Our second-to-last LCRS day. A lot of people went birdwatching, but not me! It was really cool today though 🙁 they saw a howler monkey family and some really fun birds, but I’ll get ‘em next time. After that though, I had some bread rolls with our classic eggs, beans, and fruit (thank you Ms. Angie!).
And then it was time for some caving! Not our regularly scheduled program, but so so cool. The cave was off of the station, and newly being researched by FCD’s Karst Management Unit. Immediately walking in there, it was ten times cooler (both temperature-wise and experience-wise). Given my topic lecture on life in the caves, it was so surreal to see. We saw stalactites and stalagmites, beautiful columnar speleothems, and the classic multi-chambered characteristics of the caves. And my favorite part, the cenote in the middle, featuring some groundwater as well. Cenotes don’t need to have water in them, so it was cool to see that this one did have some in it. Watching droplets of mineral, calcium carbonate polymorphs forming what in millenia will be curtains upon curtains on speleothems, it was surreal to see the potential of it all. Also, the cute bats flitting around were to die for. I kinda wish I’d been able to see some of the deeper chambers, potentially finding some troglobytes or troglophiles, but it was amazing nonetheless.
Interesting lichen from the day because we are not allowed to take pictures of the cave
After cave exploring, it was time to collect our pitfall traps from two days ago. I think the worst part was the heat along the pathway–it was such a contrast to moments before, and really trying for that reason alone. I did get to collect my nitrogen samples though, and I’m slightly proud to say that I caught a super big cockroach in one. Not that that beats Claire’s 66 ants in her groundwater, but still kinda impressive. Post-lunch (rice and beans), it was time to analyze the data and make a poster. Sam was our ant man once again, because that formed the majority of organisms we caught. Additionally, we did find some spiders, beetles, crickets, and some unknown species! It ultimately told us that the ground had much more resources like nitrogen, while the canopy had a greater difference between its water and nitrogen sample, hinting at resource limitation there. We made this really beautiful poster (Emily’s drawing for our methods section is actually a masterpiece oml). But after that, it was time for an evening hike to Bird Tower.
Pee-roll: featuring big cockroachData collection and tallying up the species!An arrowhead orchid midway our collection!
An uphill climb for sure! My feet still ache as I write this up. And through the hike up, Dyllan was definitely in need of a hiking pole. I think Ian needed one on the way down. Obviously, though, I was fine because I’m actually a super good climber and have the dexterity of a mountain goat and the climbing skills of a person who’s hiked the Himalayas. (JK but imagine if I actually believed that lol). To be honest though, delusion kept me going. That is, until I saw the beautiful sunset. It was worth it. Fiery, red ball in the sky, golden sky ablaze with colors, and dense canopy below, it was amazing to see all that we’ve previously hiked. It felt like such a surreal rundown, encompassing all the work we had previously completed.
The Great Potoo on our uphill climb–can you spot it?
Just because of the time we spent not directly in the forest, I didn’t get to observe much fungi and lichen past some white mold on a tree and a log. It was still very cool to see. And I’ve learned about a couple more fungi over this time, which I’m really happy about. I’ll be going up to Bird Tower again tomorrow though for sunrise, so I’ll compare that and y’all stay tuned!
One thing about living in LCRS during the dry season is that the mornings are HOT. Sweltering, with sweat running everywhere—which is why I was so grateful that we spent our morning indoors instead of in the forest.
We started off by analyzing our results from the Cecropia project yesterday. We collected the masses of leaves now that the grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids had been in their boxes a full day. As we soon realized, we would need to dry out the leaves and take out any potential excrement as well, which I wasn’t expecting to be the case. But that was the easy part. The harder part was reconciling from some of our previous miscommunications. Some had thought the colonized Cecropia leaves would be less likely eaten (myself included) while others had thought the opposite. For the former, I had thought that any chemical presence the ants had left, along with the physical resistance of withstanding ants for so long, would have meant a tougher leaf that insects would not eat much of as a result. In contrast, others had thought that the ants themselves, being the Cecropia’s main defense system, would cause the colonized leaf to be eaten more now that the ants were gone.
Soon enough, we tallied the masses and we got some numbers that matched up with my prediction! The total biomass of leaves before was pretty much the same after for colonized leaves, while the biomass of the uncolonized leaves decreased! Between individual leaves though, there were some differences that made this a bit weirder, where some leaves even gained mass! Maybe they just got super wet and really absorbed water? Or maybe some secret third thing happened. Who knows… unless we do a full-fledged experiment in the future!
