ID practical. Just a bunch of plants on tables that we had to identify to family. I did well, but I'm not looking forward to more of the same tests, but with over twice as many families that we have to know by the end (this time it was about 20).
Yesterday was our free day, and Hart and I spent the morning hiking through the forest, all the way into the nearby town, where the shuttle that is set up for us on free days picked us up. It was a great break, and we saw some cool stuff. Also, we stopped and I climbed the strangler fig featured in one of my earlier posts. Here's a view from the top and a view of me:
That was great fun.I spent most of the rest of the free day lounging about, finishing up my stats homework, as well as the identification of my ten required insects. Also: lots of futbol.
Now, I am tired and need to go to sleep. Look here for stories in six days or so. Hasta luego!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
La Finca
Yesterday, we visited a farm (una finca) about twenty minutes from Las Cruces. I think this is my favorite activity we've done so far. The night before, we watched a video about coffee production, which focused on a coffee grower's cooperative in Agua Buena, the town near here, and their relationship formed with the Community Agroecology Network, from Santa Cruz, CA. So, then we got to visit the farm of one of the coffee producer's from that video, who also grows a variety of vegetables and other crops, but only for local production.
His name is Roberto Jimenez, and his farm is everything that can be good about agriculture. His coffee is shaded, providing crucial habitat for birds and other organisms. He grows organically, with a diversity of crops, and is very concerned with conserving the soil and water in the area. Don Roberto only has around a fifth grade education, but he speaks passionately and convincingly for sustainable practices, even in his low-pitched, calm and measured Spanish.
The growers in Agua Buena have worked with groups in the United States to now offer their coffee for direct sale to US consumers over the internet, which is a great boon to all the growers and their families. The website has good information on it, there's a picture of Don Roberto at the bottom. If you like good coffee and fair prices, you should order some directly from Don Roberto and his neighbors (Tip: if you download the order form and do it by mail, I think it's cheaper).
In Las Cruces news, I've been playing soccer pretty much every day, and getting to know all of my classmates and professors much better. We're only here until Wednesday morning, when we move to Cuerici, a mountain site with no internet access. I'll be sad to move on, it's pretty cushy and living in the middle of a world-class botanical garden is hard to beat.
His name is Roberto Jimenez, and his farm is everything that can be good about agriculture. His coffee is shaded, providing crucial habitat for birds and other organisms. He grows organically, with a diversity of crops, and is very concerned with conserving the soil and water in the area. Don Roberto only has around a fifth grade education, but he speaks passionately and convincingly for sustainable practices, even in his low-pitched, calm and measured Spanish.
The growers in Agua Buena have worked with groups in the United States to now offer their coffee for direct sale to US consumers over the internet, which is a great boon to all the growers and their families. The website has good information on it, there's a picture of Don Roberto at the bottom. If you like good coffee and fair prices, you should order some directly from Don Roberto and his neighbors (Tip: if you download the order form and do it by mail, I think it's cheaper).
In Las Cruces news, I've been playing soccer pretty much every day, and getting to know all of my classmates and professors much better. We're only here until Wednesday morning, when we move to Cuerici, a mountain site with no internet access. I'll be sad to move on, it's pretty cushy and living in the middle of a world-class botanical garden is hard to beat.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Strangling figs
You may have noticed that I forgot to upload the pictures I mentioned in my last post. Well, now they're there. And if you didn't notice, just pretend those last two sentences never happened.
Hart got here without a hitch, and it's been great introducing her to everyone here, and showing her around the garden and everything. If you want, she's also blogging her experiences, which you can read here.
Class time has reduced a bit, but we have plenty to do between readings, insect collecting/identifying, practicing plant taxonomy, statistics homework, and (claro) playing futbol.
This morning we went on a hike through some pastures, looking at the small forest fragments within the farmland. Yesterday morning we also hiked, this time to a stretch of trail in the jungle where we all sat down in isolated spots and did our mandatory 30 min. of field journal time. We'll be doing this at every site we visit, but we'll do it on our own for the remainder of the semester. It's nice to just let the thoughts and ideas pour out, without specific form or guidance to constrain you. Hopefully, I'll get some good ideas for independent projects during my observations. And, on the way back from the field observation, Mike stopped to climb the enormous strangler fig next to the trail. After I had gone on, apparently two more people climbed it, one of them being our oldest and most experience professor, Mauricio. The last time he climbed the tree was in 1989. I wish I had a picture of that, but here's what I do have.
Hart got here without a hitch, and it's been great introducing her to everyone here, and showing her around the garden and everything. If you want, she's also blogging her experiences, which you can read here.
Class time has reduced a bit, but we have plenty to do between readings, insect collecting/identifying, practicing plant taxonomy, statistics homework, and (claro) playing futbol.
This morning we went on a hike through some pastures, looking at the small forest fragments within the farmland. Yesterday morning we also hiked, this time to a stretch of trail in the jungle where we all sat down in isolated spots and did our mandatory 30 min. of field journal time. We'll be doing this at every site we visit, but we'll do it on our own for the remainder of the semester. It's nice to just let the thoughts and ideas pour out, without specific form or guidance to constrain you. Hopefully, I'll get some good ideas for independent projects during my observations. And, on the way back from the field observation, Mike stopped to climb the enormous strangler fig next to the trail. After I had gone on, apparently two more people climbed it, one of them being our oldest and most experience professor, Mauricio. The last time he climbed the tree was in 1989. I wish I had a picture of that, but here's what I do have.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Uf. It's been several days since my last post, and now I'm lost as to what to cover. Maybe this will help:
I took this so I wouldn't have to get up from my computer every time I wanted to look at our schedule. They didn't give us all hardcopies, because they avoid doing that as much as possible, to reduce paper consumption. I don't mind so much with the schedule, but doing almost all of our reading on computers can be annoying.
