An overall recap of the events of La Cruces. Our classeroom is in Casa Wilson.

We began our lessons with an overview of safety and risk mitigation while we where here. Our first lecture was called “Dangerous and annoying creatures” Bottom line, use common sense if you want to not get messed up out here. Sometimes however, common sense is overridden by our overall excitement. I should never have told my classmates I was EMS certified, I have been the “lifeguard” of the group once so far.

Out in the rain forest, always bring a flashlight, it is quite dark in the understory during the day and the sun sets at 6pm. The most dangerous things out here are either self-induced or microbial. Drink water a lot. Don’t let mosquitoes bite, but you will be bitten by mosquitoes. Snakes and spiders are simple to avoid, don’t antagonize them. These are the fundamentals of being a tropical biologist.

Taxonomy:

My first taxonomy course was on Arthopodia, the familiar orders are Arachnea, Crustecea, and Insecta. Insecta are the largest group by far in both number of species and number of individuals. Our American born professor, Erika Deinert, gave a lecture on her specialty, Lepidoptera. The takeaway from her lecture was that definitive identification of a species in the whole order requires DNA testing, not a tool I can use in the field at this point. I was surprised to learn that a particular family specializes on fermenting fruits and can actually get “drunk”. Videos on Youtube show them with listing wings and fly up for a few moments and collapse back down.

Our first homework assignment is to collect different specimens  from these groups and identify their order and family using observations of their anatomy. This week we will begin plant taxonomy and meet with a “crazy” biologist who will teach us his methods of identification.

Finally, it is important to understand that the structure of the tropical forest is complex. The trees here do not grow nearly as tall as sequoias or as old as bristlecone pines, and there is no clear definition of where the understory ends or the canopy begins. All lifeforms here take advantage of one another, and the coevolutionary arms race has always been “hot”. There is a lot of desperation in balance here, which I think that desperation is one factor that yields the biodiversity here.

My eight companions and I have finally undergone the orientation of this semester abroad. Well, only eight of us made it to orientation. Our last classmate was delayed by a full 24 hours from Massachusetts. We will be traveling to 6 different sites that contain unique ecosystems at each site. There are two independent research projects at Palo Verde and La Selva stations, one is a dry forest and the other an “iconic” wet forest. These involve developing a ecosystem based hypothesis, answering that question with field research, and presenting it through a scientific paper, and oral presentation. There will also be a day in which we will present research at a community college, but more on that when it happens. Finally, we will have guest lecturers and assist them on their personal research and learn from their particular discipline of ecology.

Our biology portion will involve learning to classify families of plants and insects, we are avoiding mammals and reptiles for safety reasons, and because our resident professors are plant and insect experts. We will discuss how each ecosystem we visit cycles nutrients and sustains its biodiversity. We will visit Panama by bus near the end of March and also study coral reefs at Bocas del Toro, a system of islands on the border between the two countries.

That last science portion of this course is environmental study and policy. This involves visiting farms near each site and discussing how they affect the rain forest and visa versa. This will be the difficult part for me because we will be required to taste test about five different types of coffee, and those who know me should be worried that this is where my addiction will start.

All OTS stations are quite modern, with internet and housing for up to 100 researchers at one site and well developed trails and gardens at these sites.

So I have only two hours to go before I report to SFO for my flight. My fellow classmates for this semester have had mixed luck. Many are traveling from New England and one has confirmed a cancelled flight from New York. It will be interesting to see how they shift from a major snow system to the equator region of the globe.