dia tres

Tuesday

Early day and long day! Missing my daughter and hoping she is ok without mama’s bedtime wishes.   We ate breakfast at 6:30 then headed out on a tour of the botanical gardens with Rodo followed by a hike in the premontane rainforest on the Java river trail with Scott.   Good hike with a lot of fun climbing and large root challenges.  We met with our students and did some intensive planning for research during the afternoon and evening.  Kate, Shaniah and I did a reconnaissance trip through the forest to find bromeliads to sample for invertebrates and to plan places to install camera traps to track vertebrate use of this aquatic/semi-aquatic micro-ecosystem up in the trees.  This is one of many types of epiphytic microhabitat that provide additional complexity, in turn generating greater diversity, in tropical forest systems.  We marked at least 7 bromeliad locations with orange biodegradable tape for later return.   We now need to locate a ladder and other equipment that I couldn’t fit in my back from the U.S., and devise a sampling methodology for these microhabitats that can be standardized.  We saw 4 white-faced monkeys playing in the trees and eating - we think- lichens off the trees for about 30 minutes about 20 feet from us on our way back to the station!  Very proud of all these great mentors and students during our introductions tonight. Finally got to talk to my daughter to wish her good night and sing a song to her because Randall and his boys let me call the family using their internet in their cabin – thanks Randall! (Guaco internet still not working – still couldn’t post this blog yet either J)  Hoping internet will be up in our cabin Wednesday so we can download papers and methodologies needed for our research…