2013 FCRE Projects

This summer there are a number of student science projects going on at the FCRE, plus the random stuff that needs done.  Or, at times, just something that piques the curiosity and is worth a look at (see the last couple pics for one such amusing thing).

First up is Devyn and the photo-trapping project.  She has set up arrays of trail cams to study the movements of animals on the property.

Devyn checking the battery level and camera cards at a corner with two cameras.

Devyn at a set of in-line cameras. She is clearly enjoying the fun of the Costa Rican experience.

Elana is trying to figure out how large the range is of the leaf-cutter ants. Here she is measuring a survey leg to track the ants to the tree they are stripping.

Elana reading the compass on a leaf-cutter ant trail survey.

The leaf-cutter ants being studied.

Laura and Haley marking and recording spider webs for study.

Laura Sauvage measures a spider (Nephila clavipes)

The golden orb-weaver (Nephila clavipes), the subject of the study.

James is doing a soils profile of the property. Which means he gets to dig a lot of holes.

James digs deeper on the hole, surrounded by jungle.

And finally, a project that only just came up on this trip.  We were surveying a stream on the property, and it ended at a spring. That is not so unusual.  But this area had some soil piping (soil moving underground) and at the upper end of such things there was a small hole.  It was about 8-feet deep, had a small stream at the bottom, and the entrance was just barely big enough for Don McFarlane to actually fit in it.  We needed to find out if there were passages going off from the bottom of the little pit.  Soooooo...

Don lowering a short rope into the hole. Michael Ballagh is seemingly more interested in the trees.

Don about to disappear down the hole.

Down at the bottom, Don discovered a passage going off to the side, but after just a short distance it got too small to continue.

It was quite a struggle for Don to escape from the hole.