All posts by Michael

Is it really already over?

So…this is my course summary and wrap-up blog. I’m writing it from the comfort of my own bed after a hot shower, and yet, somehow I’d rather still be sticky, stinky, and sandy in Belize. I’m still processing everything that happened on the trip– every day was jam packed with lectures, discussions, projects, travel, fun, and new places and faces.

 

The transition between the ‘surf’ week and the ‘turf’ week was difficult for several reasons, but the reef and rainforest are as similar as they are different. For one thing, the soil of the rainforest is derived from limestone, which was made from the shells of ancient reef creatures. Additionally, both rainforest soils and reef waters are relatively nutrient poor, yet they support unmatched levels of biodiversity. This is possible because of the highly three-dimensional spatial heterogeneity of reefs and rainforests. Creatures adapt to specialize in a certain space and they compete for access to nutrients. This space partitioning and competition are strong drivers of diversity!

 

I think my favorite- most unforgettable- part of BIOS 319 was the opportunity to coexist with rare and endangered species. I’m thinking specifically of the moment when a Morelet’s Tree Frog jumped onto my hand, but I also cherish our brief sightings of Scarlet Macaws, Acropora corals, and the sounds of Howler monkeys. Recalling my pre-departure mantra of ‘enjoying every moment’, I tried very hard to not have a ‘least favorite’ part of the course. But, if I had to pick something to dislike, I would say the bugbites (although I found them quite manageable with topical benadryl and calamine lotion!)

 

In all honesty, I learned a lot more than I initially thought I would, and a lot of that learning came through first-hand experience! I thought my taxa (sponges and ants) were a little boring at first, but there is complexity, wonder, and value to be found in everything. I was amazed to learn that leafcutter ants account for up to 25% of devegetation in tropical rainforests and that a mature leafcutter colony has the same appetite as a cow. And I didn’t just learn about my taxa: I have never been good at birding, but now I don’t think I can ever forget the cacophonous squawks of a scarlet macaw or the iconic teardrop shape of an Oropendola nest. But I think more than any factoids about the reef or rainforest, the longest-lasting lesson I’ll be taking from BIOS 319 is confidence in myself and my abilities. I had many doubts throughout the course, but I consistently surprised myself. I doubted that I could be comfortable snorkeling and diving down in the open ocean. I doubted my ability to hold an audience’s attention and communicate effectively. I doubted my ability to hike rainforest trails or even be outside for extended periods of time… but it all came so naturally to me. Despite (or perhaps, in part, because of) my quirks and idiosyncrasies, I am incredibly adaptable and resilient in new environments and capable of facing the unknown.

 

Thank you to everyone (in-field and behind-the-scenes) who played a part in making this experience possible. I’m so grateful.

 

Speedy Hikes and a Slow Drive

Today we traced our steps along the Maya Trail to collect our pee tubes from yesterday. Some of the tubes were surprisingly difficult to find, especially the ones on the forest floor, even though we had  tried to standardize their positions.

After collecting, it was time to analyze! I personally, did not collect many (any) arthropods in three of my tubes, but one of my pee tubes had a caterpillar and a roach!

Next, we had to go out to collect our camera traps! We retraced our steps from the research station to San Pastor Rd and then up and down the Bird Observation Tower. We eventually got them all, and I hope there is a good opportunity coming up to view the images together.

After a late lunch, we all piled into the van and came to the Midas Hotel in Santa Elena and San Ignacio (the twin cities). I did not see any ants today 🙁

Pee tubes, Fungus gardens, and Weird frogs

Today we started a project exploring nutrient limitations in the forest canopy and on the forest floor. We are investigating this by peeing in tubes and strapping them to different trees (I promise there is real science behind this). We are going back out on the trails tomorrow morning to collect the pee tubes and count the number of arthropods we find in them.

