tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85413182306094362592024-03-19T03:27:03.104-07:00South of AmericaFor 10 weeks, I will be staying in the El Yunque Rainforest of Puerto Rico studying effects of urbanization and chemical contaminants on growth of biofilms. I'll be posting about my experiences for the next two and a half months.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-58377201721618700242013-08-09T09:42:00.002-07:002013-08-09T09:42:35.094-07:00Coming HOME! Home, here I come!<br />
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The past 10 weeks have been great in so many ways. I have made new friends, experienced new culture and learned a ton about the ecology of Puerto Rico, specifically, the El Yunque Rainforest. After a dose of aquatic ecology, I think I will stick to focusing on terrestrial ecosystems and maybe start digging into soil microbial ecology.<br />
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The blog took the back burner as I got busier and busier toward the end of the summer (Sorry!). It was fun, stressful at times but the most rewarding experience I think I have ever had. I'm going to keep this short and say thanks for reading, Love you all, miss you and can't wait to see you.<br />
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Check out the poster that came of the research Sofia and I did this summer. Classen lab folks, look forward to a talk too :) Sofia and I are currently coming up with a plan for publication and eyeballing potential journals.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-16185852836392868622013-07-22T06:58:00.000-07:002013-07-22T06:58:04.978-07:00A condensed week and a halfWhat a week. I haven't written in a while, but here it is. Some weekend fun from the weekend before last and one long week of collecting samples and doing lab work.<div>
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July 13th-14th:</div>
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What a fun weekend! We traveled to the southwest portion of the Island and stayed with PJ's parents in his home town. Early early Saturday morning, we drove to Arecibo to visit another REU on the island. They are a group of physics students studying at the Arecibo Observatory. It was such a cool place. We talked to them about their projects which have to do with pulsars and other complicated topics all new to me. It's interesting, one girl, Thankful, who studies millisecond pulsars points the telescope where she needs it to scan and then (to my surprise) looks at graphs and from those graphs, she can tell a whole range of things, like if there is interference from phones etc, if there is a pulsar. Specifically if it's a millisecond pulsar meaning it rotates completely in 1-10 milliseconds. It was neat to hear about the history of the telescope, all of which has left me since a week ago :) I was really blown away by the size and nature of the telescope. I imagined, a large room with a seat in the middle where you lay back at a slight angle and peer into a little spyglass tube that connects to a larger one and a larger one and a larger one etc. They laughed when I told them, needless to say. Look at this thing..</div>
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We swam, ate lunch and eventually said goodbye to Arecibo.. It was on to Ponce from there..<br /><br />In Ponce, we went to the kioskos, a little strip on the beach of restaurants, bars and shops. So much fun.. We had drinks and food and even took a flaming shot. We drank it through a straw. It was not bad but honestly, it was not good either. Midori, Grenadine, Some yellow stuff, maybe creme de banana, tequila? (Danielle, have you ever made one?) and 151 so it lights. Sure does, let me tell you. You put the straw in, drink up and hope you're quick enough that you don't melt it and inhale straw fumes.<br /><br />That night we headed to PJ's parent's house where his sweet Mother had beds and snacks ready for all 14 of us. I was amazed that she found the space, the girls room was downstairs, sort of like a little basement attached to the garageport. You could not step without stepping on some bodies bed, Casey (a field tech for Gus who is doing fish research) had her bed on top the pool table. It was dark when we came in but when we woke up it was such a beautiful view. They live in the southwest portion of the central mountains. There were roosters crowing, fog clearing and a friendly pair of dogs playing in the road. </div>
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We eventually left the endless fruit trees, homely feel and lovely mountains of PJ's hometown and headed to the beach. We went to Cabo Rojo, "Playa Sucia" meaning dirty beach. You can see, it's quite the opposite. Arguable the most beautiful beach on Puerto Rico's main island.<br />
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We did not stay for too long because we had a date with some snorkels at 2:00p in La Parguera. The guide first took us to a sand bar called the party bar, which was nice and fun. There we tested out our snorkeling gear and I swam over to the Pincho boat to get a grilled chicken kabob. mmmmmmmm. From there we went to a shallow spot to snorkel where we saw urchins, cucumbers fish, coral, grasses and other small sea biota. I like snorkeling, It's fun. It was the first time I had ever been. We moved from there (we were in a boat boating around the different keys) to a deep spot and woahhh how different it was! We saw lobsters and crazy crazy corals and so many fish. Schools of anchovies or sardines, or something. There were some corals along a transect that were tagged, somebody must be doing some research. I got out and as we were boating to the last spot, a mangrove, I learned that I get seasick. After I thought about it, I realized I have never been on a small ocean boat (that I can remember) so yeah, seasick.</div>
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We eventually left, got in the car and headed home. It was such a fun trip home. We were in 2 cars united by walkie talkies. We joked and sang back and forth which made the trip go by really quickly. The station was a pleasant sight. Sleep came easily that night. Monday would mark the start of chaos. </div>
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And so it was, I began collecting and processing my samples. This is why I've been out of touch with the blog, because since monday it has been nonstop. I have stayed at Sofias home in Rio Piedras twice because the nights have been so late. Between collecting samples, placing them in tubes, going through a 3 hour light and two hour dark cycle with dissolved oxygen and mass measurements plus filtration in between, I would get back to the lab with samples at 12 Noon and not finish until 11:30 at night. Once a set was finished, it went to the chlorophyl extraction stage for 6-24 hours. Then, to the light absorbance on the spectrophotometer to eventually find the chlorophyll-a content. Basically place in tube, fill, measure DO, light cycle, make foil baggies, weigh them, Measure DO, filter, fill, measure DO, dark cycle, measure DO, filter, chlorohyll extraction in methanol, spec readings, back in the foil baggies, mass, oven dry for 24 hours, mass, burn, weigh. Mass Mass mass, foil baggies (no crucibles here, folks) for all 48 samples from each stream. It's like 18 of labwork for each 48 samples (not including the wait time for chlorophyll extraction, oven drying, and muffle furnace burns). </div>
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So today is my last day of this madness and I am so excited to finally have data to work with!!!! All summer, I have just been waiting around, switching things out sometimes and mostly just hanging around the station waiting on my biofilms to grow. My time has come and it has done me in. It's almost over though, and tomorrow, we go to Culebra Island at 2am to catch the 4:30am ferry over. I'm going to sleep on the beach, get sunburnt, and have the most relaxing day of my life.<br /><br /><br />This post is almost as disorganized and ranty as by brain feels, but more to come eventually, maybe with some results next time? Who knows. </div>
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blah,<br /><br />Brandy</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-69414915787445054612013-07-16T17:41:00.000-07:002013-07-16T17:41:00.305-07:00Elvia Melendez-Ackerman, plant-plant feedbacks<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud560QUAGmnbz5QxpbFPYrsOPICAuwpn2Dy59ksXsWaZ7MjDgL9pum1Lc5pX4Nq9bILhsv8YwrjbTnvq36dyNZmWb5YJuo88SOqLnu3etNjiILkiZcYnEcuZf4aUXSkqWb7jvxODNcug/s1600/MonaIsle.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud560QUAGmnbz5QxpbFPYrsOPICAuwpn2Dy59ksXsWaZ7MjDgL9pum1Lc5pX4Nq9bILhsv8YwrjbTnvq36dyNZmWb5YJuo88SOqLnu3etNjiILkiZcYnEcuZf4aUXSkqWb7jvxODNcug/s400/MonaIsle.jpeg" width="400" /></a><br />
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Elvia Melendez-Ackerman, UPR Rio Piedras, gave us a seminar wednesday talking about plant-plant interactions on Mona Island, an island in between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It's an interesting looking island, without many beaches as you might suspect, the coastline is dominated by jagged looking cliffs, like the photo on your left. There is a cactus, threatened species <i>Harrisia portoriscensis, </i>is now endemic to the island that used to colonize Puerto Rico as well but no longer does. (endemic to = only found in that area, for example, the hellbender salamander is endemic to the eastern US)<br />
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For this project, her work, along with graduate student Julissa Rojas-Sandoval, focuses on the interaction between african grass <i>Megathyrsus maximus </i>and <i>H. portorscensis. </i>To begin, they tried to understand first how this flower is pollinated, and which type of pollination, (natural, cross, self, autogamy or agamospermy) produced the highest amount of fruit set. They initially thought that it was a bat or bee pollinated flower, but turns out, after monitering 200 hours of the flower, it was only visited 5 times! So what is driving the pollination of these cacti flowers? Well, turns out it's wind. </div>
