David and recruited field help sample fish the west branch of Rio Java, a tributary that drain primary wet forest.
Collecting fish from the West Branch of Rio Java
Tag Archives: People
Mel’s litter bag collection
Mel’s experiment involved collecting litter of two species and distributing litter bags in backwater areas along a Rio Java at Las Cruces and monitoring decomposition of the litter. Here are some photographs of her second and last collection period. Mel was interested in examining macroinvertebrate communities associated with decomposing leaf litter, so she carefully removed litter bags with a colander and transported the bags to the lab for processing in plastic bags. Daniel Bird assisted in this collection. Mel plans to present her data at some meetings, including SACNES, which she’s receiving funding to attend in October.
More bat research
Jason and Alice work with students (Kela, Tali and Ashley) and the owners of Finca Cántaros during some bat mist netting.
Bat release
Alice sadly releases a bat
Failed bat release
Photography release of bats isn’t easy; Alice attempts to release one here, but it only flies off after my flash ran out of juice.
View and panorama of San Vito
From Finca Cántaros, Duval, Alice, and Jason sit and view San Vito
Stream collections and characterization
Nest predation in the Wilson Botanical Garden
Wendy Kuntz, a NAPIRE faculty mentor from University of Hawaii-Kapi’olani Community College, is advising a couple of students in projects about bird behavior and nest predation. Here, Shaina, one of Wendy’s students, is placing 40 artificial nests within the Wilson Botanical Garden at Las Cruces to assess nest predation rates at both high nest locations (~2 m) and low nest locations (~1 m). Shaina monitors loss of quail eggs in the nests over the course of a week. I “helped” set a few of the nests up one day… but I ended up dropping the cooler full of quail eggs and smashed about 8 of them. I will not likely be asked to help again…
500,000 hectares
Zak, the station director at Las Cruces OTS, talks about La Amistad Biosphere Reserve atop Cerro Chai. The NAPIRE students from the Pacific Islands were surprised at the summit: there was just more forests and mountains at the top… not ocean!
The first hike around Sendero Chai
Jason and Alice hike down the mountain near Sendero Chai.
