Tag Archives: trees

2019

Day 6: The Poisonwood Tree

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We spent the whole day today working on more research projects, then hiked to the bird tower for the sunset in the evening.

Morning: Assessing differences in plant diversity between hurricane disturbed and undisturbed areas using sampling along transects in disturbed and undisturbed areas. From this we could not reject a null hypothesis that the diversity was the same between disturbed and undisturbed areas (couldn’t say for sure whether there was a difference at all).

Afternoon: Assessing the toughness of young Trumpet Tree (Cecropia peltata) as a protection against herbivory before colonization by Aztec ants. To do this, we had to measure the toughness of many trees of this species with a specialized tool, including trees colonized by ants. The bite of these ants isn’t too bad—speaking from experience here—but we each exposed ourselves to them as we each tested the leaves of a one tree colonized and one uncolonized by ants. We had to bend the trees down because they are very tall—I will attach a picture here—and this would cause the ants to rain down on us. Once we finished, we also had to climb over ant covered trunks that we had felled across the trail.

It is worth noting that we did not at any point go through the rainforest felling trees on a whim. This Cecropia species is a pioneer species, meaning it grows rapidly and colonizes sunny areas, so in a way it is accustomed to recovering from destruction. Most of the ones we severed were fairly young, as well, and we avoided damaging the trees where possible.

In the evening we went to the bird tower. On the way up we finally saw a White Poisonwood tree (Sebastiana tuerckheimiana)! The tree has had a few other scientific names, but this appears to be the most accepted version. It is not a widespread species and can be confused with the other poisonwood tree in Belize, the Black Poisonwood (Metopium brownei). Poisonwood trees are felled only by brazen individuals who are accustomed to the effects of the extremely caustic sap which can be found in many parts of the tree, most notably, of course, the trunk. However, it is highly sought after by some carvers and woodworkers for the exceptionally hard and smooth wood. I was excited to finally see the infamous tree from a safe distance.

White Poisonwood tree (Sebastiana tuerckheimiana)

We also saw a Cedar (Cedrela odorata) again. This time I recognized it by its pods, which pop open, the casing forming a four-pointed star with a small nut in the middle. I then looked up and saw the tree. It seems to grow in more exposed areas, but all of the ones I have identified are quite large, so it is difficult to tell what the surrounding area might have looked like when the tree was young. I have also seen them deep in the forest, however.

We had an amazing view from the top of the bird tower, but sadly the sun was obscured by clouds. I will include a picture when I have one. Someone commented that we could see nothing from the top of the hill, especially without climbing the tower, but we saw a few animals while there as well as the view. Of course, we were still surrounded by trees! There is always something new to see here.

2019

Day 7: WE SAW THE FOREST COW!

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We spent this morning retracing our steps from Day 2 to collect our camera traps, but were kept in suspense all day as to what we had caught on them. Scott did not seem optimistic, because on some traps there were only 12 or 13 captures, about the number he would expect from triggering them ourselves by walking past.

In the afternoon we analyzed our data measuring the leaf toughness of Cecropia trees, also called Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata). Because of the variation in the penetrometer we were using, we didn’t have conclusive results surrounding the correlation between leaf toughness and colonization by ants. Scott also said that in prior years, he had not found such large individual trees lacking colonization by the mutualistic Azteca ants. A queen of the ant species usually colonizes the tree when it is rather small, then there is a delay while eggs the queen lays hatch into workers. They live in the tree because it has a chambered stalk that provides shelter and the tree also has extra-floral nectaries, which essentially means that it provides food for the ants as well. So, when herbivores threaten their home, the ants attack, which benefits the plant. What we were investigating (inconclusively) was whether the leaves might be tougher in trees not colonized by ants yet because they would have to defend themselves against herbivory.

I did some research during the break we took after this and realized that the tree we were working with was Cecropia peltata and not Cecropia obtusifolia, which was the species on my taxon ID card. The clarifying difference was the greater depth between the fingers on the leaves of C. obtusifolia. The leaf overall has a hand shape.

Trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata)

I also figured out that a small tree / bush in the clearing where we saw the scarlet macaws the other day is a guava tree (Psidium guajava). I was befuddled by the identification keys in the Costa Rica and Panama book, but figured it out using the Belize guide. I was able to figure out that it was in the Myrtle family (Myrtaceae) from the first field guide, but I didn’t figure out the exact plant until I dropped the rather worn, thin version of the Belize guide. It had gotten wet a few times, and pages were falling out. On putting the pages back in order, I saw the guava fruit. I pulled the other one out of my pocket to compare, and it was the same. I got the family right, too! I know much more about the trees here on a family level than I do those at home in Texas.

When we finally got around to checking the images on the camera traps in the evening, it was immediately after two presentations, on the biogeography of the region as a whole (including Caribbean) and on mammals. The lecture on mammals turned out to be relevant; we saw a silhouette that may have been a puma, a rainforest rat of some kind, a few birds including a Curassow, and a tapir! Tapirs are huge mammals with long snouts and are herbivores. Apparently, they aren’t aggressive, but like many large mammals, they could hurt you unintentionally. Scott relayed a story of being bitten by a friendly one in Brazil. When he got back to the research station, they said, “oh, you met [name of the tapir]?” Apparently it was often fed, and if you didn’t feed it, it would nip you. Anyway, we got a pretty good image of the tapir, and our results generally supported the hypothesis that the wildlife stays away from the immediate area around the camp—the nearest cameras did not catch much, while the farther ones caught tapir, puma, a skunk, an opossum, and the others mentioned above.

Tapir on the camera trap!
2019

Day 8: A jaguar does somersaults

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Today we left Las Cuevas very early in the morning. From there, we drove three hours to the ATM cave. ATM is an abbreviation for a Mayan phrase Actun Tunichil Muknal meaning roughly a cave with a stone tomb in it (or, Cave of the Stone Sepulcher). We crossed a river several times and then had to swim into the cave—the water was too deep to wade. After winding through several half-submerged crevasses, we climbed up a steep “cliff” of rock and were asked to remove our water shoes. The reason for this was that people without shoes on are more careful about where they step.

We saw increasing levels of Mayan artifacts after that point, which were sacrifices they made primarily to the rain god. The age of these artifacts was from 700 to 900 AD. First, there were pot shards, then whole pots (they would puncture a hole in them to make sure they would not be taken and reused). After that, we saw a bowl of a type used for bloodletting ceremonies, then finger bones, then a skull. Then the skull of a baby. Then, finally, in the last chamber we entered, we found an entire skeleton that looked as though it had fallen into position.

The escalating sacrifices may have been caused by increasing levels of drought and hardship caused by increasing deforestation. The Maya turned to the rain god, and the way they knew to appease the god was to sacrifice. They raised the value of the sacrifice and would go deeper into the cave because the caves are considered to be closer to the underworld.

When we arrived at the Tropical Education Center, our intermediate stop between the Las Cuevas Research Station and Glover’s Reef, I immediately noticed the birds. There were a couple of flycatchers similar to the Social Flycatchers we saw at Las Cuevas nesting in a Caribbean Pine (Pinus caribbaea). One fo the nesting pair was sitting next to the nest, and the other in a nearby trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata). The pines are much more common here—the only one I remember from Las Cuevas was in the clearing, and may have been planted. The reason the pines are more common here is that we are in a different region here, the Pine Savannah. This is the same region we went through to get to Las Cuevas, where the savannah was burning in patches because it is still the end of the dry season.

We went on an evening tour of the zoo, and we each held a boa constrictor to pose for a picture. Then , we looked at the different animals in the zoo. While we were looking at the owls, trying to get a good picture through the wire mesh, there was a sound behind us of leaves crunching. Apparently I dismissed it, which is alarming, because when we turned around, Scott pointed out that the jaguar in the opposite cage had been stalking us! As it turned out, more likely it wanted to be fed, and on command it performed an obstacle course and then a series of somersaults each for the reward of a small piece of meat. The incredibly strong jaws of a jaguar can kill prey by crushing the skull!

Holding a boa constrictor
Zoo sign for Pacas

-Amy

2019

Day 1: We are already seeing so much

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Today we flew to Belize! I slept through my alarm and barely woke up in enough time to avoid being left behind. After a rocky start and a delayed flight (we still waited over an hour at the airport, and more after boarding the plane, we finally arrived.