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See here, to the left, the cactus has really long flowers, Elvia and Julissa found that on average, they were 21 cm from the main stalk of the cactus, allowing the flower to be out in the open where wind could freely whirl it around. It flowers all year long, yet this species has become extinct in Puerto Rico and is in fear of the same on Mona Island. So the task at hand was to get information on the population, specifically, whether or not it was threatened in Mona Island. Plant censuses brought about interest in the invasive african guinea grass,<i> M. Maximus </i>that was beginning to take over the southeastern portion of the Island. It's no small wonder that it's fire and drought resistant and is taking over. They found that the population is slowly but surely decreasing and that it's likely due to the presence of this invasive grass, but that is still up for debate. Shade was found to affect the juvenile stage of the cacti, specifically, shade from the grass hinders the growth while shade from other plants native to the island does not hinder their growth. It's a strange situation. I thought that the next step in an experiment like this would be to do lab growth of cacti in soils collected underneath different types of plants found on the island. Plant-plant feedback turned plant-soil feedback. Sounds like fun :)<br /><br />This post is sufficiently late by a week but I've been so busy.. We had a great weekend on the southwest portion of the island, and I will eventually maybe this weekend post about that. I began collecting and processing my samples this week so it has been quite insane.<br /><br />3 more weeks or so.<br /><br />Brandy </div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-27188413363740672582013-07-08T14:03:00.001-07:002013-07-11T07:02:13.950-07:00Happy Birthday Kaci White!I'm straying from the normal post content of this blog because it's my best friends birthday! I wish I could be there to celebrate her 22nd birthday with her. I miss you and love you Kaci!!! In the going on 8 years that I have known you, you've been a better friend than I could ask for. Thanks for being that person. You are wonderful! In lieu of being there with you, here's some of our fun times from the books. :) <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Happy Birthday, Kaci White!</span></div>
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:) adios mi mejor amiga, te amo!</div>
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Brianne Chasilea, I love you too! :)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-43296516630304285322013-07-07T08:11:00.005-07:002013-07-07T08:15:27.453-07:00El Cuarto de JulioIt's been a good week. Full of enjoyment, that is. It started off under the crunch to finish my restructured introduction. It took a lot of time to do, and what I ended up with is two and a half pages of background. I'm almost nearly sure that it's waaaaaaaaay too long, I'm just waiting on Sofia's comments. The good thing is, that most of the space is spent talking about what is known about biofilm function altered by organic chemicals; caffeine, diuron, sucrose (more later) and sucralose. Soooo, if it turns out that I have gone into far too much detail, then half my discussion section will be done since in the discussion, I will speak on my results and call upon other studies who have found results on a similar study. Glad that's over, for now..<br />
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Thursday was an eventful day in many ways, Sofia and I are in phase II of the experiment, we had an amazing dinner at a barbeque we attended for El Cuarto de Julio, and it was my doggies first birthday. Happy Birthday, Boudreaux.<br />
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We had been at the grocery store the night before and instructed to find something to bring to the barbeque. As a group, we decided on pinchos, the Puerto Rican shishkabob, because who doesn't love a shishkabob? We made fruit, veggie, chicken and shrimp pinchos for a vege-pesce-tarian/carnivore combo. We fixed up homemade hummus and salsa, too. We made the hummus without tahini, although we found a jar of it, it was too much tahini and too expensive and we only needed a very little bit. The hummus great, so don't let lack of tahini keep you from making your own! </div>
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Sofia and I were late to the barbecue due to a morning full of mishaps. We have started switching out the plain agar growth environments for chemically amended ones, but first, we had to make the chemical agars. <i>oh joy.</i> We had 6 types of agar to make and when making agar, allow extra time unless you're a seasoned pro. First, a control agar, then each single chemical agar and also, a mixed treatment (since normally, these chemicals aren't found in isolation in the environments they pollute, plus we will be able to account for possible synergies amongst the treatments). First we poured the agar too soon and it didn't solidify.<br />
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Then we made one batch 30 mL shy of the perfect amount. Later, we let the water get too hot before we added the agar powder so when we added it, the water started to boil, and the agar floated up like it was bubble surfing on the water and when we took it off the heat, boiling stopped and it was a large clump of agar. All this was scattered about some successful attempts, and in the end we finished them. After they cooled, we went down to Quebrada Taína (Taína stream). It was about 2:00 and everyone had already left. We came back, got cleaned up and left the station in search of the Ackerman's residence up the mountain where everyone was enjoying the nice weather at the annual Fourth of July BBQ. When we left the gate, I got out to close it and there was a sweet little puppy walking by, he was starving, you could tell by his protruding ribcage and bony thighs. He was all black, probably a boxer, terrier mix or something. Really cute, and he had a big <i>cecropia </i>leaf in his mouth, like he was going to eat it. The thing about strays here, is that they are everywhere. I mean everywhere. Many people are irresponsible with their animals and shelters are overflowing, so they just run wild and reproduce when people drop them off because they don't want to take care of them. I got back into the car and we headed to the BBQ..</div>
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Pine trees? Strangely, yes. They have been introduced over the years and here, near the Ackermans place, there are plenty. </div>
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It was a great time, the Ackermans have a nice residence up in the hills of El Yunque. There were lots of people, many of James and Elvias' graduate students, all of the mentors, us REU's, ALonso's family and all the techs at the station. There was soooo much food. The pinchos turned out great, everyone had a nice time, outside on a sunny day in the mountains. It's rare that the weather works along with your plans here, so this was delightful. Here we are..</div>
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When we got back to the station, the pup was not at the bottom of the road near the gate anymore, he had made the hike up, and found his way about a quarter mile away to the station!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqL0OKMAJHTtF5PhWI_iupwpzC5X5hddu1unn39wVbVvUx3AGuwHX1gr7USeCXg7NqOkbm0PIbeiYMOflTzfqJ2k8x2fwHoE8zokcgVh2qGrcnNtKWc84Gf2PyPNRlm1OqobLBAYCIyls/s1600/IMG_6884.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqL0OKMAJHTtF5PhWI_iupwpzC5X5hddu1unn39wVbVvUx3AGuwHX1gr7USeCXg7NqOkbm0PIbeiYMOflTzfqJ2k8x2fwHoE8zokcgVh2qGrcnNtKWc84Gf2PyPNRlm1OqobLBAYCIyls/s400/IMG_6884.jpg" width="300" /></a>Roxy and Natalia found him when they got home and felt so terrible for the poor thing that they gave him a name, pincho, and fed him, which is sort of forbidden here. Hilda says that if we feed them, she will known because they will stay. And once we start feeding them, they're our responsibility. He hung around until the next day, when Keysa learned about a friend who was looking for a new pup. He brought his doggie over so check for compatibility and turns out, they got along great! Her friend re-named our little pincho to Meeko, (spelling?) which Sofia tells me is a a type of monkey.<br />
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Here's Pincho..</div>
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So, here I am now, it's Sunday. Friday, I made more agars to set out Saturday in the nasty Venezuela stream. Normally, we wear gloves in that stream (the stench alone is enough to make you vomit), but I was working with little zip ties and a sharp knife and I said screw the gloves, lets get this done! Big mistake. We finished quickly which was nice, but now I am up to my shoulders in some new rash. I don't know if it was the super nasty stream we were in or the soap I used to clean the yuck off afterwards, but my arms are covered in bumpety, itchy, hot redness. I was hard to sleep last night because of it but I read for awhile and it took my mind off of it. </div>
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Speaking of, I have finished a few books since I've been here, which normally takes me two months for one. I read <i>Into the Wild</i> by John Krakauer, <i>What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained</i> by Robert Wolke and Most recently, <i>A Walk in the Woods</i> by Bill Bryson. All great books. Now, I am starting book I of <i>Game of Thrones </i>series by George R.R. Martin. (Grandma, I bought <i>The Power of One</i> by Bryce Courtenay, and I plan to read it, but I loaned it to Amanda, one of the REU gals. Can't wait!)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-6511442539833735462013-07-02T08:18:00.003-07:002013-07-02T08:18:50.202-07:00Old San JuanOld San Juan is a beautiful place. If you ever get the chance, you should go. It's unlike any other place in Puerto Rico and contrary to it's name, it seems to be in better shape than a lot of the islands metropolitan areas. We visited Saturday and got to do some touristy stuff. We were able to make it to one of the two forts in San Juan, <i>Castillo San Felipe del Morro</i>. Directly on the coast, overlooking the sea, this 16th century citadel was named for King Phillip II of Spain. It was built in order to guard the and defend, if necessary, the San Juan Bay and harbor city of San Juan. Here's what we saw.. (with a few pit stops first in random places..)<br />