While we were walking the trail to place our pee traps, Phoenix spotted a jumping pit viper in the middle of the trail and then Rusty spotted an eyelash viper on a log off the trail. The eyelash viper was especially exciting, because Dr. Solomon said he had never seen one in his twelve years of visiting Chiquibul. Later on down the trail, Ava spotted what they described as a “Spiky moth” on the trunk of a tree, but when they said it was dead, I suggested that it was actually infected with the Ophiocordyceps fungus, which turns arthropods into ‘zombies.’ Almost immediately after that, I spotted another, more decomposed Ophiocordyceps moth on a leaf on the forest floor. I still really want to see an ant infected with Cordyceps, but the moth was still really cool.

Moth infected with Ophiocordyceps

After lunch we searched nearby the research station for some leafcutter ant (Atta cephalotes) nests of differing ages to dig up and compare. First, we found a young (~1 year) ant nest with a single entrance ‘chimney’ or ‘turret’, and we started digging about a foot away to try to break into the underground fungus chambers. Dr. Solomon told us that the very young nests do not have big soldier ants for defense and that the individual worker ants are shinier than the ants in older colonies. After a few rounds of everyone taking turns digging into the nest, we finally broke into the fungus chamber, which looked like a whitish gray spongey honeycomb. Dr. Solomon started scooping out the fungus to look for the queen, and when we finally found her, I got to hold her and have my picture taken with her :’) When we tried digging up a slightly older nest, we kept digging and digging, but no ants were coming out, which made us think that the nest was abandoned. When I got my turn with the shovel, I dug down super deep and pried up a huge chunk of soil, and I exposed a Mexican Burrowing Toad (which we had learned about literally just yesterday)! We gently picked it up and it was SO gelatinous, we couldn’t believe that it could burrow into the hard packed clayey soils, but it had strong hind legs that it uses to burrow backwards!

My picture with the Queen!

After dinner, we went on an optional night hike to the frog pond, which was unforgettable. At the frog pond, we saw not one, but TWO endangered Morelet’s Tree Frogs. We got quite a few good pics and vids, and they even jumped and crawled on a few of us. One jumped onto my hand!!! A critically endangered species reached out and touched me! We also saw not one, two, three or four, but FIVE arboreal snakes in the branches and canopy above the frog pond hunting for the gelatinous globs of tree frog eggs plastered onto the underside of leaves. At least one was successful in getting a mouthful of frog eggs, but hopefully there are still enough for a new generation of frogs.

Tree frog eggs!
The critically endangered Morelet’s Tree Frog

Totally psyched that we hiked

Today was our first (and hardest) full day of hiking in the rainforest! We started with an early-morning birding session fueled by coffee and awe. We heard melodious blackbirds, and saw black vultures, turkey vultures, ocellated turkeys, plumbeous kites, TWO toucans, and a collared aricari.

After a hearty breakfast, we drafted an experimental design to characterize the habitat use of predators and prey in the Chiquibul, and we suited up for a long hike to set up some camera traps.

Into the jungle (Pre-first hike)
Out of the jungle (Post-first hike)

Dr. Solomon gave me an aspirator to suck up ants into a little viewing chamber for easier identification. I didn’t get to (or need to) use it today on our hike, but it is very cool, in theory, to be like an anteater slurping up ants in the rainforest. I did see a new ant species today: the army ant (Eciton sp.)! At first, I thought it was another leafcutter (Atta cephalotes)  trail, because they were moving in a straight line rather than the carpet-like swarms that are associated with the army ant species that I know of (E. burchellii), but their conspicuous reddish-color and large soldier class still identifies them as army ants.

I also saw the same type of Ponerine/Hypoponerine ant that I saw at Caracol yesterday, and this time I got some really good close up pictures, so hopefully I can consult the ant guide book and get a positive ID.

We also saw an absolutely humungous leafcutter ant nest deep in the rainforest on our hike (we set up a camera trap there, so we have an excuse to go back in a couple days). The mound was probably four feet tall and several meters in radius with dozens of entrance tunnels and ventilation shafts! Dr. Solomon said that the entire biomass of the colony was about equivalent to that of a cow, and that they probably consume about the same amount of vegetation per day.

