No artificial leaves ever made it to the end of our 30-m release, where the seine was set for their capture. This is an interesting find, since litter biomass is relatively low in the stream itself; where is it going? Are tadpoles, which do appear to be abundant, processing litter?
Some of my first attempts to take some trendy macro photographs of various actions. These are a couple of samples of macro photos I took of research in San Ramon. Allison was usually in charge of releasing and calling out artificial leaves into the streams and Mike was timing the releases – thus, our two hand models. I wish that I had played around with the depth of field a little more on these, but I still think they came out well. It’s difficult to take this type of photograph in the field, particularly in a dark, canopy-covered stream bed.
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For one of the litter releases in Rio San Lorencito, we decided to pose for some photographs. The second photo may be mistaken for a music band, save the rubber boots and overall lack of trendy clothing.
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The moth caterpillar that consumed much of the Thalia geniculata in the Catalina sector has come to the Palo Verde sector. I need to develop this…
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Another picture of my DeWit replacement series enclosures.
For the past few days, I have been sorting and identifying macroinvertebrates from some samples collected from the decomposition bags. Doing so made me appreciate lugging a microscope to Costa Rica, since the scopes here are horrendous. The dishes pictured here contain macroinvertebrates, mostly insect larva, that I’ve sorted to family.
I don’t like being in the lab.
Here’s some photos of the apple snail eggs I mentioned that had been laid in one of my enclosures.
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I placed little bundles of dead Eichhornia and Neptunia on a string and then attached the strings to my competition enclosures. This will allow me to estimate decomposition of these two plants in artificial mats that vary in the density of the two plant species.
You might notice that the water is getting deeper – it’s over the first barb wire, which makes it difficult to slide through the fence. I may yet have to construct a door…
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Now there is plenty of Neptunia. I collected several bags for decomposition. The Neptunia appears to be reaching for the light.