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These are some cool fungi I found hiking in the forest. It's luck that I found them really. I was wearing some crappy shoes for the hike we were on (sorry chacos, under the bus go you) that day and I kept falling down on the way back down. Well, I fell trying to get over a rock, looked to my right and this is what I found! So neat!<br />
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Here is what the beach griller was grilling up from last time... Pinchos Pollo are delicious, if you're not a veg-head. </div>
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Okay, HERE is Old San Juan. This below is a view looking back from the fort at some building, don't know what, but I like the colors. It reminds me of my living room.</div>
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here is a view just before we walked right up and into the Fort</div>
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Strange little structure..</div>
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The colors here are nice too, this is just as we walked through the gateway.</div>
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Tres Banderas! US, Puerto Rico (Stripes) and ..................</div>
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This iguana is having a afternoon sunbath, sounds nice. </div>
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Here is the lighthouse, however this is not the original structure, pretty obvious. The original was destroyed during a bombardment in 1898.</div>
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Egelz, in an ocean-overlook structure</div>
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Two of the 7 layers of the fort </div>
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Meow!!! </div>
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The walls are up to 5 meters thick in some places!</div>
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So cool. </div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="text-align: center;">I wonder what these were used for, maybe little cubbies for people to work in?</span><div>
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View back toward the city, from the Fort</div>
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A rather large pile of cannon balls</div>
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I love a good photo with no people in it, it feels like you've got the whole place to yourself. Imagine what it might have looked like before a battle. Whew!</div>
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And now, we are back in Old San Juan, just walking around the city, looking in shops and eating the best dang passionfruit helado I have ever had. It's like sorbet, sweet, cold and delicious. </div>
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Some awesome street art!</div>
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Urban gardening, mmm good. </div>
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The better part of Old San Juan looks like this, the balconies are to apartments.</div>
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Somebodies home, so cool!</div>
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The scents coming from the coffee shop were unbearably amazing. All the doors and windows were open, people were inside on couches chattering away in spanish.</div>
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More city streets..</div>
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Those strange little faces, popping up everywhere.</div>
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It was a good day, I really like Old San Juan but it can't be explored fully in a day. I will hopefully return before the trip is over and have more to say and more to show from this really awesome port city. </div>
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Lately, I have been working hard at my introduction. I took some well needed advice from my mentor here in Puerto Rico, Sofia, and at UT, Aimee, and after an intense literature review, I am re-structuring my introduction in a way that flows well, and sufficiently introduces the topic to a broad range of readers. It's time consuming work but compared to the original introduction, it is an improvement that I am proud of.</div>
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Time for lunch. and coffee. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-4510781150573439772013-06-27T13:23:00.001-07:002013-06-27T13:23:42.363-07:00Slowing Down and Speeding UpThis week has been a nice mixture of work and play. When I am not researching my topic, I feel behind but when I sit down to do it, I feel so ahead. It's strange but I'll just keep doing what I am doing. I checked by biofilms today and they haven't grown yet, so I am getting a little worried about that, but it should be okay.<br />
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We have had good luck with the power here, so each night after dinner and clean-up we have movie night and all hang out in the conference room watching movies or Game of Thrones episodes through the projector.<br />
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Last Saturday, we had a big day planned at the beach with some makeshift limoncello, Puerto Rican party tradition "sandwichitos" (sand-wee-chee-tos) and other snacks and drinks. Sandwichitos are a little strange but since they are a tradition, I had to try it. To make them, you blend up velveeta cheese, pimentos, and spam. eek! Then, smear the mixture on plain white bread and cut it up into little triangles. Shape is important here, people. They must be little triangles. So we took a couple coolers full of food and drinks to the <i>Seven Seas Balneario</i> and set up camp. It was a big group of us REU's, mentors, some of the lab techs and researchers too. The locals in our group knew about a place about a twenty minute walk from our beach spot through the woods next to the mangroves that brought us out onto a really nice secluded beach away from the main drag. There were huge piles of boulders that we climbed around on and big crashing waves too. It was a nice day until the rain came! It was cold rain too, so most of us filled up our cups and went and stood in the water, where it was warmer. We left eventually, but not before I tried a pincho, which is chicken, pork, beef or shrimp (take your pick) on a stick usually with some small bite of a carb to go with it. It's well marinated and delicious. The beach vendor that I bought from even had a bottle of Sriracha for the snacks! First bottle I have seen since I have been here and I miss that stuff! Here's the vendor..<br />
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And his goods. </div>
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Later that night, we went out to the college town of Rio Piedras and bar hopped around, I took a couple of photos, but I will be back one day to take some in the daylight. It's a city painted in street art, but not just name-tagging and stuff. There is really cool, strange, abstract, weird & awesome drawings. </div>
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This one is just a photo of stickers at the beer bar we went to. They like local brews too!</div>
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It was a good night all in all. We got back to the station very late and stopped at this little taco stand on the way. yum.</div>
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I slept in Sunday, did a little bit of research on my project and same for monday, but Tuesday, we went on an adventure. A few of us asked for a free day from the director and our mentor and went with Roxy, a tech for one of the grad students doing research here, to Piñones to do some sea kayaking! It was so nice. Myself, Wilmarie, Emily and Roxy had a great time on two tandem kayaks, which Emily calls "divorce makers". We kayaked into, through and out of some thick mangrove swamp like areas to the open water and enjoyed some beautiful weather on the coast, while up at El Yunque, we could see storms circling the mountain. After about two hours of kayaking, we hit the beach and enjoyed some passionfruit sorbet, warm water and sunshine. I got a little roasted toasted out there, but it made for such a nice day. </div>
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Here we are, on the kayaks and in the mangroves, in hunt of the manatees! Or just one manatee, we would be happy with one big happy manatee sight. (They do exist here)</div>
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We found no manatees, but we did find enjoyment away from the station. AND I bought some cheapy flip flops so that I would stop getting heat rash from my other shoes. This rainforest keeps me itchy, all the time. </div>
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Wednesday, Keysa Rosas, Emilys mentor & Alonsos lab tech, was our speaker. She talked about aquatic insects and their use as bio-indicators for aquatic ecosystem health. Aquatic insects are any insect that has at least one life stage in the aquatic environment. They live from 2 weeks to 2 years generally. Keysa worked in bio-monitoring and bio-assessment before she began work in <a href="http://www.ramirezlab.net/alonso-ramirez">The Ramirez Lab</a> at UPR. We learned a lot of background on orders and families of aquatic insects, and some traits of those. For example, the ephemeroptera family of mayflies has three caudal filaments coming from its abdomen while the plecoptera family of stoneflies have only 2 caudal filaments coming from their abdomen. These two families along with tricoptera, the caddisflies, are very sensitive to pollution. Measuring richness and abundance of these families in comparison to the chironomids, who are not sensitive to pollution can help a bio-assessor understand something about the health of the stream. Scientifically, this method is not acceptable as a measurement but for companies and agencies who want a "grade" on stream health, it is. Here's their equation:</div>