A superhighway of leafcutters

Caracol and Chiquibul

Today was chalk-full of adventure, history, and changes. We woke up early at TEC and made three field-ID’s before breakfast! First, I spotted a Shimmering Golden Sugar Ant (Camponotus sericiventris) and I told everyone that would listen to me about golden ant butts. Then, I let McKenna borrow my binoculars and she identified both a Great Kiskadee and a Social Flycatcher flitting about high up in a pine tree. Lastly, on our way into breakfast at the dining hall, we spotted an agouti (which promptly ran away from us).

We left TEC after breakfast and were on our way to Caracol Archaeological Reserve and then to Chiquibul National Forest.

Caracol was absolutely stunning. I have never visited any ancient ruins, and it was incredible to learn about the Mayan civilization and culture. The site of Caracol is vastly underappreciated  and under-documented. Archaeologists have excavated several huge temples and astronomical buildings, but the entire complex is a seven mile radius with more than 35,000 individual structures (at its peak). I think the most fascinating building at the site was the ‘E-group’ astronomical building, whose three peaks align with the position of the rising sun at three key points throughout the year! As I climbed up the opposite building to see what the ancient Mayan astronomers did, it started to pour down rain (our first taste of Belize’s wet season), which made the uneven mossy steps even slipperier.

Slippery stone steps

We saw some very large leafcutter ant (Atta cephalotes) colonies (more than a meter in diameter) and also a very small one! Dr. Solomon said that the small one was probably a year or two old, because it only had two entrance holes to the nest.  I also saw a very large ant with mottled/spotted coloration that I didn’t recognize. I asked Dr. Solomon and he theorized that it could be a Ponerine or Hyperponerine ant.

Ponerine (?) ant

No time for Reef-flection, too much to T-E-Cee

This morning after breakfast, we had to say goodbye to Glover’s Reef (and Ruth). I had really started to get comfortable at Glover’s. The food, the views, the reefs, the hermit crabs and blue land crabs, the pelicans and frigate birds, iguanas, the snorkel shed, poster sessions, Clivus, and even the mosquito mangroves of death…. I’m grateful for it all.

After a 3.5 hour boat ride, we (quite fittingly) made our transition from ‘surf’ to ‘turf’ by dining on the shore at Calypso, a restaurant on the marina. After lunch, we all piled into two white vans and hit the road for the Tropical Education Center (TEC). On the drive, we passed a couple Police Security Checkpoints and got to see the dominant landscape features shift between developed cities, thick twisting mangroves, karstic mountains, and savannah peppered with palmettos.

At TEC, we received a lecture from Dr. Boris Arevalo, a conservation biologist who studies northern scarlet macaws. These macaws are a flagship species for several countries in Central America, so Dr. Arevalo wanted to better understand their nesting preferences on local and regional scales. The main points that I took away from his presentation was the importance of having a holistic understanding and management of BOTH breeding and foraging habitat, and that collaboration and communication are the most important tools for scientists. Some of my favorite quotes from Dr. Arevalo’s presentation:

  • “Conservation is a human issue”
  • “Scientists are professional beggars
  • Conservation is a business”

After dinner at TEC, we got a night-time tour of the Belize Zoo! We saw more animals in an hour than I can recount here, but I’ll try to list as many as I can remember. We saw three types of owls (spectacled, mottled, and barn), four types of cat (puma, jaguar, ocelot, margay), coatimundis, a paca, white-lipped peccaries, a tapir (which we got to touch), a four-eyed possum, a termite nest, an anteater, and most importantly…. I finally saw leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes)! My excitement at simply seeing their little nocturnal parades across the paths bodes well for this trip. I’ll probably fully lose my mind when I get to see their fungus gardens.

Some Firsts on the Last Reef Day

Today marks our last full day at Glover’s Reef Research Station. Tomorrow morning we will be all packed up and piling into a boat back to Belize City after breakfast.

This morning, we fittingly started our last reef day by snorkeling and collecting our last data points on the patch reefs. The data collection went smoothly enough, but I think the real highlight of my day was seeing TWO Caribbean Reef Squid (during our last for-funsies snorkel). Huge shoutout to Ruth for calling them to my attention.