On landing, after dealing with bags and logistics, I immediately started to try identifying trees… and immediately realized that I was in over my head in terms of identifying them from a distance. I focused mostly on leaf shape, bark texture, and other details when I was researching them, but did not take note of the overall appearance of the tree (beyond size).

I did notice what I thought might be Quamwood trees as we came in. Quamwood (Schizolobium parahyba) trees bloom yellow and can stand a bit above or even with the canopy, so they stick out like sore thumbs when in bloom. Scott pointed out a trumpet tree (Cecropia obtusifolia) at a restaurant called Cheers, which we stopped at on the way to the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge, where we are staying just for tonight. There are many here as well (I will attach a picture here as soon as I upload it).

Trumpet tree at Crystal Paradise Ecoolodge
Trumpet tree at Crystal Paradise Ecoolodge

I think I also noticed an Acacia species, based in part on similarity to Texas species, but there are multiple of these in Belize and I did not know the specific species. It was blooming red.

We can also see a Horse’s Balls tree (Stemmadenia donnell-smithii) right out the upstairs window of our shared cabin. It is easily identified by the shape of the seed.

After today, we will have one ethernet cable and be limited to any devices that can connect to it (and that is only available when the generator is on), so this might be my last post for a while.

2019

Pre-departure blog: how is it already time?

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These pre-departure blogs will probably all look pretty similar. I think they will diversify once we arrive in Belize, because our days will be packed and different experiences will stand out to each of us. I can’t wait to start identifying the trees of the rainforest at Las Cuevas Research Station and the hard and soft corals of the waters of Glover’s Reef.  There are overwhelming numbers of each, and each taxon is a fundamental component of its respective ecosystem.

I can’t believe we are already leaving tomorrow. Preparing for the trip, I keep thinking of one thing after another that I might want to bring– I hope I haven’t left anything out! I have never snorkeled before, aside from our class practice in the Rec center pool (and an encore with Dr. Shore to try a second pair of fins that fit better).

I think one of the largest differences for me identifying species in Belize (relative to Texas) will be the lack of internet resources in the field. I’ve become spoiled identifying plants and birds around here by their calls and visuals with aid from my smartphone and I’m quite practiced at identification, but it will be different when not able to rely on those internet resources. I’m prepared to identify several species of each (trees and coral), but am sure there will be many that I will not recognize from my studies.

This will be my first trip outside of the U.S. (if you don’t count Canada), much less to such a complex natural world as the rainforest or coral reef ecosystems, so I’m super excited to see and learn about the plants and animals and how they interact.

Metria amella moth in Houston, Texas.
This moth is in Houston. Demonstrating my reliance on internet: I had no idea what it was, but after referencing butterfliesandmoths.org, I think it is Metria amella, the Live Oak Metria Moth.

– Amy

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Adios Belize <3

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Okay reflection here we go:

There are many similarities between the tropical rainforests and the coral reefs. Starting with the most obvious, both ecosystems rely heavily on water. Both ecosystems seem to have alternating states, whether it be the seasonality in the rain forest (wet vs. dry), or the tides in the ocean (high vs. low) that can differ between the hours. The organisms in each ecosystem have various stages of their life cycles in sync with the different cycles that occur in their environment, such as mating during the start of the wet season, etc. This variation in the environments allows for speciation; when one species is inactive, another in a similar niche can thrive, and so forth.

Another similarity, which is something that I did not know about before this trip, is the paradox of both environments being in and of themselves nutrient poor, yet somehow being able to support staggering amounts of biodiversity. In our little experiments in the Chiquibul for example, we were able to identify, morphologically speaking, approximately 60 different species of arthropods that wound up on our various vials, The fact that this number is a ridiculously small fraction of what is actually out there is absolutely mind blowing. Before the trip, I was wondering how to get as many species of my taxa possible on my taxon ID cards. I foolishly thought that I would be alright with approximately 24 species of trees and 24 of herbivorous fish- I mean were going to areas that were only so big, how diverse can the species get? The truth is, I didn’t see anymore than 8 or so of the species on my ID cards, both in the rainforest and on the reef. That isn’t because there simply were 8 or so of each taxon in each ecosystem- its because there were so many species of each taxon and they were so spread out around the ecosystem, somewhat “diffused” along with hundreds of other species that it was hard to identify them based on a very limited knowledge of their physical characteristics and distribution, bot to mention the fact that so many species looked SO similar, especially in regards to the trees, but in fact were different species entirely. While I knew before that there were MANY species in the rainforest, I think it was difficult  for me to grasp how many is many until I got a small glimpse of it myself. This was one thing that somewhat did surprise me about the course; no matter how much you think you know, or how positive you can distinguish one species from one that looks strikingly similar other than a minor variation in the veins of their leaves, you will never actually know all that much at all.