After that though, it was time for a series of lectures! Every day, we do two taxon briefings of organisms in the rainforest, and a topic lecture about concepts in the forest. Right after our first taxon briefing on ants, however, we were in for a surprise! The director of the Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), Dr. Rafael Manzanero, made a surprise visit to LCRS. FCD is one of the largest Belizean nonprofits focused on protecting wildlife in the area. He described the various strategies they employ as rangers, mentors, researchers, and tour guides to elevate the status of the forest. It was so amazing to hear, especially understanding how the forest has transformed in his time here. We also learned more about the caves underlying the Belizean system with Ms. Yasmini Manzanero, who heads the Karst Management Unit for FCD. Having understood the natural importance of caves in my own topic lecture, it was especially eye-opening to learn about the cultural significance of the caves, and what they meant in Maya religious culture. With its 60 sinkholes and 65 km of passages, it’s no wonder there’s so much to document!
Ms. Manzanero describing the caves!Mid-day stick insect shenanigans.
And a couple more amazing lectures on epiphytes and plant-insect interactions later, we were off to find some leafcutter ant fungal colonies! I’d been really looking forward to this because the Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, the fungi grown within the garden has a really interesting hyphal swelling mechanism that I’d read about earlier, digesting food for the ants to eat. I will say, digging the ant colonies up was really hard. I haven’t yet developed that arm strength, I realized, but hopefully at some point! Looking at a young colony (1 yr) and an old colony (15 yr), it was interesting to see the difference in structure based on colony width, worker count, and more. At that 15-year-old point, the nest was also almost breathing, with channels selecting for oxygen inflow and CO2 outflow. The porosity of these hills was also amazing to observe.
Tiny fungal garden from young ant colony.
Lastly, we went on a cool, night hike with a ranger on LCRS, Steve! Using our headlights, we saw glowing spider eyes all around us. We also saw a nocturnal bird, some tarantula, and a line of ants. I think the best part though, apart from all the cool critters we saw, the best part was watching the stars and hearing the nightlife. Chirping crickets, whistling birds, snapping twigs, and shining stars, wafting along a cool breeze. What better place to be?
A cool cricket (Top) and the forest canopy (Bottom).
And… some mushroom updates! On the way to Las Cuevas Road, we saw some white-brown fungus that I thought could be some Turkey Tail. And on the night hike, I got to see this really cool red, fleshy mushroom that might have been a Ganoderma. These reishi mushrooms have been found in certain areas in Belize like in Cayo, so really cool to see here as well. Hoping to see a bioluminescent one next #manifesting #fingerscrossed #puttingitoutthere
Hi! Day 3/5 in the jungle! Today we listened to a lot of presentations. One was by the head of FRC where we got to learn more about their mission and role they play in LCRS and the surrounding areas. The other was about the caves here in LCRS and the cultural importance of them.
Then we did a leaf cutter nest extraction. We foundyoung leaf cutter ant that looked to be about 1.5 years old and had few ants. We got to see the queen on the fungal garden and see how big she was! This nest was young enough that the hive had no army ants yet. We then extracted an older leaf cutter nest that was about 20-25 years old! That one definitely had army ants. We were stomping our boots left and right. This nest had a guest cockroach and was absolutely massive. We dug in through the side to find the fungal garden of that nest as well. That fungal garden was huge with multiple chambers.
We then went on a night hike to finish the day. We put on our head lamps and headed out. Unfortunately we didn’t see much but a few cockroaches, tarantulas and other insects. We did see a lot of beetles though! There was one during dinner and a few during the various hikes throughout the day. The beetles we found were dung beetles and herbivores beetles.
Our day began with birding in the morning—and it did not disappoint. Within minutes, we saw a toucan showing off its enormous beak from the treetops. A red-crowned Amazon parrot soon followed, its call echoing through the canopy. The real showstopper, though, was a scarlet macaw soaring overhead, its vivid colors lighting up the sky. These species are not only beautiful—they’re also a vital part of the Chiquibul’s ecosystem and a major reason why this forest deserves protection.
After breakfast, we had a presentation from the head of Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), the organization responsible for managing the Chiquibul Forest. He talked about the forest’s biodiversity, the illegal activities that threaten it, and the work being done to protect it. It was eye-opening to hear just how much effort goes into preserving a place like this—especially when it covers such a vast and remote area.