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(Plectopera+Ephemeroptera+Tricoptera)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">÷</span>(Chironomids) = blah blah blah</div>
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Sound stupid? It is. I think it's ridiculous that governments and companies use this reading as acceptable when scientists deny it. Anyway, Keysa gave a good talk and I learned about something that I know nothing about, so that is nice.</div>
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SO, I mentioned when I started writing this (11:00a or so this morning, when it was sunny) that we were so lucky to have power and now, after heavy heavy downpouring all day, I am about to post it at 4:00p and the power has gone out. We are back on the generator, so sorry for jinxing it guys! :)</div>
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Saturday, we are beaching it again, going to Old San Juan to see the forts and having sushi for lunch. </div>
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Rain, Rain and more Rain. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-8005092467054036902013-06-20T17:27:00.000-07:002013-06-20T17:27:11.252-07:00Research Projects (my own and others too)<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Before I forget..On Wednesdays, we have talks from the grad students and some other folks about their research. This week, it was Sean Kelley from the UPR. His talk was interesting although, not quite up my alley. His work focuses on the effects of spatial subsidies on riparian web building spiders. Specifically, he looks at the partitioning of resources coming out of the stream (mayfly, caddisfly larvae etc.) that cross the boundary from the aquatic to the terrestrial and how they move through foodwebs. Spiders are his organism of interest and to try and understand how the food web works in this specific instance, he will be using tagged stable isotopes to track nutrient flow. This is still pretty confusing for me, but he has a very interesting lecture about it complete with figures from his own data. Nice job, Sean. </div>
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So, on Wednesdays (or thursdays or later if I am late) I will be telling you guys about what I learned and who from on wednesdays. Hopefully, I will be able to give you guys good introductions to all of our mentors and other researchers here at El Verde Field Station.<br />
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Tuesday, I put out my last set of samples. There are three streams that I am working in, with 10 replicates of 5 treatments in each stream. Our streams represent an urbanization gradient, (none, moderate, and high). The treatments are chemical treatments of caffeine, diuron (an algaecide), sucrose, and sucralose plus a control, with no chemical addition. We have set the agar cups out with no chemical additions right now, so that we can cultivate some biofilms before introducing them to chemically amended environments via chemically amended agar gels. They are out now and will sit for 3 weeks to cultivate biofilms. After we switch them out at 3 weeks, we will let them grow for about another week at which point we will take them out, measure metabolism (consisting of primary productivity and respiration) biomass and <i>chlorophyll</i>-<i>a</i> content. We are expecting to find that when comparing the controls of the urbanization gradient, that biofilm function is suppressed as urbanization increases. For the caffeine treatment, we expect it to lower biofilm functional response measurement relative to the controls (Rosi-Marshall et al. 2013). For sucralose, we expect the same diminished effect on functional response. For sucrose, since it is a disaccharide thats easily degraded by microbes, we expect it to increase biofilms function and biomass. For diuron, it's a bit tricky. Diuron is an algaecide that inhibits primary production- aka it stops algae and cyanobacteria from doing their job (fixing carbon with sunlight energy via photosynthesis) while fungi and bacteria are still chewing away and respiring. So we expect a community shift from mixed heterotrophs (decomposers bacteria and fungi) and autotrophs (primary producing algae and cyanobacteria) to a primarily heterotrophic community where primary production stops and respiration continues.<br />
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What that means for me is that the next three weeks will be pretty slow in terms of field work. But there is always work to be done. At the end of the summer, I have to submit a final manuscript of my project including and abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, works cited + figures, tables and legends. In addition, I will create a poster, a succinct version of my project to present at a symposium at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. In the meantime, I will try to perfect my introduction and the parts of the poster that can be addressed.<br />
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That leaves a lot of time to well... stay busy. The past two days, I have noticed how much I am sitting around, reading or on the computer so today, I decided that no more of that, If I am not working, I shouldn't be sitting around. So, I cleaned off the moldy yoga mat, so with that drying in the drying room, maybe tomorrow I can do some stretching and practice my push up.... that does not exist <i>yet</i>.<br />
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I have these few weeks and while we, as an REU group, go do fun things on the weekends, the rest of the week is saved for field work. So I am thinking that maybe next week, I will go do some exploring (if Sofia and Alonso are okay with it) with one of the field techs here at El Verde. Her name is Roxy-she's super cool and turns out that Natalia, the PhD student she is working for will be at a conference next week in Costa Rica for <a href="http://atbc2013.org/">The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation</a>. Roxy said we should go explore the island and hopefully, I can go with maybe do some ocean kayaking or other fun touristy things.<br />
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But about that conference, and the poster I will have at the end of this summer... Next year, the conference is going to be in Australia. I told Worm that since he has always wanted to go to Australia, I would apply for next years conference with an abstract from the research that I am focusing on this summer. If I get accepted, we are going on vacation to Australia!!!!! How cool would that be?! I'm sort of daydreaming about this but I am going to try to make it a reality. Until now, I have only presented a poster at UT's Undergrad Research Exhibition. Having a presentation or poster talk from a national meeting looks great and is pretty necessary on a CV for grad school, which is distant but definitely a part of my future.<br />
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Exciting stuff, wish there was more I could tell you about!<br />
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Sooner or later, we will be going on a night hike. Everybody has been asking the REU's "have you been into the forest at night? It's something you must do before you leave, because it is totally different from what you experience during the day in terms of fauna." No joke, probably 5 people have asked and told me this.<br />
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Bye Guys :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-54015785756515119242013-06-16T18:36:00.002-07:002013-06-16T18:36:17.825-07:00The Botanical Gardens!!I have been pretty busy the last few days, but today is a lounge day and I am fully enjoying it. So here is what has been going on the past few days..<br />
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Thursday, I set up part 1/3 of my experiment. I am using 3 streams, representing an urbanization gradient. The stream next to El Verde field station represents the lowest level of urbanization. Here are my agar cups, with substrates inside them (exposed to the stream through a hole cut in the top), in the stream. Since I did this on thursday, the biofilms are hopefully already colonizing them :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjavvJhjMXPJKIuNpYheVrJp0C6R5tkT83JEWzxfUkRJETpFDtZPt03_OTP8PXc4j_a5cwSZJpmAasfuaiO4uNS1PHGEkmxvqHslVP6-uEElqAQOUBMeyTV72DxxAmuCY42vzi-LSo91U/s1600/IMG_6753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjavvJhjMXPJKIuNpYheVrJp0C6R5tkT83JEWzxfUkRJETpFDtZPt03_OTP8PXc4j_a5cwSZJpmAasfuaiO4uNS1PHGEkmxvqHslVP6-uEElqAQOUBMeyTV72DxxAmuCY42vzi-LSo91U/s320/IMG_6753.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDe7QuqiuiaVbHInEzXLKDXLJlrYArMHtZYtpzbCmpFyKT0-1o_yeVhisejbtz6sXvXM7aYCXVglUxDXuDrHdO7KCA9DiH7VD-u6t43jHec5zPzoK2HmbUxromDe7fPrWbWmmFmsJRzHc/s1600/IMG_6754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDe7QuqiuiaVbHInEzXLKDXLJlrYArMHtZYtpzbCmpFyKT0-1o_yeVhisejbtz6sXvXM7aYCXVglUxDXuDrHdO7KCA9DiH7VD-u6t43jHec5zPzoK2HmbUxromDe7fPrWbWmmFmsJRzHc/s320/IMG_6754.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So, thursday was a little stressful because Friday morning were our proposal presentations. 15 minutes speeches plus 5 minutes Q&A. Longest one I have ever done, with the shortest notice. It went well, needless to say we were all glad to be through with it. So Friday was all fun after the proposals were through. We went into town and had celebratory lunch at Cilantros Mexican grill, where one man, took care of every aspect of our meal, taking our order, making our drinks, cooking our food and ringing us up. It was a great lunch. From there, we went out for ice cream and then headed back to the station. Everyone was super tired from going to bed late and waking up early. We had a barbeque planned for that night so a few of us took a nap to get ready. Here's where I slept, the hammock finally went up.<br />