I didn’t realize that working underwater would be such a challenge. Of course, this was my first experience with snorkeling, let alone my first time trying to collect data underwater- I’m sure more experienced researchers won’t get salt water into their eyes as often as I did. However, I’m pretty certain that whether you are a novice or a marine biologist with 20+ year experience, goggles will get foggy, calves will cramp up, transect tapes won’t always stay in place and quadrats will sometimes refused to fall flat on the benthos. We were lucky that there were basically no waves and the sea was very calm. I could not imagine doing the same things we did, like measure coral coverage on the benthos, in very windy or rough conditions. Communicating underwater was quite difficult as well. Most of the time, if what I was trying to say didn’t get through to the other person, we both just surfaced so could talk out loud. I imagine in conditions or project that are time constrained, researchers would need to have a detailed communication system in place so that they won’t have to waste precious time trying to ask someone to lend them their camera.

One last thing that I didn’t really think about much until this course was about how much overlap there is between different fields of study, and how humanity is tied to nature, not matter how far away from it we think we are. Biology is ecology and evolution, yes, but it is also philosophy and physics and geology and politics and chemistry and sociology and history and nearly any field you can think of. People shape their environment, but the environment shapes people too. The things that we learned about the Maya civilization, their use of the land (the trees!), their culture, their struggles and their eventual downfall is all ingrained in the biology of the land as well, from the slashed on the bark of the chicle trees, to the changing soil qualities due to slash and burn agriculture. It really made me think about questions concerning geopolitical borders- the Guatemalans can’t harvest Xate but Belizeans can, just because they are on the wrong side on an imaginary line? The Chiquibul – and nature as a whole- doesn’t follow the rules of man.

Belize was hot. More humid in the forest, and a stronger sun on the island. However, in the forest, the nights were cooler and in Glovers’, we had that occasional ocean breeze.

Complaints? I’ve been told I have had them. As I can’t really think of anything that’s been bothering me up until right now, I think all of my complaints were in the moment, mostly. My various bites are still itchy as hell, but I’m sure I won’t even be remembering them in a few weeks. If I had to pick my least favorite part of the course, I would probably be when my sunscreen keep getting into my eyes while snorkeling and I couldn’t keep them open for hours afterwards- that is until we realized that that was the cause of my temporary blindness and I stopped using sunscreen on my forehead.

It is hard to choose one favorite part of the course, but I can say that all my favorite parts were shared with the people who I have personally learned so much from throughout this course, whether it was about the various lectures we’ve had, or otherwise. We all talked about how much of a surprise it was when we looked over the camera trap pictures and saw the jaguars, or how cool it was to climb around inside the ATM cave, or see scarlet macaws in the wild. The experiences we had during this trip were one of a kind  and I will treasure them forever, but I think that my favorite part overall was being able to meet such amazing human beings with the same passion for science and learning and the environment and people as I have, and the opportunity that I had to experience this truly eye opening trip with them.

I think I somewhat came into this course thinking: okay this is it, after May 29th I will be able to decide whether or not I want to do field work in my career as a biology. I expected to have the answer to the question I’ve been asking myself for the past few months, now that graduate school applications are looming overhead. But now I realize that the answer is not that simple to be answered after a two week experience, no matter how amazing it was. Will I know pursue a career as a tropical field biologist, or even field work in general? Honestly, it’s too soon to tell. I’ll probably have to let my sand fly bites heal before I start thinking about that. What I can say now is that no matter what specific field of study I choose to pursue in my career in EEB, I can always look back at this trip to remind myself of why I do what I do- because I love science and I love what science can do for people, and what science has the potential to do for all of the earth and its creatures.