Following that, we learned more about one of the Chiquibul’s most fascinating features: its cave systems. The presentation covered how these caves form, what kinds of species live inside them (lots of bats!), and their cultural importance as ancient Maya ceremonial sites. It was amazing to realize how much life and history exists not just above ground, but also below it.
In the afternoon, we shifted gears for some fieldwork. Our group investigated fungi growth on leaf-cutter ant colonies, comparing younger and older colonies to see how fungal size varies with colony age. These ants farm fungi as their food source, so changes in the fungi can tell us a lot about colony development and forest dynamics. Watching the ants carry leaf pieces in single-file lines was like watching a tiny, efficient city at work.
From birds in the treetops to bats in the caves and ants underfoot, today offered a full-spectrum look at life in the Chiquibul. It’s wild, complex, and full of surprises—and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Hello again. We just got back from our night hike, and it was quite lovely. Although we didn’t see a snake, we did smell some sort of big cat where some people had heard cat sounds before, so we think there’s a puma or ocelot around. I really hope our camera traps get a picture. We also saw a few cool bugs. We found lots of moths, but it was difficult for me to identify them or get a good picture because they are moving so fast. Sadhana got a picture of a really big one, so I plan to ID it later. Another cool bug we saw was a weevil. I covered weevils in my presentation today on plant insect interactions in the tropics, so it was nice to see one out in the field.
Earlier in the day, we saw another example of an insect plant mutualism from my presentation, which is leaf cutter ants! We excavated a young mound first and found the fungal garden and the queen. This mutualism is so cool because despite leaf cutter ants being known for their ability to cut and carry leaves, these leaves are actually to feed the fungus that they maintain in their own garden of sorts. As fungivores, these leaves fungus is their source of food. The queen that we saw started her nest by taking a piece of fungus from her origin nest, initiating a mating flight, and then finding a new spot to start laying eggs for her colony. The success rate of these new colonies are low, but they can be maintained for dozens of years, like the next mound that we excavated to find the fungal garden, which was ENORMOUS. I was really nervous about how we were standing right in the midst of all these giant, angry ants with giant mandibles, but the boots did a great job at keeping us safe.
While not a mutualism, my favorite part of the day was finding a stick bug friend that hung around with us for a little bit. His names is Stella, and he seemed to enjoy crawling up and down our faces and backs.
As I type this up, I have swatted away 15 bugs of different sizes, including two true bugs from my bright screen amid the dark screen. I think two are about to battle out for the space or try feeding on my screen (they’re debating).
I literally cannot believe we’re already 4/14 of the way into our trip. To be fair, it’s only the second day in LCRS, so we’ve still got a ton of time, but that’s already 28% of our trip! It’s been so so fun getting to know everyone and their tasks along our trip. From Sam’s ant catching to Dyllan’s butterfly trapping (always so close, it’s really really hard though), to Claire C’s insane ability to spot anything from a mile away. And also, Elise can tie super crazy knots (figures she was an Eagle scout). But we’re only getting closer as we complete more and more projects together. And today, we had two of them!
But not to get ahead of myself! First, at 6 we saw a group of parakeets–it was so cool to watch them fly above in formation. There were also a lot of bright green parrots and something called Morelet’s seedeater… makes me think they eat seeds lol. They were this really pretty shade of brown though I loved it. After this, we had a yummy, yummy breakfast of fryjacks with eggs and beans. Miss Angie has never missed on a meal, like plate scraped and everything. Now would also be a good time to mention the dishwashing station. There are three areas, a bin to scrub your plate with soap water, one to rinse off the water, and one with a mild bleach solution. We all wash our plates and utensils, and throw out any food scraps. While we did have sinks and stuff, this is actually a pretty similar system to one I use in India visiting my grandparents. All scraps need to be composted because they won’t be drained otherwise. And all food is washed outside to prevent insects from potentially entering indoors. But back to the point.
