Hi everyone! It’s day 2 in the forest and I’m having a blast! Today, we started the morning by setting up a project relating to plant-insect interactions. We aimed to quantify how nitrogen-limited macroinvertebrates are in the canopy compared to the forest floor. To do this, we set up traps called “pitfall traps” with water and a nitrogen source in various locations. Want to guess what we used as the nitrogen source?! Our own urine! Urea has a high concentration of nitrogen and there was little else to use in the middle of the rainforest. This was definitely the strangest lab I have ever taken part in. We spent two and a half hours securing pitfall traps with pee to the trunks and bases of trees. We also found a really cool water vine while hiking and took some pictures swinging from it, so I’ve included those below.

After lunch (fried rice and watermelon), we met in the lab to discuss our next project. This one focused on Cecropia trees and Cecropia ants. These species work together to survive, with the ants providing protection for the tree and the tree providing food and shelter for the ants. We hoped to quantify the effectiveness of the defense that these ants provide in protecting the tree from herbivory. To do this, we gathered leaf samples from a young Cecropia tree without ant colonization and an older Cecropia tree inhabited by ants. We also collected various herbivores (grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids) along the way. Catching them was a group effort and was one of the highlights of my day.

After returning to the lab to set up the testing containers, we ate dinner (pasta, vegetables, and banana cake) and prepared for presentations. I will be presenting my taxon briefing on amphibians tonight (I did not find any today, sadly). I look forward to exploring more tomorrow. That’s all for now!