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So we had our barbeque, it was delicious and so much fun. All of us REU's, Pedro, and about 8 other PhD students, masters students, research assistants and field technicians. It made for a nice party. Everybody contributed something, we had bourbon chicken, pork&vegetable skewers, potato salad, fruit salad, cookies, garlic bread, HOMEMADE cranberry sauce, beer, and strange anice/coconut shots. It was an enjoyable barbeque in celebration of us finishing our proposals presentations and documents. We stayed up late, someone started to play the guitar, and then the salsa came on and we learned to salsa dance, unsuccessfully.<br />
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The next morning, was a day for more field work. I woke up and had to get busy making more agar cups for my experiment. PJ took us to Rio Pieras, and leaving El Verde, we came across a tree in the road that would not let us pass. (Thats where the picture from "meet my REU buddies is from") Well, we called Hilda, the wonder-woman of El Verde and she came down there to check it out. She was going to send for Tony, who does tech work/handy work around the station when this man pulls up in a truck. Hilda said "the only way you's are gonna get outta here without Tony is if this guy has a machete, because sometimes they use them to split these big logs up." Turns out he did! Here he is, saving the day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bvYEoDlfUR2GLRKl07X1GF7Cp9yXW-01sC8YaM90a1h-02ABi4E0Vzbivf5idBW0CJOqFYFNA0acTVRS24BP_M6VTqplYWLv3Ssp9oTss8JZd0VkYqZienttnazFc8cRh93o3pCQ8g0/s1600/IMG_5434_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_bvYEoDlfUR2GLRKl07X1GF7Cp9yXW-01sC8YaM90a1h-02ABi4E0Vzbivf5idBW0CJOqFYFNA0acTVRS24BP_M6VTqplYWLv3Ssp9oTss8JZd0VkYqZienttnazFc8cRh93o3pCQ8g0/s640/IMG_5434_2.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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Once this ordeal was over, I met up with Sofia in Rio Piedras (where the UPR RP is located) to do some work at the botanical gardens. It is the only green space in the city and wow- is it nice! However, the streams there seem to be the rat hole catch all for everything trashy. It's disgusting, really. You can see for your self, sort of.. but the smell really says it all. Needless to say, this is the high urbanization stream. We wore gloves along with our boots.<br />
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After finishing up in the nasty stream, Sofia took me for a walk around the botanical gardens. They are truly beautiful. She showed me so much and gosh. The biodiversity there is insane!! A lot of these plants are exotics brought in from elsewhere for learning purposes but are not invasive in any way. Heres what I saw:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two different types of Mango tree, the one on the left is a small green variety, the one on the right is a large red variety. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mangifera Indica, Mango Tree native to india. See those fruits!? mmmHMM!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
We walked along the path and saw so much cool stuff!</div>
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We walked along the path and saw so much, it was great. Sofia told me that this was her favorite palce to go in the city, because then it doesn't feel like a city at all. It feels like a quiet park with trails everywhere. She took me down some old trails that did not look like trails at all, to some ponds and beautiful separate gardens from the main circle. There was a medicinal herb garden where we smelt the mature Eucalyptus leaves, the younger ones to not have as great of a scent:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here, Sofia showed me this fruit, its about as big as a basket ball, I have no idea what it is but she said it was an acquired taste. Would you like one of these to fall on your head?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1jiUjYxJMspxYGeCzLU3Qfis5jD8W94WWClIsNesOy3LqXRrDT4awAy4x0HwxXr4w-dpH0UpagLLlIEHmrPR3sEsftCI5SPmBTe6WyHMKziwlwgf6LLxGg-1LX7jeEXMZIDxyyjSsQs/s1600/IMG_5477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1jiUjYxJMspxYGeCzLU3Qfis5jD8W94WWClIsNesOy3LqXRrDT4awAy4x0HwxXr4w-dpH0UpagLLlIEHmrPR3sEsftCI5SPmBTe6WyHMKziwlwgf6LLxGg-1LX7jeEXMZIDxyyjSsQs/s640/IMG_5477.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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It smelled very sweet though. </div>
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Here are some of the structures within the gardens. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3uRr42MceX9nCCVA183R1NVoTR-U3Uk5qqnsB3YO3Gi_i-V9pkAt8Zn5UpFzSBPbnTJRRQSfBbtj7S0FteLByq5ywDdDKTCNfC056PZrVYGn1x_Vl732B-CMXYidaWg_DIe7zewpV8zY/s1600/IMG_5484.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3uRr42MceX9nCCVA183R1NVoTR-U3Uk5qqnsB3YO3Gi_i-V9pkAt8Zn5UpFzSBPbnTJRRQSfBbtj7S0FteLByq5ywDdDKTCNfC056PZrVYGn1x_Vl732B-CMXYidaWg_DIe7zewpV8zY/s640/IMG_5484.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one was next to the medicinal gardens, very picturesque</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Gz-s2Ki4IBCvODUOG7wg_XtkSwynnyQYofSePjWz24_CTF-LU-mpDwvk4n54JCmfnI5rNHU7TmJRO-DoBkgNemSX0D3Zyrzm1nQzew3dR2uVH2jJDtuHA9hv7thS3YbevTYROS-NV8Y/s1600/IMG_5498.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Gz-s2Ki4IBCvODUOG7wg_XtkSwynnyQYofSePjWz24_CTF-LU-mpDwvk4n54JCmfnI5rNHU7TmJRO-DoBkgNemSX0D3Zyrzm1nQzew3dR2uVH2jJDtuHA9hv7thS3YbevTYROS-NV8Y/s640/IMG_5498.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was an old Orchid house. It has since been converted and only half the orchids remain. Sofia said the man who used to care for the orchids was a great caretaker of them. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh33NuntkEzZiuT-mxcItQyFLId8fpZYlyRfEnhEQsRrFzCZrlksvJwC8SnbY1OF-JIddMlc1l8CZ01XyVUFnw4fq7Ox4wHTOVJ55A3OF7dWEM0leGz3JhZwnsxBg20Z0cRq2PY-sSr36Y/s1600/IMG_5501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh33NuntkEzZiuT-mxcItQyFLId8fpZYlyRfEnhEQsRrFzCZrlksvJwC8SnbY1OF-JIddMlc1l8CZ01XyVUFnw4fq7Ox4wHTOVJ55A3OF7dWEM0leGz3JhZwnsxBg20Z0cRq2PY-sSr36Y/s640/IMG_5501.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Window of the orchid house, all the light inside was natural and came from these green barred windows and doors</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDEn-1XniH2Kvoz2eqoCVj6OUSIk2HIhpYL85ZGXRV4ctYPQgG_5MECp1cO-L06CYS_RhAjViJ5ves9vu5Qa4cUv6pK6pjuvBS7wsnODwY_0Y95ZYg8NOVmy3lgshKdcE5ldYAexbweQ/s1600/IMG_5492.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDEn-1XniH2Kvoz2eqoCVj6OUSIk2HIhpYL85ZGXRV4ctYPQgG_5MECp1cO-L06CYS_RhAjViJ5ves9vu5Qa4cUv6pK6pjuvBS7wsnODwY_0Y95ZYg8NOVmy3lgshKdcE5ldYAexbweQ/s640/IMG_5492.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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This is the National flower of Puerto Rico, it looks like a hibiscus but it grows on a large tree.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbJyJYlb_A0o3V1tKjy-BO0tw2Bs2GLidekRayaOxcadxuPISt8OKVKO3JHcE5Zjjjp8XGob_j9tsgHS13UjIz7TkcxavUz-p6quiXAv6HuMtOst82IvUadpPnvlt_yefHpHerJl2620/s1600/IMG_5499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbJyJYlb_A0o3V1tKjy-BO0tw2Bs2GLidekRayaOxcadxuPISt8OKVKO3JHcE5Zjjjp8XGob_j9tsgHS13UjIz7TkcxavUz-p6quiXAv6HuMtOst82IvUadpPnvlt_yefHpHerJl2620/s640/IMG_5499.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is Sofia with the Monkey's Ear, Genus <i>Enterolobium spp.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh72b1yilcyFGVwunyY427RuEP7uk8uAzQwzBYmwDOhxNGiCCtkhC0oR2kXnjwRMLsQMU6oE-WBB4aFovjc4VBfI8eHlq-ILYriDrSihc1x1b4bWvcJNYcet9t2Q8BAdH2u6xLrc0qRnFw/s1600/IMG_5500.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh72b1yilcyFGVwunyY427RuEP7uk8uAzQwzBYmwDOhxNGiCCtkhC0oR2kXnjwRMLsQMU6oE-WBB4aFovjc4VBfI8eHlq-ILYriDrSihc1x1b4bWvcJNYcet9t2Q8BAdH2u6xLrc0qRnFw/s640/IMG_5500.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is why it's called Monkey's Ear! Because it looks like a monkeys ear!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNThaBXreJkOAdW-aZLz1YhMyYt5UL-aXLfKyJWd_dA79juW6D0RwVjiDKsouxE8Xvh3yx_Enh7gbqSi0cvVAr4d8dhXabKL1mwJugf6xKcGdg_6lzA5S7uN9liD8JNa9z7SLEuUQu5k/s1600/IMG_5502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNThaBXreJkOAdW-aZLz1YhMyYt5UL-aXLfKyJWd_dA79juW6D0RwVjiDKsouxE8Xvh3yx_Enh7gbqSi0cvVAr4d8dhXabKL1mwJugf6xKcGdg_6lzA5S7uN9liD8JNa9z7SLEuUQu5k/s640/IMG_5502.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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These are fern reproductive structures, on a modified leaf, called a fertile frond. The yellow dots are called sporangia. They turn from green to brown when they are "ready".</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidA45QYOrRcTHIiyNAmiar7UCrX0HlHLLxpFIs2tRYfth_30pdBEFmgTA9dvD2YRTCS5KCD4MyPOeXG8wvWxDKERLm-8UN9D-IweXHGo1eFkWnpYffdB5yOaQEEe6_a1WW9lF2NFe5jHc/s1600/IMG_5504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidA45QYOrRcTHIiyNAmiar7UCrX0HlHLLxpFIs2tRYfth_30pdBEFmgTA9dvD2YRTCS5KCD4MyPOeXG8wvWxDKERLm-8UN9D-IweXHGo1eFkWnpYffdB5yOaQEEe6_a1WW9lF2NFe5jHc/s640/IMG_5504.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here, they are a little darker than in the previous picture. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1OgAXl7KRIl0qieDebvib8evT-DIMZiVJlXO7Wk9oas8uBbr-scL51t14W5Gb-vNw05kWtGgiFz1MfoDeMWWxFCIXfb7o2VhE3I4HfAYxK_2GO3ydLWu4TttFTGTXQ8vrTthsDcg47c/s1600/IMG_5507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1OgAXl7KRIl0qieDebvib8evT-DIMZiVJlXO7Wk9oas8uBbr-scL51t14W5Gb-vNw05kWtGgiFz1MfoDeMWWxFCIXfb7o2VhE3I4HfAYxK_2GO3ydLWu4TttFTGTXQ8vrTthsDcg47c/s640/IMG_5507.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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This is the Flamboyan Tree, which has beautiful root systems, as you can see! (Later is a photo of the flowering stage-a must see!)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5_nBcOY40fkr3YkrIcZp15FKZBWebxAeMys1xNpinYWRxms3zByA1_j4Mk-DpMs0WDTineDGJVvjuZ6PjDrVlCbb7VfaP7CJYNgw6cnm5UwagosatA29SX3n7pV-vB2-orSzNcKUDm8/s1600/IMG_5510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5_nBcOY40fkr3YkrIcZp15FKZBWebxAeMys1xNpinYWRxms3zByA1_j4Mk-DpMs0WDTineDGJVvjuZ6PjDrVlCbb7VfaP7CJYNgw6cnm5UwagosatA29SX3n7pV-vB2-orSzNcKUDm8/s640/IMG_5510.