We spent a large part of Tuesday talking about tropical restoration efforts, with a lecture from Zak (director here at Las Cruces), and a hike out to the restoration project, called Melissa's. Here's a (not very good) picture from the hike, with Zak pointing at something.
The forest in the background is secondary forest that used to be pasture.
In our lecture on the geologic history of Costa Rica, it seemed to me that the formation of a land bridge between the Americas was a monumental serendipitous placement of the Galapagos hotspot. Seriously, it's pretty ridiculous for this spindly little thread of former islands to drift in and connect two huge continents. And it changed everything, in small and large ways, directly and indirectly, for human and natural history.
And hey, exciting news! Hart is currently en route to Las Cruces, after getting into San Jose last night. And then we have one more week here. I wish we could stay longer.
I took this so I wouldn't have to get up from my computer every time I wanted to look at our schedule. They didn't give us all hardcopies, because they avoid doing that as much as possible, to reduce paper consumption. I don't mind so much with the schedule, but doing almost all of our reading on computers can be annoying.
We spent a large part of Tuesday talking about tropical restoration efforts, with a lecture from Zak (director here at Las Cruces), and a hike out to the restoration project, called Melissa's. Here's a (not very good) picture from the hike, with Zak pointing at something.
The forest in the background is secondary forest that used to be pasture.
In our lecture on the geologic history of Costa Rica, it seemed to me that the formation of a land bridge between the Americas was a monumental serendipitous placement of the Galapagos hotspot. Seriously, it's pretty ridiculous for this spindly little thread of former islands to drift in and connect two huge continents. And it changed everything, in small and large ways, directly and indirectly, for human and natural history.
And hey, exciting news! Hart is currently en route to Las Cruces, after getting into San Jose last night. And then we have one more week here. I wish we could stay longer.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Natural history all day long
We've spent the majority of our time the last few days studying natural history and taxonomy, of insects (plus more on Lepidoptera) and plants (vegetative, floral, and fruit). My brain is going to implode from the weight of all the new terms and concepts, but I've really enjoyed the head-first dive into both formal and applied (read: useful) taxonomy. Some terms I've heard before, but the majority I haven't. One of my favorites: arcuately subparallel (a type of leaf venation). We've dissected flowers, and examined floral parts and insects under scopes, which has been cool. One of my strongest impressions is that plants in general are amazing for the extreme variety that exists in shapes, colors, functions, structures of all the exact same basic parts and organs, especially in flowers. When I think about it, the extremity of it all is hilarious and fascinating at the same time. From the delicate, ornate orchid flowers to the enormous bulbous inflorescences to the basic daisy. And fruits can get even more bizarre.
Also: cool Lepidoptera (moth and butterfly) facts! Butterflies actually have the best eyesight of any organism, with four (or even five) cones where we have three, and the capability to view light from infrared to ultraviolet.
We got our first real homework assignment yesterday, which is to catch and identify down to family 10 different insects at each of the three major OTS stations (here at Las Cruces, Palo Verde, and La Selva). I can't decide if this is going to be fun or frustrating. Some of both, probably. Funstrating?
We played soccer for the second time today, got in around an hour and a half. I always feel a lot more energetic after playing sports, or at least doing something really strenuous. My left foot was hot today, I scored all my goals with it.
I've been spending a fair amount of time with David, one of the Tico students, and I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with understanding the Ticos, and with speaking in Spanish. Which feels good. And, oh yeah! the language academy told me who my host family will be:
"Ana Isabel, your Costa Rican hostess, is a homemaker. Her husband, Esteban (born:1960), is a taxi driver. They live with their daughter Rebeca (born:1985) and their grandchildren visit often and sometimes stay overnight."
Sounds good to me.
Also: cool Lepidoptera (moth and butterfly) facts! Butterflies actually have the best eyesight of any organism, with four (or even five) cones where we have three, and the capability to view light from infrared to ultraviolet.
We got our first real homework assignment yesterday, which is to catch and identify down to family 10 different insects at each of the three major OTS stations (here at Las Cruces, Palo Verde, and La Selva). I can't decide if this is going to be fun or frustrating. Some of both, probably. Funstrating?
We played soccer for the second time today, got in around an hour and a half. I always feel a lot more energetic after playing sports, or at least doing something really strenuous. My left foot was hot today, I scored all my goals with it.
I've been spending a fair amount of time with David, one of the Tico students, and I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with understanding the Ticos, and with speaking in Spanish. Which feels good. And, oh yeah! the language academy told me who my host family will be:
"Ana Isabel, your Costa Rican hostess, is a homemaker. Her husband, Esteban (born:1960), is a taxi driver. They live with their daughter Rebeca (born:1985) and their grandchildren visit often and sometimes stay overnight."
Sounds good to me.
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