Blog Post #5
Day 5: Our First Poster Day
Written on May 20that 6:17 am
DISCLAIMER: Las Cuevas was supposed to have internet—right now, it isn’t working. All LCRS posts from the rainforest will be posted after the fact!
Well May 19thwas a day for the books! We were tasked with our first project that we were to start and finish in one day. We were attempting to look at new pioneer plant biodiversity in hurricane gaps with tree regrowth vs not. However, the hurricane gaps (tree fall areas induced by hurricanes) were so dense that we couldn’t enter the forest with the methodology we had created. So, we just ended up looking at plant biodiversity in hurricane gaps vs. forest.
We collected leaf samples from 10 different plots and then sorted them into morphospecies (categories of leaves that we think looked like the same species, not rooted in actual knowledge). It appeared to us that there was no significant difference between the two—had 30 morphospecies in gaps vs 28 in forest. We made a very lovely poster, and Scott thoroughly enjoyed our presentation.
After that, I gave my presentation on Amphibians! Everyone really liked my Frog and Toad slide especially. We had hoped it would rain so that there would be frogs out during our night hike, but unfortunately, it did not. We could hear frogs but unfortuantely couldn’t see them. I don’t think my eagle eye spotting was the best, and I was still somewhat confused by the calls of amphibians vs. insects, so the sound was hard to follow.
However, we did see lots of nocturnal reptiles including mud turtles, a red backed coffee snake, and a banded gecko! I also really enjoyed listening to the insect chorus of communication throughout the night. And I even had a chance to feel like Newt Scamander when I held a stick bug that looked a lot like a Bowtruckle! 🙂