Christopher Gurguis: May 2008 Archives

The Plant and Mapping group finished our map of "Mixed 1," perhaps the most difficult patch at Leaves and Lizards.  We had woken up to a dark, gray and stormy Costa Rica at 5:30 this morning and in the hour and a half of sampling, not much had changed.  Stumbling down the side of "Mixed 1," Adaire and I plotted a number of points to form the map.  Lacking any of my field gear and (more importantly), lacking a waterproof notebook, I tallied the Melina trees on my left hand (see below).  Often getting a point for the Trimble took some time (up to 20 minutes in heavier forest).  Nevertheless, we are glad to have finished the map of the patch.

Today we looked into the topic of biological monitoring.  In Costa Rica, we will be conducting baseline monitoring.  Our sampling units will begin with transects and then with the remaining time, we will move on to count quadrats. 

Special attention will be given to five major tree species: Teak, Balsa, Cecropia, Kapok, and Rubber.  We will be noting the development of stratified forest recently reforested areas compared to unforested and naturally forested areas.