After dinner, we dissected the three (invasive) lionfish that were speared during the week. I never thought I would be excited about digging through fish guts, but I was actually giddy about seeing three tiny in-tact fish in our lionfish’s stomach (lionfish engulf their prey whole)!

Even though these fish are invasive, and removing them from the reef is a positive service, we still can’t be wasteful. So, of course, we made lionfish ceviche for a late-night snack! The fish is currently curing in the lime juice, and the taste is TBD. Will update soon. 😉

De-debris-ing Glover’s Reef

First thing this morning, we went out on the boat to snorkel the fore-reef (the part of the reef that faces the open ocean)! I was nervous about snorkeling in waters so deep and so rough, but I actually had a super good time, and I got to see some things for the first time: I spotted a sea turtle way down on the ocean floor, we saw some Walnut Comb Jellies floating just beneath us, and I saw loggerhead sponges (Speciospongia vesparium)! I wish I was better at diving down beneath the water, so I could have gotten a closer look…

After lunch (alfredo pasta, salad and bread), we were tasked with designing an experiment centered around cleaning up marine debris (trash) from Middle Caye in Glover’s Reef. Being an island relatively far from the mainland, marine debris is a significant problem because the Gulf of Honduras Gyre (a water current) funnels all kinds of trash from the mainland directly onto the shores of Middle Caye.

In total, we collected 64.5 kilograms of trash from three different sites across the island, including 7.4 kilograms of glass and metal, which will have to be taken back to the mainland on a boat. Part of the problem for Middle Caye is that it simply isn’t economically feasible to charter boats specifically for transporting trash, so a lot of trash (including plastic and Styrofoam) is burned right here on the island.

Day 5: Fabulous Data Collection!

The first thing we did after breakfast today was get our snorkel gear, quadrats, and transect tapes and pile into the boat again. We went to two more patch reefs, both of which were located in the Marine Protected Area (MPA). The data collection today went MUCH BETTER (some combination of better weather, deeper water, and more practice).

We got back just in time for lunch, which was barbecue chicken and macaroni and cheese (a little taste of home!) After lunch, we learned about green algae, crustaceans, and the effects of climate change on the reefs. After dinner, we had guest lectures from the Belize Fisheries Department and the Belize National Coast Guard (they do important work to ensure that Glover’s Reef Atoll stays beautiful and sustainable).

Between lunch and dinner, we had some free time where we could work on our field notebooks, take a nap, or go on an optional snorkeling excursion. Because I regretted my choice yesterday to abstain from snorkeling the second patch reef, I made sure I wouldn’t miss out on another opportunity to snorkel! We snorkeled just on the inside of the reef crest, and we saw tons of anemones and fishes, but unfortunately no sponges 🙂

Sponges seen in the MPA Today:

  • Brown Variable Sponge
  • Orange Icing Sponge
  • Red Boring Sponge
  • Scattered Pore Rope Sponge
  • Erect Rope Sponge
  • Branching Vase Sponge

Day four: Dreaded Data Collection

Today we went out on a boat to visit a patch reef to try to determine what percentage of coral was alive and what percentage was dead. It was not fun. At least, the data collection was not fun. The water was very shallow and the winds and waves were very strong. Our transect line kept getting dragged away and tangled up, and I was thrown backwards onto sharp and hard corals several times. It will be a miracle if we can somehow salvage usable data from today.

After data collection, we decided to take the boat to another patch reef (where we could snorkel purely for fun). I felt freezing cold and was shivering after the previous snorkeling ordeal, so I decided to stay in the boat instead of doing a recreational snorkel.

In retrospect, I regret that decision and I should have gone snorkeling again. I ended up getting wet and freezing cold on the boat ride back anyway, and from what I heard, the group saw some pretty unique organisms (including an invasive lionfish, which they promptly speared and captured)!

Even though we focused on data collection today, I still was able to see (and be thrown into) some pretty cool sponges.

Sponges seen today:

Scattered pore rope sponge (Aplysina fulva)

Erect rope sponge (Amphimedon compressa)

Fire sponge (Tedania ignis)

Brown variable sponge (Cliona varians)

 

P.S. The power has been going out (the island is having some generator issues), so I will have to post this blog a day late