Honduras

Another 3d quadrat has been placed, this time in San Francisco de la Paz, Olancho Honduras. I placed this 3d quadrat under a Enterolobium cyclocarpum "ear pod tree" which tend to dominate the area. Predominately this area is filled with scrubby vegetation, very dry hard "soil", leaf-cutter ants, with very low humidity dry dusty air. It is also home to some of the poorest, most friendly and generous people I have met.

In the image you can see the ear pod tree and the characteristic ear pod -seed pods on the ground in and around the 3d quadrat.

More on this 3d quadrat adventure later.

April2009

The 3-d quadrat on Humingbird Cay in the Bahamas was successfully revisitied adding new observations and data downlaoded form last year. It was removed from the water late last summer before a hurricane but survived and was reinstalled this March.

The most direct observations was the Montastrea (common star coral) and Porites (finger coral) have not changed much as might be expected with their relatively slow growth rates. But there was an "invasion" of algae not observed last year. The cause is unknown and probably not of any concern. The fun part of observing the same loaction over time is that you start to see things that you either might not been aware of before or over time more things simply happen in that space (time to observe them happening). My favorite observation was that this year there was a pair of juvenile French Angel fish inhabiting the area, and the rays seemed to be more abundant.

Water temperature, air temperature, pH, and density were also measured and very similar to last year's readings. If I get a chance to observe again next year it will be interesting if any short-term trends can be identified.

In the images you can see two rays swimming right by the 3-d quadrat, the yellow algae being gently moved away to take a picture of the star coral, the porites with some white disease growing on it, an Angel fish near the 3-d quadrat, and some tomato-shaped anemones I did not observe last year - but are probably not new.

This project is made possible by Dr George Elmore at Tufts Unvierstiy and Mr Van Bernhard. Thanks also to Forrest for his invaluable assistance.

March2009

It has been a very exciting year for 3-d quadrats and I have been able to establish on at the Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station in the Ecuadorian Amazon http://192.188.53.69/tiputini/, thanks to Dr Doug ZOok at Boston University SChool of Education and the Tiputini Station. The Amazon is an amazing place and the biodiversity there is truely amazing. The estimate is that in a single hectacre there are over 500 organisms, at least half of which are not duplicated in that area. Even a single limb of a tree there contains organisms not seen anywhere else on Earth. There is a joke that if you want to find a new species of plant or animal then go to the Amazon and you could potentially one a new one each day.

The 3-d quadrat that was established in the Amazon will be observed periodically during the year but revisited at least one each year by researchers. AAS you can see in this image, the Amazonian 3-d quadrat contains a kapok tree. Kapok are abundant and very important in the Amazon, as well as other ecosystems. Their buttress roots hold them up in the poor soil and provide shelter (and food) for other organisms. In another image you can see how a ficus vine as encircled a kapok tree to the point where the kapok was strangled and died, leaving only the ficus (strangling fig) - shot from inside the ficus looking up.

The Amazon is an amazing place and the observations from the 3-d quadrat placed there will be very interesting, though