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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They community garden has it's wall of tools, how cute is that?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdrCGOHgnJ9nw79iJHtly8-IhX3qBUDWVFM-tTMM0i31BRiLcGK5S8ta-pmDlB3-8Ap8ZjE1bQG3juUtj3rNJdrcn-Y71rOEc2HdC8Bhcr5WsAliKed-ZiuHoEGlChe5AYckA_Tvb2ijg/s1600/IMG_5511.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdrCGOHgnJ9nw79iJHtly8-IhX3qBUDWVFM-tTMM0i31BRiLcGK5S8ta-pmDlB3-8Ap8ZjE1bQG3juUtj3rNJdrcn-Y71rOEc2HdC8Bhcr5WsAliKed-ZiuHoEGlChe5AYckA_Tvb2ijg/s640/IMG_5511.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is another section within the Urban garden, a community garden. See those banana trees in recycled tires? Tropical and adorable. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTGj23g96KJN22r2Y3ea9s0Euw6I4UIv4ruzOK5ypxPgBuRzC1mo_gkCinonbR-rgcvC2s25YpXdFuBTdYsw4QNZjnRw7FfH5Lyf4EB0IrGPWtbvlV_v2zW-XanIS_UYK1mW8LYQIwoa4/s1600/IMG_5514.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTGj23g96KJN22r2Y3ea9s0Euw6I4UIv4ruzOK5ypxPgBuRzC1mo_gkCinonbR-rgcvC2s25YpXdFuBTdYsw4QNZjnRw7FfH5Lyf4EB0IrGPWtbvlV_v2zW-XanIS_UYK1mW8LYQIwoa4/s640/IMG_5514.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Pollination in action! The bee seems to take on the color of the flower.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkzEXniK37VdgZwDwMtAUO6PnVLDg8esOOeDIanrYYqqZ9maojuGHz_w2boLXPs8kH8_AYMBZdCao_UBrtbtJCu8MtMMejL6k-sKsUytvMnJRAWZEybWNqVgxtyL10EZmYZHBLrbfuqEw/s1600/IMG_5516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkzEXniK37VdgZwDwMtAUO6PnVLDg8esOOeDIanrYYqqZ9maojuGHz_w2boLXPs8kH8_AYMBZdCao_UBrtbtJCu8MtMMejL6k-sKsUytvMnJRAWZEybWNqVgxtyL10EZmYZHBLrbfuqEw/s640/IMG_5516.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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Here is a banana tree that is not in the urban garden, but free standing in a riparian (next to a river/stream) area. What do you see in the shadows?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivyzriDxvPtZDePyArHLNb6_SeoLBx37sR8I5DWOoCaDQDJKs9QkwsjpIl6qRn7iIfV-xGJkbQOD7Gu_d1QyHGox7X5PBmgiLqeqs33Mx4vT1L4SDvdJk_xD5EHFNKsjgkOtKam3uOwc4/s1600/IMG_5517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivyzriDxvPtZDePyArHLNb6_SeoLBx37sR8I5DWOoCaDQDJKs9QkwsjpIl6qRn7iIfV-xGJkbQOD7Gu_d1QyHGox7X5PBmgiLqeqs33Mx4vT1L4SDvdJk_xD5EHFNKsjgkOtKam3uOwc4/s640/IMG_5517.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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Some of the trees in the Botanical Gardens are just massive and beautiful to say the least. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlC1iNwh5OQWRetE-r0ra1f-LTdgmV8VaXSYSW0Knq7S1816hy5fIf_sCEL9a3PtSYA3ZHxw82G0MjLZSdhCfdJJNtXTsvDLEiDweN7KR4maSznLixpDa6qsnth1lCydrXqWpD-YZLo9M/s1600/IMG_5518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlC1iNwh5OQWRetE-r0ra1f-LTdgmV8VaXSYSW0Knq7S1816hy5fIf_sCEL9a3PtSYA3ZHxw82G0MjLZSdhCfdJJNtXTsvDLEiDweN7KR4maSznLixpDa6qsnth1lCydrXqWpD-YZLo9M/s640/IMG_5518.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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A security guard found us roaming the g<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">rounds and took us on an informational walk, which was nice. He did not speak english but Sofia translated all that he had to offer for me. His& her knowledge of the place together was immense! Here, she is pointing out the soursop tree, called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><i>guanábana </i>in spanish.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFxv2NgRCwKkLRU622sEk8jp3nuUIamDathBNkhUmNnB7X9pnzAZ0OWlabnAZk7NQsmnLIWH-Czo1-gaUmBV24046hiPNZ6DMVmyO41iVTJV3dg97-yrHOhKQQIDgut_9Usl79ahpVPgY/s1600/IMG_5519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFxv2NgRCwKkLRU622sEk8jp3nuUIamDathBNkhUmNnB7X9pnzAZ0OWlabnAZk7NQsmnLIWH-Czo1-gaUmBV24046hiPNZ6DMVmyO41iVTJV3dg97-yrHOhKQQIDgut_9Usl79ahpVPgY/s640/IMG_5519.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here she is again, with the Guanabana, soursop fruit. It produces a sweet white juice that the native like to mix with breakfast meals............or rum. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCA6e7Oq5j0XnnzF2GtkHJ-_bQtDNP1v-ptfn-RGrbmIoolqpKMz_s_Pg6bSx6Ahy1SdL5vJQWJx1b-EkDc-xlVtHaSXXo_17_GVyuy3lWj8wtQT71yxFBpMJRDyofyS-1cNiHUgJyO4c/s1600/IMG_5520.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCA6e7Oq5j0XnnzF2GtkHJ-_bQtDNP1v-ptfn-RGrbmIoolqpKMz_s_Pg6bSx6Ahy1SdL5vJQWJx1b-EkDc-xlVtHaSXXo_17_GVyuy3lWj8wtQT71yxFBpMJRDyofyS-1cNiHUgJyO4c/s640/IMG_5520.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here is the Guava tree! It's so leggy and small, I was surprised. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7t3KX2nDhNWNivriwaRsfOp48zo0UnICdOZbp0uhkpKBbSnXyujQmAkjfwPBHQBJWa608Y2Wc9GfGZysmlUkcKVRPTy5Cye24xD6AqYyi7f4xdfHRaJdmCH-qjxopZVYlGNuCYmW_pK4/s1600/IMG_5521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7t3KX2nDhNWNivriwaRsfOp48zo0UnICdOZbp0uhkpKBbSnXyujQmAkjfwPBHQBJWa608Y2Wc9GfGZysmlUkcKVRPTy5Cye24xD6AqYyi7f4xdfHRaJdmCH-qjxopZVYlGNuCYmW_pK4/s640/IMG_5521.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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And here, is the flowering Flamboyan tree. So beautiful, I see where it gets its' name. </div>
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The botanical gardens were great. My facebook will have a a more broad selection of photos soon. maybe tomorrow but these were my personal picks for the blog. It was a great time. Again, I could not have asked for a better mentor. Sofia is great and I look forward to working with her this summer. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be setting up the last part of our experiment in the mid range urbanization spot, outside of San Juan toward the middle of the island. Before I go, I will be at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras and that whole day should produce some nice photos of the campus. Look forward to it! We are having movie night tonight on the projector because we have power! We are watching a spelunking movie called <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Descent. </i>Should be scary. </div>
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Happy Fathers Day to You Dad, I Love You!! </div>
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(And all the other dads out there)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-70944691478467230772013-06-12T18:04:00.002-07:002013-06-16T09:45:42.094-07:00Meet my REU Buddies!Since I have been here, I have met some really cool people, REU's among other people. I mentioned that there are not just REU's here, I will try to do a mini bio on those I know well enough to do a mini bio on in the coming weeks. For now, meet the other REU students and our TA, Pedro "PJ"<br />
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From the left, Ismael, Amanda, Kirsten, Emily, Elena, Me, Keysa(Emily's mentor) and Wilmarie<br />
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<b>Emily Gelzer</b> (g sound, not j sound, as I thought) is from Durango, Colorado. She describes Durango as a small town in the Southwest portion of Colorado. Her school, Ft. Lewis College, is a small one, but she speaks highly of it as well. Her and her friends spend their time outside of class on rafting trips on the Animas (meaning lost souls) and Arkansas rivers. I told her she was a river hippie, but she calls it a river rat. She is even on a waiting list to raft the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon! Here at el Verde, Emily will be studying how leaf litter exclusion can effect macroinvertebrate assemblages and their break down of leaf litter.<br />
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Emilys mentor is Keysa Rosas an upcoming masters student at Georgia Southern University. She will be studying secondary production of stream insects.<br />
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<b>Kirsten Verster</b> is from Miami, Florida. She attends the University of Florida at Gainesville and has already been through 2 REU programs, plus this one! One was at her school, in the butterfly lab and the second was working on wasps at the University of Michigan. At school, she works in two labs. First, is in the Miller lab, where she works with cactus bugs. The second is in the museum with Keith Willmott working on neotropical butterfly taxonomy. She is a free spirit who really knows how to cook. Kirsten loves spiders and wasps. Needless to say, her work will focus on web building spiders this summer. Specifically, she is curious about how typical orb style spider web angle and placement change as you leave the immediate riparian zone.<br />
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Her mentor is Sean Kelly, a PhD student at UPR who looks at the relationships between emerging aquatic insects and web building spiders.<br />
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<b>Elena Venable</b> is from the west coast, Santa Cruz, CA. Although she attends Brown University in Providence, RI, she really associates with her hometown and wants to move back there someday. She plays soccer and runs track. She is an applied math-biology major and already has an internship with NOAA set up next summer! Elena and I initially got to talking because I noticed her water bottle has a KAZU 90.3 NPR label on it. Good to see the support for public radio in unexpected places. Here, her work focus on the Puerto Rican clame to fame, the Coqui frog, specifically, the grass coqui, <i>E. Brittoni</i> (See earlier blog for a link to a video of this squeally little frog).<br />
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Her mentor is Adriana Hererra-Montes, who is from columbia originally. She is a PhD candidate at the UPR Rio Piedras and her dissertation focuses on Puerto Rican herpetofauna assemblages. Woah.<br />
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<b>Amanda Henderson</b> is from Chicago and she attends DePaul University. Back home in Chicago, Heneghan's Lab, where she works with soil mites, specifically <i>Oppiella Nova</i>. Check her out, in action, here on <a href="http://10thingswrongwithenvironmentalthought.blogspot.com/2012/10/great-oppiella-nova-census-2012.html">Heneghan's blog</a>. Amanda is the noctural one of the group, where she stays up until 1-2 AM sometimes (given we have power) to be productive. She says "I am not productive before 11PM" with a whole lot of sass. We really love the sass, that for sure. Here, at El Verde, she will be continuing her research on mites, but with a new focus, the <i>Brevipalpus spp</i>, a false spider mite found in the tropics.<br />