 

 

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Day 8: I want a boa constrictor

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We left Las Cuevas Research Station right after breakfast, around 6:30. We were all very exhausted, so we pretty much slept until we arrived at ATM Cave (Actun Tunichil Muknal). This means the Site of the Stone Sepulcher. It is a Mayan Archaeological site that you need to swim into, and then wade through differing levels of water. Once you get to the dry part (after a good climb up the rocks), there are several perfectly preserved artifacts, including several types of pottery and even human remains. These human remains were most likely victims of human sacrifice-which, as we were told by our tour guide Edward- were offered to the Mayan Gods as an appeasement so that they would send rain and fertile soil to the earth.

After the ATM cave, we headed towards the Tropical Education Center (TEC) across the Belize Zoo, which we will be staying at tonight. On our way, I saw a mahogany farm, a teakwood farm, and an orange farm. In addition, I was able to see a traveler’s palm for the first time, which I was really excited about. Many Belizeans seem to use coconut  palms as a type of fence in front of their homes- about 3-4 palms in a row.

After dinner at the TEC, we went for a night visit at the Belize Zoo. All of the animals at the zoo are rescues- take from illegal pet owners or animals that have been found shot or injured. Additionally, all of the animals are native Belizeans.

There were several jaguars, which the zookeeper fed with raw chicken, a porcupine, an ocelot, peccaries and many caotimundi (relatives of the raccoon). We feed a large rodent called a gibnut (aka the “royal” rat) with unripe bananas. In the wild, they live at the base of the Cahoun palm and eat its nuts. We were able to feed a baird’s Tapir with carrots and they are a lot larger than I expected them to be. We also got to hold a boa constrictor! It was even cooler because we were able to see one in the wild, but this one was obviously a lot friendlier since it is domesticated. Its skin was absolutely beautiful.

A big boi

While this whole experience was amazing on its own, I found it a lot more meaningful because we were able to somewhat see most of these animals in the wild via camera traps. I learned to appreciate that the animals we see in zoos really do have a home in the wild and are able to thrive- once humans disrupt their natural habitats, they are unable to survive and then become dependent on us.

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Day 7: Rainforest Traphouse

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We walked 9.49 miles today, the most we have walked in a day thus far. Our morning started off with a very intense hike up to a bird tower, were we got an amazing view of the maya mountains and the chiquibul forest. I noticed a lot of fiddlewood trees had been knocked over, possibly because of the really hard rain yesterday. I was pretty surprised to see this because fiddlewood trees have buttressed roots to help support them and they are supposed to be pretty strong.

Wild Owls spotted from the top of the bird tower
Not a fiddlewood tree, but an example of buttress roots

In the afternoon we went to dig up leafcutter ant colonies with another student group from The University of Southern Mississippi. In one young colony, we were able to see a fungi “farm”, which the ants feed the leaves the collect too and raise the fungi as their food. We were also able to take the queen ant out of the colony, who almost looked like a large beetle.

Fungi farm on a spoon. Yum!

In the bigger colony that we saw a few days ago, we dug up a trash or “compost” chamber, where the ants throw away old fungi, general waste and dead ant bodies. In order to provoke the solider ants to come out so that we could see them, we tapped the trunk of a poisonwood tree growing right in the middle of the colony, so that the vibrations would stir the ants up. I noticed that as the tree was being hit, the bark peeled and exposed the blood red, fleshy inner bark underneath, seeping with white poisonwood sap ( see picture). I wonder why the ants decided to build their nest around something so dangerous, not to mention that there were multiple poisonwood trees growing out of the colony.

Bark of the poisonwood tree

FYI if you ever get poisonwood sap on your skin, the cure is the inner bark of the gumbolimbo tree, with is usually located in very close proximity to the poisonwood trees. I have yet to come up with an explanation as to why this is.

The gumbolimbo tree has reddish bark, antidote to poisonwood sap

After dinner, we took a look at the pictures from the camera traps that we set up on our second day here at Las Cuevas, since we will be leaving this beautiful place tomorrow morning. We were all ASTOUNDED to see 2 jaguars, a tapir, 2 pumas, many peccaries (which are like wild hogs but meaner), an armadillo and several other mammals. Rafael the station manager said that there were so many animals around because the breadnut tree is fruiting, which is a very important source of food for many of the herbivorous and omnivorous animals around here.