After breakfast, we got to working. Dr. Solomon taught us about pitfall traps. These are super useful to collect specimen in understanding the abiotic factors of the rainforest. One of these is nitrogen richness in the canopy vs. the forest floor. With the sheer mass of leaf litter, soil-breaking organisms, and roots on the ground, much can vary between this area and the canopy, which is dense, and often quite isolated. This includes nitrogen content, which can really change the mass of producers, and thus herbivorous and predatory invertebrates along the forest floor and the canopy. To understand these dynamics and how they varied species biodiversity and abundance, we decided to place a nitrogen source and regular fluid in the pitfall traps. We would add these to the base of trees to capture forest floor dynamics and the tree trunk to get the expansive canopy above. And what better trail than the 50 hectare plot. Funny enough, each spot was about 50 ft away from the other. Coincidence? I think not…
Ok, ok, but what was our nitrogen source? If you’ve read any of the other blogs, don’t spoil it. OK.
3..
2..
1…
…pee?
Yup! And so the process began. We were actually really speedy with the setup. And obviously, as the best person ever, I was first to go (we ran out of vials, and long story short my very makeshift pitfall needed to be placed quick). But it was really a cute setup. And writing coordinates and marking spots, we were done in time for lunch!
Featuring my pee!
One beautiful stirfry rice later, it was time for our second experiment of the day. A key characteristic of plants in the rainforest are their symbiotic relationships with insects. And one unique one is the Cecropia Tree and Cecropia ant. These ants burrow deep into the Cecropia, making multilevel chambers to lay their pupa in, gaining nutrition from the numerous extrafloral nectaries (little knobs on the tree surface). In return, the tree get’s protection from the ants against other herbivores.
We wanted to test out if there was more that was keeping the herbivores away from the tree. As ants habited the tree, did the tree physically and chemically change? To solve this mystery, we needed leaves from an uninhabited and an inhabited Cecropia tree. We would also need several general herbivores to compare this.
So off we went to the San Pastore and Las Cuevas Roads, hunting for both Cecropia and herbivores. But first off, (the royal) we caught to big, green katydids for each group. They were literally right there, and massive skill from Serenity, Dyllan, and Claire C. really paid off. Bug and leaf hunt time!
My favorite frolick yet. Remember those bright red nymph/beetle things from yesterday? We saw so many of them and it was giving herbivore so we stuck them all into one bin to pick apart later. Then, we were off on a cricket and grasshopper hunt. And Ian was really put to the test today with all of these species. I’d never caught bugs before this and it was a brain chemistry-altering experience. Crouching below, getting them with my bare hands, it was so fun. At one point I caught what we thought was an ant but turned out to be a tiger beetle, which is a lot more bitey and a lot less fun. Eventually, we got a high rise of the bugs. I like to think they were all like roommies back at the dorm, some better than others. Speaking of bitey though, we got to see a tarantula exoskeleton! They’re super hairy (the hair is a defense tactic!) and their fangs are a glossy black. It was so interesting to hold, because you know the tarantula is now bigger than this exoskeleton (a bigger shell of itself, one might say).
Tarantula exoskeleton!
Ian, the Orthoptera expert!
Also though, we got to cut open a Cecropia. It was so insane to see the layered chambers, as I’ll add below. And also, there were tarantula holes on the base of these trees. Crazy stuff. Try and try as we could though, we couldn’t get the young, uncolonized Cecropia. That is, until we literally walked 10 feet into Las Cuevas Road. And there it was, ready for Claire C. to spot it. Legendary stuff. Punching the leaves with a penetrometer to test physical resistance was definitely the most satisfying part of it all. I can’t wait to see how our insects do as we collect biomass of the leaves they eat tomorrow. But yeah, check out the leaves below!
The old Cecropia (top) and young Cecropia (bottom)
What a fun, tiring day. I got to present my topic lecture which was fun. I did have a lot more info than I thought and had to skim through it, but I hope it was decent! Also, some fungi/lichen updates! Today was kind of a slow day. I got to see some more Dirinaria in interesting places. Also, there was a Turkey Tail right at the end of the 50 hectare plot. It was like a reward (after the long day of potting up everything). Plus, my first few termite mushroom of the day, with hollow, funnel pileus and white coloration. And a really interesting one, Claire C. spotted a series of black shelf fungi on a high up tree. I couldn’t tell you what it was, but I would love to climb it and find out at some point.
Some fruticose lichen with cool apothecia!spot the mushrooms in the tree!Love u Dyllan thanks for the candid <3
P.S. Speaking of climbing, check out this vine I swung through. #gains #tarzan #allnatural #cleangirlaesthetic
Being in the rainforest feels like living out the Snow White dream. You wake up at 4 am to some howler monkeys, before being woken up for good at 6 am by grackles, macaws, and parrots. So maybe the birds didn’t really fold my clothes up for me or anything, but it was definitely a good start to the day.
