Shrub sub-sampling has been great so far. It took a while, but I have finally established a rhythm and method of how to count for the different signs of herbivory without having to consult the data sheet after ever observation. From the data that I've gathered so far, I would hypothesize that there would be the greatest amount of herbivory (nibbles and side-crunches) on the shrubs in the bird exclosures and the least amount on the controls. I think that this makes sense since the exclosure would keep out birds that would eat arthropods, creating a top-down control and the amount of damage arthropods would wreak. After I finish the rest of the samples, I will be inputing the data into an Excel sheet and then Lizzie and I will see if the predictions are true. To conclude this short post, I present a picture taken with my point-and-shoot camera through the microscope lens (which took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to do, James made it look so easy...)
 |
| Surprise! I found this cicadellid while sampling. It was very exciting, I ended up poking/playing around with it for a good 5 minutes. |
Oh yes, and a Happy Chinese New Year to all. May this year bring about great discoveries and festivities in the Year of the Rabbit.
No comments:
Post a Comment