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Her mentor is Elvia Meléndez-Ackerman, a professor at the UPR Rio Piedras and she is a busy body, <a href="http://www.ites.upr.edu/index.php?page=elvia-melendez-ackerman">check her out</a>!<br />
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<b>Wilmarie del Colon</b> is a student of the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. In the past, she was involved in a student chapter of <a href="http://www.cesam.ua.pt/">CESAM</a> where she went to Costa Rica for a national meeting to talk about problems affecting coral and other marine organisms. Her undergraduate thesis is on the difference in biofilms across urban streams, one natural and one channelized. Channelized, meaning that the stream is perfectly straight and an unnatural stream structure. Having Wilmarie (Wiwi) here is so great because she has so much knowledge about the people, history, and culture of Puerto Rico. Her project at El Verde focuses on a population of flower, <i>P. Angustifolia</i>, that is sometimes subject to nectar robbing. Nectar robbers literally create a hole at the base of the flowers corolla tube and get the nectar without offering pollination services for the flower. (The hole is visible, I will try to get a photo of it soon!)<br />
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Her mentor is Jose Fumero, a botanist at Metropolitan University.<br />
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<b>Ismael Orengo</b>, the only male in the program is from Puerto Rico also. Trujillo Alto is his hometown. He attends Metropolitan University in Coupey, Puerto Rico. He has been spending his summers in Vermont working on projects on stream macroinvertibrates for the past two years. We have really come to love Ismael. He is so great to have around. Ismael learned english as a second language. He is a story teller for sure, and his storytelling is great. He is very animated and always excited. His project here at El Verde focuses on the effect of acidification on freshwater macroinvertibrates.<br />
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His mentor is Pablo Gutierrez and he is a PhD student at UPR Rio Piedras, focusing on limnology.<br />
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Our TA, <b>Pedro aka PJ</b> is pretty cool too. He has been a mentor for REU students in the past but this year, he is back as our TA aka, he takes us to the grocery store, field sites, wherever we need/want to go and out on the weekends. (Yes, a permanent DD. We are within the law!) He is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia at Athens (yeah, he knows Terrapin Brewery!), whose dissertation focus on the effect of dams on ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and metabolism. PJ is a cool TA. He is going to make us sangria, real sangria sooner or later and made us bourbon chicken at our celebratory BBQ for completing our proposals.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-20867609329328895192013-06-12T07:26:00.002-07:002013-06-12T07:26:24.836-07:00Rainy Wednesday :)Buenos Días!<br />
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I think I have touched on this but here at El Verde, power lines to the station are tied to TREES, needless to say the power goes out quite often. The first week, we ran off the generator but two days ago, the power company actually came and fixed it! We have been able to stay up past 9, which either way, it's alright Well, I woke up this morning to a heavy heavy storm and heard the generator running. It was nice while it lasted, modern commodity of 24 hour power. Hello, modern commodity of 14 hour power. First world problems?<br />
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I finished my proposal, Sofia is editing it now and I am starting on my powerpoint presentation. I give a 15 minute speech to introduce my project to everyone here at the station. Not just REU students, but other researchers, and staff too. It is going to be good. I am excited about my topic and have no problem understanding the importance of it, which makes it easy to justify and also, explain to other people.<br />
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I made the agar gel yesterday that will go into the cups I am placing in the stream. The agar will slowly leech out the nutrients it is amended with. So anyway, I was making it on a hot plate-stirrer which is really cool. You put this magnet in the bottom of a flask and set it on the hot plate-stirrer and turn it on and the magnet spins and variable speeds. It stirs your solution automatically, which is nice. So it's a hot plate too, ya? Well, I turned it up and stepped away for like two minutes to read an email and I hear sizzling and look back and there is agar everywhere, boiling over my flask. I grabbed my oven mitts, (thanks to Hilda who had brought them in earlier, worried about my safety) and put the flask into the sink. Well, for those of you who don't know, at high temperatures, agar is liquid, but below ~127F or 50C, it turns to solid. The desk and the floor and my oven mitts and lab coat are not hot enough so once it spilled everywhere, my liquid mess turned into a gel mess. (go, me) Agar, when cooled is like the consistency of hard jello. So I peeled it up and had to start over, because what would have been the perfect amount for my cups, boiled out onto the floor. Good stuff.<br />
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Today, we are going to the grocery store and boy am I excited!!! We plan on grilling out friday, after our presentations and having a little party up in at the station. I am making Brats and fruit salad, and between the REU's we will also have a normal salad, potato salad, 7 layer dip, cookies and vegetarian options. I might make myself some sauerkraut because it goes well with bratwurst.. Not many people like sauerkraut, so we shall see. Ususally, Worm makes it with a bottle of Sweetwater 420 and simmers it for a half hour to an hour until the liquid is mostly gone and that gives it a nice flavor. We are sans Sweetwater here in Puerto Rico, so I haven't decided yet, what I will actually do. Maybe use the local beer, Medalla? (Pronounced meh-dajha or meh-dahya, depending on who is speaking) Hank, if you are reading, this is no Yuengling, you wouldn't like it. Domestic-light drinkers, you might. It's not too bad :) We went out last weekend and I ordered two of them, one for Emily and I, and I wondered why the bartender looked at me like some idiot when I asked for Modela..<br />
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good times, being a tourist and all. If I knew spanish, they might take me seriously.<br />
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Anyway, I have some streams to go mucking through. Good day :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-30990244290001079792013-06-09T08:50:00.002-07:002013-06-09T08:50:43.971-07:00Weekend fun!We got away from the field station friday night and hit the town. It was great, I had a stuffed avocado w/ fried green plantain and fried sweet plantain for dinner. The sweet was definitely way better! Mom and dad were right, food here is on the bland side.. Luckily they have garlic/cilantro/salsa that I poured over everything. It added lots of flavor.<br />
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Afterward, we perused the town, and we found a great little beer bar!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melting Faces.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I thought Punto was a curse word....</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Street Art, is as good as the street food. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reminds me of Barleys and Sunspot</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beer Bar! Bartender is wearing a "The Shins" t shirt. Freakin sweet!</td></tr>
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Then, saturday, we toured the touristy side of El Yunque National forest. I have SO many pictures from there and It takes a long time to upload them to here, so for more photos, the facebook is good. facebook.com/brandyp </div>
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Anyway, we hiked up to a tower and got some great views of the island. Also, we were able to see where at the top of the mountain, the composition of the forest changes to Elfin, or dwarf forest. Growth is stunted and there are less Tabonuco and Cecropia trees and many many palms. Then, we hiked back down drove halfway down the mountain and stopped at La mina Falls. We hiked down and saw some beautiful scenery. As always. People were barbecuing and oh it smelled so great. Afterward, when my camera finally died, we went down to Luquillo and got to eat some street food, I had a shrimp filled fried taco thing that was bananna shaped dough filled with spiced shrimp. With the hot sauce, oh boy, was it good. Emily bought those and so I bought us two beers. I'll try to take more pictures of food. We got to swim in the ocean, which had no waves at the time. It was strange. There was a flow crossing the beach that was freshwater coming down from the mountains. It was cool and unsalty, yes I tasted it because I have an unhealthy lack of fear of germs. Maybe Peru in december will change that. </div>