Waking up bright and early, I was excited to some of the birds that woke me–bright green parrots on the tree past the porch of the Las Cuevas Research Station (LCRS) residential area. This vine and epiphyte-covered, maybe 50 ft tall tree holds so much life, roosting tired birds flying vigorously from clearing to tree. Within the span of 20 minutes, we saw so many other birds, including the iconic Montezuma’s Orapendula, with its bright yellow tail. We also saw some social flycatchers, distinguished by their yellow belly. And if not for the birds, stingless bees (aka the Drunken Baymen) were always ready to fly around us.
After this quick look at the forest, we had a delicious breakfast cooked by Angie of tortilla with eggs and beans, along with some pineapple and banana. And then it was time for our big research project of the day. Into the lab we went to learn about camera traps! They’re activated by motion to capture footage of wildlife movement, a useful trick in the remote portions of the Chiquibul Forest. With 14 camera traps for the 14 of us, we now had one big task—what research could we perform? Ultimately, we decided to understand the influence of manmade trails on biodiversity in LCRS. Scoping out the map, we decided to split our camera traps to encompass seven “disturbed” or direct trail areas and seven “undisturbed” areas adjacent to the trails.
The tree of (bird) life
We would place two traps on the smaller trails: the Maya Trail to 50 hectare plot track and the Bird Tower Shortcut. Two more would be placed on the medium-sized monkey trail. The final three would track movement across the recently closed San Pastor Road (one camera trap), and the typically used Las Cuevas Road (two camera traps). With a game plan in mind, we set off to the Monkey Tail trail. As we marked our path with direction coordinates, set up the camera trap, and marked the pink tape, we would go off into the forest right behind… with a machete! Dr. Solomon chopped and chopped the thick foliage, and we walked about 50 paces in before setting up the next trap. With a pattern established, we made quick work of the trails, marking the Maya Trail-50 Hectare Loop stretch as well. And after a delicious lunch of rice and beans, we set off to finish the Bird Tower shortcut and the bigger roads.
Trail mapping time!!
In my unbiased opinion, we saved the best spot (mine) for last. I was tasked with setting up the fourteenth camera trap on an undisturbed location past the Las Cuevas Road. Looks are deceiving– what we thought was a simple clearing turned out to be so much more arduous. Mounds of bamboo, sharp palms, and extended vines encircled the expanse, making the 50 paces all the more laborious. And yet, so worth it. We heard, and then saw two (2!) red woodpeckers, a promising start for what might be out there. And Leo, our tour guide yesterday, did mention seeing 16 jaguars through the open Las Cuevas road. So who knows what we’ll see.
The spiny give-and-take palms in our way.Working hard or hardly working? We’ll see what the trap captures…The coordinates of my marking, deep in the forest by Las Cuevas Road.
Nature in LCRS is elusive. There are signs of life all around, but it requires patience standing and squatting, peering closely into the flora. Doing so, we saw a big cat scratch, distinguished by the bare patch of soil, untouched by anything but the most recent leaves. Walking out further, we saw some leaves on a palm, regularly bit, in distinct, rectangular holes. Maybe a Honduran White Bat in its new roosting spot? Curious and curioser… Past the termites, butterflies, tailless scorpions, and ants—it was insect paradise. And that was just the tip of the iceberg: uncovering mossy logs, the microniches were teeming with life. Logs hid red nymph beetle hills, roots exposed termite mounds (fun fact, termites taste like carrots!), and elongated black beetles squirmed around, secreting chemicals to scare us away. Larvae hid in leaves and debris, and leafcutter ants cut perfectly semicircular holes into waxy leaves. It was sights upon sights to behold.
Red nymph galore
And I’m saving the best for last: the diverse fungi and lichen I glimpsed all across the forest. We started off strong with some dark green Common Greenshield attached to live trees, alongside the classic Powdery Medallions and epiphytes atop leaf expanses. But then well into the Monkey Tail trail, I spotted lichen growing atop shelf-like structures that I could only think were once shelf fungi. The unique structures and colors were a sight to behold, making the tree bark a mosaic of green. I have a feeling it was more Dirinaria, but jury’s out there. Further out into the Maya Loop, we saw a mossy, dark green lichen, only distinguished from moss by its powdery feel and radial growth pattern. Reaching LCRS again, we saw a light brown-white mushroom with white gills, likely a pearl oyster with its concave, fan-like pileus. In a fallen log after lunch, I saw a brown shelf-like mushroom, with brown striations on its pileus, most likely a Turkey Tail mushroom perched gracefully. Others also peaked out, with white borders around. Some even had mold growing atop it, fungus on fungus. Along the path, I saw fungi camouflage as leaf litter, with a yellow-white pileus.