A jaguar picture from my camera trap :’)

I am going to miss this place and its vast expanses of more than 320 different species of trees that are able to support all the life in the Chiquibul. All I can say is that I really hope that we as scientists and as beings on this earth realize that majesty and worth of this forest and all its organisms, and that we are able to conserve it for generations to come.

Glovers Reef, we’re coming for ya.

 

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Day 6: Beetles and Breadnuts

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Today we got to go and retrieve our pit fall traps from the forest and see how many insects crawled into the vials. The collecting took a short amount of time- it seems as though we have gotten fitter within the past few days and are now able to trek through the forest swiftly with apt agility. I only stopped to catch my breath twice every ten minutes. Progress!

On our way out, I saw a tree I have never seen before called “Jobillo” (Astronium graveolens). I saw several of the growing along side the main road San Pastor. They are frequently used for wood, like mahogany. We found a brown anole on one of them, and I got the chance to catch it.

A lot of my taxa in LCRS were already labelled

Later in the lab, we needed to inspect the contents of our vials and see if our hypotheses were correct. We assigned each group such as ants, spiders, beetles, etc., to one “expert” (i.e one of us students) who would be able to divided them into “species” based on what they looked like. We came up with 52 unique species across all our samples, including many very large beetles about the size of a half dollar coin.

Our morpospecies chart

We took a lovely break from data analyzing and stood in the afternoon rain. It is only  that we get rained on in the rainforest at least one time. Right afterwards, I looked into some field book and decided that the spherical shaped fruit that I talked about earlier are breadnuts. They are eaten by many animals, such as the peccary, several different birds and deer.

Inside of the spherical fruit I mentioned are these smaller nuts called breadnuts, loved by both people and animals

In our vials, we found more insects in the ground vials than in the canopy vials. We also found more insects in the *hem* nitrogen source *hem* than in the water source in the canopy vials. In the ground vials however, we found more insects in the ground water than in the This indicates that canopy insects are more limited by resources such as nitrogen that ground insects are. The leaf litter and other decomposing matter on the forest floor probably provide the insects and other living things with a source of nitrogen. Later in the evening, we presented the data from our experiment to a student group from the University of Southern Mississippi.

PS: Adrienne, we miss you!

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Day 5: Hello Darkness my old Friend

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Today we designed an experiment in which we attempted to study the affects that hurricane gaps- the large gap in the canopy forest- that occurs when a tree is knocked over because of a hurricane- has on forest floor diversity. We didn’t really see any significant results, but perhaps a longer study over more area will tell us how natural disturbances such as hurricanes have on ecosystems like the rain forest.

Our poster presentation

After dinner, we all grabbed our hiking boots and headlights and headed on a night hike. The leaves of the acacia tree were folded- I actually did not know that this happened at night. The acacia tree produces food (beltian bodies) for ants that live inside of its thorns and the ants defend the plant from predators. I was able to see the ants eating the beltian bodies on one of leaves. I have learned about this type of symbiosis in several EBIO classes and it was pretty amazing to see it in real life. Additionally, there were tiny turtles in a mud pond, and  we also saw the spine and hand of a monkey, which was likely dropped after being half-eaten by a predator like a jaguar or a bird of prey.

We saw a red backed coffee snake which we first thought was a red coral snake, i.e. a very poisonous snake. This is an example of Batesian mimicry, which is when a harmless animal mimics some aspects of the physical appearance of a poisonous animal. This is so that predators think that the harmless animal is poisonous, even though it is not. In this case, the red backed coffee snake was patterned very similar to a red coral snake, but different enough so that we could make the distinction.

After we returned to the clearing where the research station is at, we were able to see the stars and it was nothing like I had ever seen before. At home, you could see a few stars and planets scattered around the sky, but only in more suburban/rural areas.  Here however, the sky was FULL of twinkly celestial bodies.  I only went to sleep after clouds drifted overhead and covered the sky, because otherwise I would have stared at them into the morning.