The lichen atop fungi complex, along with classic Powdery Medallions. (Monkey Tail)A dark, green, mossy… lichen? (Maya Loop)
Two of the different Turkey Tails with different striation patterns, across logs.
One of the weirder, fuzzy fungi, with mold atop it.
Ultimately, it’s the little things that take over: quiet, patient, biding with life. It can be seen in the soft, white mold that covered a log’s underside today, and the plethora of insects, chirps, and smells everywhere. Today was an immersive experience into the forest, minute factors coalescing to develop the rich ecosystem around us.
The different fungi (white mycelia) and white mold, silently growing on the logs.
Hey yall, Sadhana here! Today marks a long transition day into activity in Belize. We started off meeting at 6 am on Rice campus. Realizing I wouldn’t wake up in time, I ended up pulling an all-nighter, which definitely made lugging my suitcases from my apartment to campus all the more exhausting. We packed in a sleeping bag and I got this really cute Nixon camera as well! We then headed to IAH, took a minute to check in our luggage, and completed the classic Customs and Immigrations rundowns. And lo and behold, we were in Belize!
At Belize’s Customs and Immigration port before officially entering the country!
Unfortunately, there was not a lot of fungi out and about. However, I did spot some lichen on trees when we arrived at the Crystal Paradise Ecolodge around 5:30 pm! These were light green in color and appeared somewhat leaflike, which made me think it could be one of the classic Powdery Medallion species. This was really cool because the species were growing on the bark of some other trees, and definitely could have been attributed to being moss or something else. It does take close observation to see the growth patterns though, which makes it even more worthwhile. The Powdery Medallion belongs to the Dirinaria genus, and Belize is known for having the applanata and picta species within this group, oftentimes coalescing to take on a given bark. The mint-green to grey color appeared to be more consistent with the applanata. But it could have been both lichen—only DNA testing could tell.
The Dirinaria lichen in Crystal Paradise Ecolodge covering the entirety of a slender branch in foliose growth patterns.
We also saw a lot of leafcutter ants in the Ecolodge, scurrying in neat, orderly lines to drop their prized leaf possessions around 6:30 pm, when taking a walk to the nearby river. Leafcutter ants cultivate fungal gardens as a method of digesting the plant material in the leaves. These complex gardens require a lot of symbiosis between the ants and fungi, with specific ants corresponding to specific fungi in this process. While I couldn’t identify the ants due to how quickly they moved, I will hopefully get better at that, potentially pinpointing the associated species from there.
Overall, today’s trip was really worthwhile! It was a super hectic day, and though there wasn’t much of my taxon around, we spotted a nest of these fine, white eggs, enshrined in feathers by a nearby river. We also saw two iguanas! They really camouflaged well into the trees until all of a sudden they would jump into the river and you would hear a large plop! Were they scared of us? Did they just want to cool down (I know I certainly did)? But better luck tomorrow, I’ll be on the hunt!
P.S. some other cool things we saw!
(top) A series of eggs we found at the Cheers! restaurant around 3pm, right after getting out of the airport. (bottom) A cute little toad with green and yell striations, and warts on its back. Elise and I found it on a late night walk (~9pm) in Crystal Paradise Ecolodge.
Hey y’all, my name is Sadhana! I’m a rising junior from Lovett College studying Bioengineering. Our trip to Belize is literally one day away (eek!) and I’m so so excited. We had an information meeting around the end of the spring semester, and since then I’ve been getting my snorkeling gear in check, and am about to start packing. Which… considering the state of my room, may take a while. Not to fret, a whole 24 hours await 🫡
Alongside gear, we’ve had a ton of pre-work to get ourselves familiarized with flora and fauna around Belize’s Las Cuevas Research Station and Glover’s Reef (representing portions of the rainforest and coral reefs respectively). I’ll be the first to say–I massively underestimated the time it’s taken me to get through it. But it’s been so, so worthwhile. In the rainforest, I’ll be scavenging for fungi and lichen, and in the reefs, I’ll be grazing for parrotfish (puns intended if you find them).
Learning about the taxonomy and sheer variety of species has been insane. I am absolutely in love with fungi and I could barely fit all the species I wanted into my taxon ID sheet. As a tropical habitat, Belize has so many niches that the fungi occupy. And don’t even get me started on the cool cellular adaptations lichen have, merging algae and fungi into one superbody. On the other hand, I didn’t know much about parrotfish before starting on my reef taxonomy presentation. I’ve come to internalize how important parrotfish are as a keystone species, not to mention their interesting jaws. They serve the purpose of maintaining reefs, but they’re also so flamboyant, I love it.
I think it would be amazing to find any of the species I have on my ID sheet, but I’m even more excited to find ones I haven’t seen yet. However, I have absolutely no experience doing fieldwork, so figuring out what to look for, what to remember, and how to maintain field notes will all be challenging, and I’m a bit nervous about that. But I did live in the tropics of India, so I’m used to similar climates. This is my idea of all the David Attenborough Planet Earth documentaries I’ve grown up watching, so I can’t wait to put in the work, no matter how intense it might get. We’ve got a lot planned, and I just know it’ll be a trip to remember.
p.s. The state of my packing at 11 pm the night before we leave (this was the better part…)
I didn’t wake up to birds today, I woke up to the sound of my sister getting ready for school, and my brother playing video games. Instead of being greeted in the morning by hermit crabs and bees, it was my dog. Instead of the smell of soil, rain, and the sea, it’s the smell of a city (pee and cigarettes). My dad kept asking if I would want to go back someday, and my answer is always “yes, of course!” Like I would sit in the mangroves of death every day for an hour just to go back with everyone for another week.
It’s crazy how despite all the differences between the coral reef and the rainforest, the thing that really relates them the most is the vast diversity they hold and maintain. I’m sure we could get into scientific differences, the framework of the reef being built on the exoskeletons of coral, the forest reliance on the nutrient cycle to maintain the trees which provide for the rest. I’m inclined to say that rainforests are the coral reefs of land (instead of the opposite, but that might just be my personal preference for the reef). But instead of thinking too hard about all the scientific levels these two ecosystems relate, I think they’re related in that they each filled me with the same sense of awe, wonder, curiosity, and endless excitement. I could stare over each environment for hours, and never get bored, there’s always something new to look at, a different fish, a new bird, a new interaction, a tree so tall you can’t see the top, or a reef so deep you can only imagine what’s on the bottom.
My expectations going in were that it would be much more formal, more pressure and much stricter. In reality it turns out our professors are kind, understanding, and just as curious and excited as we are, they’re just happy to help us grow in our knowledge and experience and push our interests even further.
My favorite part of the course was Glover’s reef, without a doubt. I think it’s really solidified for me that marine biology is what I want to continue to study, that I can thrive not just in a lab at my lab bench with pipettes, but also in the field. I know that I can handle unexpected circumstances, changing plans and uncertainty and not freak out. I’m supposed to write about my least favorite parts of the course but I can only think of the van rides, not because they weren’t fun, just because I get carsick really easily. Honestly, I kind of miss the mosquitos and the bugs. I also learned that I can make new friends, even when it’s scary and it’s all people I’ve never met before. I always thought I was really shy and I was really scared of meeting new people, but even after a couple days I was ready to call everyone there with me a friend, and I hope that we will all continue to be friends even as we continue through undergrad or graduation, and I really hope to be able to work with everyone again in the future in some capacity or another.
Not to bash premeds, but this course has completely erased any doubts I had about changing paths. No matter how much work we were doing, how long the days were, how frustrating the waves, how seasick I was or how itchy I got, I was always happy. I was completely engaged and eager to learn. I really thought that medicine would be the only thing worth pursuing for me, and when I was forced to drop premed because it was making me miserable I was worried that nothing else would be as worthwhile or fulfilling. But I’m realizing there’s no point in having the most respected career or the most intense academics if you’re miserable the whole time and not even interested. I wanted to be a marine biologist in elementary and middle school, and even the first few years of high school, then I changed my mind to becoming a doctor, but that clearly didn’t last, I just don’t think I can stay away from the ocean and everything there is to learn and explore there.
EEBIO full steam ahead!!! This isn’t the last time you’ll see me on a reef, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to go all the way to the bottom of the ocean!
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.”