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Anyway, Enjoy the photos :)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the La Mina waterfall, with the rest of the tourists in PR</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe7rqWb90_UjqU48_S5wgOTXp6eza1EtOlTMWl6xk9XHMqYqz0Y63w7-C7gREV-jsa3RPF36KoFQNoAxxgVx8r8KMKJIvLhLZKEa2K61PvBva2ginqWIYQY84vnvmtBlTdNggOq0GyzO4/s1600/IMG_5305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe7rqWb90_UjqU48_S5wgOTXp6eza1EtOlTMWl6xk9XHMqYqz0Y63w7-C7gREV-jsa3RPF36KoFQNoAxxgVx8r8KMKJIvLhLZKEa2K61PvBva2ginqWIYQY84vnvmtBlTdNggOq0GyzO4/s640/IMG_5305.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tower at mt. Britton</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphgYLEtonwSwDgFSNK-GddAUmoZeM7lXEgcKt_GK5aEniO_1GrGGstd9rjewd_yyhbm8I0PEbCTOnSm4T7MBG2dLqHsEw1Z0IjvOpQ-2fGfkr-vRZMzVGmWFMgtzahmVhoN_5tqDHGQY/s1600/IMG_5320.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphgYLEtonwSwDgFSNK-GddAUmoZeM7lXEgcKt_GK5aEniO_1GrGGstd9rjewd_yyhbm8I0PEbCTOnSm4T7MBG2dLqHsEw1Z0IjvOpQ-2fGfkr-vRZMzVGmWFMgtzahmVhoN_5tqDHGQY/s400/IMG_5320.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Then came the rain..</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMP9eS3s_xGvwj7RliasmF0NDy3XM2bR6OcLVz8870VqdXrprHDkuOuMivDvL7Q7EhZ8o8EwGZ3r4g8mhyCKl8evZKEpJYY96i2pEQtBEfxuUwZoAOYTOczm0zaC2dmYSPqH8-sLwZsAc/s1600/IMG_5327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMP9eS3s_xGvwj7RliasmF0NDy3XM2bR6OcLVz8870VqdXrprHDkuOuMivDvL7Q7EhZ8o8EwGZ3r4g8mhyCKl8evZKEpJYY96i2pEQtBEfxuUwZoAOYTOczm0zaC2dmYSPqH8-sLwZsAc/s400/IMG_5327.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reminds me of tomb rader</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOmHoITEAykYtibHVup7R0mjPtrZkAhWe1_d80Htn5FLy9dEkpJZa5BJ2TCekmaudpp2oyluAlU3sUei4hg03-bGXfYl9Wru3eO20gh0zEsXPs07WPtqp8wHyHOPL51q3gL5LfKVTbNQo/s1600/IMG_5377.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOmHoITEAykYtibHVup7R0mjPtrZkAhWe1_d80Htn5FLy9dEkpJZa5BJ2TCekmaudpp2oyluAlU3sUei4hg03-bGXfYl9Wru3eO20gh0zEsXPs07WPtqp8wHyHOPL51q3gL5LfKVTbNQo/s320/IMG_5377.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the chicken? He was at the waterfall, don't know how or why</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGN2M4onwa1NqCuIKp1U7zyjOhwrpnl59Ru8FZx021t_C-WY1ahWhJMd6pdBMaSH7C61PqRfrcyYkIlthDlxCij8egUwTIDX-XYnCfjD6CpK0fXBiEOVhm6Skbvh60xI2mnpwQJdFNIU/s1600/IMG_5351.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGN2M4onwa1NqCuIKp1U7zyjOhwrpnl59Ru8FZx021t_C-WY1ahWhJMd6pdBMaSH7C61PqRfrcyYkIlthDlxCij8egUwTIDX-XYnCfjD6CpK0fXBiEOVhm6Skbvh60xI2mnpwQJdFNIU/s400/IMG_5351.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love you guys! </td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-63606194673919326252013-06-07T06:18:00.001-07:002013-06-07T06:24:48.206-07:00Good Morning, CacaoI got a great amount of sleep last night. Since I have been here, (4 nights) I have woke at 6:30, 6, 5:00, and today, 7:00! I have enjoyed the mornings alone, making really great breakfasts for myself. (Mom, I had a breakfast burrito that was good, but not yours... I miss those.) Those who know, this is totally unlike me to wake early, but I could get used to this. I had dreams last night, for the first time, with Worm in them. (It was nice to see your face darlin. :0) )<br />
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Yesterday, I met Sofia, my mentor. She is wonderful, I could not have been luckier. Sofia just graduated wednesday with her PhD. She has a great plan for our project, as long as the streams don't wash our experiment away. Yikes! We all know how tedious field work and field projects can be.<br />
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Someone told me that there was an avocado tree next to the station, but turns out, this was not an avocado tree. Its a cacao tree! And it has one fruit on it. Cacao leaves look like avocado leaves, but they are larger and less shiny.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WwTchDPNr_nKGAf9GeB7QgGvKcluQnGnlyiNZTO4sPRwlq9xwaZOoeaH6Rph4XRlPguLPGfcAEbzOWfLCfVa2lnfR30f0cPxD06Y_3iju2p94WkFMKvnul98Qj-niVKQxLS84XrwUi0/s1600/IMG_5285.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WwTchDPNr_nKGAf9GeB7QgGvKcluQnGnlyiNZTO4sPRwlq9xwaZOoeaH6Rph4XRlPguLPGfcAEbzOWfLCfVa2lnfR30f0cPxD06Y_3iju2p94WkFMKvnul98Qj-niVKQxLS84XrwUi0/s640/IMG_5285.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do you see the small epiphyte, tillandsia <i>spp. </i>to the right of the fruit on the branch? These are everywhere, very nice little plants. I might bring some home. They need to be misted and they will do well in a windowsill.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-sacol67c7QTxy3mPYS8wqb_I0FmPB5iW7x5rvscInRIOR6Tfj5xiqy01J6vENJkWjiO4qb-CmwU_XNYaFcwymjkd0hOUfv3pUD2UBBtb-uqhMaIYgIcRrnAcqtgQhLDOEX3eOqIkS8/s1600/IMG_5286.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-sacol67c7QTxy3mPYS8wqb_I0FmPB5iW7x5rvscInRIOR6Tfj5xiqy01J6vENJkWjiO4qb-CmwU_XNYaFcwymjkd0hOUfv3pUD2UBBtb-uqhMaIYgIcRrnAcqtgQhLDOEX3eOqIkS8/s640/IMG_5286.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CACAO!</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-32487179051106266982013-06-06T09:07:00.001-07:002013-06-06T17:18:55.918-07:00Photos, I know it's what you really want<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yOv5OSDyoPg3txiJ75Q-6D0AGVxTzboyhdBQ5u_L30YIxBjidKQciHVtLLn_wwMGAC3vvZtJdrAUHuy4wSS6LvtPpiQb9wo7e2MUQNHuGvS-EOIBTtEWKdbDQsKSGEqXYEY_revIg4g/s1600/IMG_5245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yOv5OSDyoPg3txiJ75Q-6D0AGVxTzboyhdBQ5u_L30YIxBjidKQciHVtLLn_wwMGAC3vvZtJdrAUHuy4wSS6LvtPpiQb9wo7e2MUQNHuGvS-EOIBTtEWKdbDQsKSGEqXYEY_revIg4g/s640/IMG_5245.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ecosystems on tree trunks</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCvrtkIxX51Fln4gZYw7r_V0HHoY_lQ1u3W5LJdCxAGjbS_k2773FWOR6f9Bzuyh1nmKNuTXSpaB1q9Adej1fWjcuIOO3UfXnk6azKq2WTplmTzEHSuMkLJph5EPPr0JLHuWj19-MtROo/s1600/IMG_5246.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCvrtkIxX51Fln4gZYw7r_V0HHoY_lQ1u3W5LJdCxAGjbS_k2773FWOR6f9Bzuyh1nmKNuTXSpaB1q9Adej1fWjcuIOO3UfXnk6azKq2WTplmTzEHSuMkLJph5EPPr0JLHuWj19-MtROo/s640/IMG_5246.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDjt7faxX7j6W3ZJjNcEYE9LZSuGoGqKxPdIhJT_y9bcr3FNEpYAmJzRu-GAiQCEXRKctfWwMY6ah7eY9KFSPnuitAFXqj6W1UtxVtS6pwvl6PnVt0j10y160UKKO8oSmXeHvChdaRtY/s1600/IMG_5247.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDjt7faxX7j6W3ZJjNcEYE9LZSuGoGqKxPdIhJT_y9bcr3FNEpYAmJzRu-GAiQCEXRKctfWwMY6ah7eY9KFSPnuitAFXqj6W1UtxVtS6pwvl6PnVt0j10y160UKKO8oSmXeHvChdaRtY/s640/IMG_5247.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The REU group</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1AuHXtPJ9S9vLhJlgGqUDzAwOtOheIfMZL29zjkTPWQpmeHA8XmhnQNzqcKesTvrr_nFHHWcOAGvZKSAAnq5vvVVxv2nSSvGctayaVEVD5aJwZFtcNwki3PZxzwH4WKq7ERcmc3bsfNI/s1600/IMG_5248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1AuHXtPJ9S9vLhJlgGqUDzAwOtOheIfMZL29zjkTPWQpmeHA8XmhnQNzqcKesTvrr_nFHHWcOAGvZKSAAnq5vvVVxv2nSSvGctayaVEVD5aJwZFtcNwki3PZxzwH4WKq7ERcmc3bsfNI/s640/IMG_5248.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The vines are not very dense in El Yunque, since hurricanes come through often. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3cyuLhohfrp4d-D2jKXZH1MIj52Bec9HKauH4wTxAVRB93jHyw-OJh9qZLdNl8CHp6XIKIF95cg45Z_mYRuIjYfi0dNsRk8K5u0qI-aD6YsLCVPXMS2QwMWKzB92Vk6RJibs9pgK46g/s1600/IMG_5249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3cyuLhohfrp4d-D2jKXZH1MIj52Bec9HKauH4wTxAVRB93jHyw-OJh9qZLdNl8CHp6XIKIF95cg45Z_mYRuIjYfi0dNsRk8K5u0qI-aD6YsLCVPXMS2QwMWKzB92Vk6RJibs9pgK46g/s640/IMG_5249.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Does this look familiar? Ecosystem studies!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQicekAfohWZB87gOnIsN4_hLWm410uRNBLL5NIv4Zhx8Lw6NrA5V-2FcLGwVN8coy2SFSINc5B_5twuQh9h9oer3RajPq9gErAF-nuBX6Y8IqCKg2SChWMXNxblAPG-g8XmZG0uwQkTI/s1600/IMG_5250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQicekAfohWZB87gOnIsN4_hLWm410uRNBLL5NIv4Zhx8Lw6NrA5V-2FcLGwVN8coy2SFSINc5B_5twuQh9h9oer3RajPq9gErAF-nuBX6Y8IqCKg2SChWMXNxblAPG-g8XmZG0uwQkTI/s640/IMG_5250.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Small tree (In front of the vine) is a coffee tree. Its leftover from when the lands were coffee plantation staging areas. This tree hardly ever produces fruit but has been known to produce a bean every once in awhile. (I mean shit, it only has two leaves..)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYrWQPwc-AAo697o_UN_Hu7LCHia3FLqP3fH3SMK7oMD2qFVqeS9HBakHO32PX_jWt2o2u0CE4yI0iDxm_yP9jtkYEVj45ztTOZCbGaeL2pDrkobqaFPAoqGEJvBZziGoYTHEQxHAlfQ/s1600/IMG_5251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYrWQPwc-AAo697o_UN_Hu7LCHia3FLqP3fH3SMK7oMD2qFVqeS9HBakHO32PX_jWt2o2u0CE4yI0iDxm_yP9jtkYEVj45ztTOZCbGaeL2pDrkobqaFPAoqGEJvBZziGoYTHEQxHAlfQ/s640/IMG_5251.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdLchQ5nOnS8O8Nz-VxSP9siJXSBvO2HRKtE7-qgYzmKn6nKAfvF6eJLRh6NHTknv_v8iCFOw19bB24BAUkscfESictjNVmzjnZ_S2qF6eXi6LTzyq1XAGwMXaSyHscmAu9MTRnhYbUg/s1600/IMG_5252.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdLchQ5nOnS8O8Nz-VxSP9siJXSBvO2HRKtE7-qgYzmKn6nKAfvF6eJLRh6NHTknv_v8iCFOw19bB24BAUkscfESictjNVmzjnZ_S2qF6eXi6LTzyq1XAGwMXaSyHscmAu9MTRnhYbUg/s640/IMG_5252.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lizard dude, doing his thing on a palm.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6aI1qkhl60PujYxhG6QF4ljY-yc6eVGs83L4zM53EOHOIvnG1_Z4FUWcNOjDK2r5HFIxk3Cn_5bt_w1OI48GqWvIC0pV9Z-Fka2ZZGSOId4l3-2owAF6cH8Hquu5I4uJQyh_4D9ZqkfY/s1600/IMG_5254.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6aI1qkhl60PujYxhG6QF4ljY-yc6eVGs83L4zM53EOHOIvnG1_Z4FUWcNOjDK2r5HFIxk3Cn_5bt_w1OI48GqWvIC0pV9Z-Fka2ZZGSOId4l3-2owAF6cH8Hquu5I4uJQyh_4D9ZqkfY/s640/IMG_5254.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seeds of the Abrus Precatorius</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQMBjd303XAQRC6NoHydMLVTDkpPnXjvxtwUzORDJNrN-48scTEik2JYf3I2umPNf5cLJN0T8d9zKZidLcMNn4t24INLT7fmlmZQGGpzVzZBlmSKHaZBF7SoxYYF9gmLS2CEsyirBVbs/s1600/IMG_5256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQMBjd303XAQRC6NoHydMLVTDkpPnXjvxtwUzORDJNrN-48scTEik2JYf3I2umPNf5cLJN0T8d9zKZidLcMNn4t24INLT7fmlmZQGGpzVzZBlmSKHaZBF7SoxYYF9gmLS2CEsyirBVbs/s640/IMG_5256.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Q8wG4T7U9RZjhLP3I-IhIwC7lUbynML_889cLQ39nhHyExTrioQkMvA3h7VODwwgFrO7ORwValjYMqmXN4OFGFWpadrJRaAzuJgXPdw5J0k5b2ESy03yXzb5EX2fKTMcb8Ff0A4bVTA/s1600/IMG_5257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Q8wG4T7U9RZjhLP3I-IhIwC7lUbynML_889cLQ39nhHyExTrioQkMvA3h7VODwwgFrO7ORwValjYMqmXN4OFGFWpadrJRaAzuJgXPdw5J0k5b2ESy03yXzb5EX2fKTMcb8Ff0A4bVTA/s640/IMG_5257.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sonadora River, where the the amazing swimming hole exists.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK0N0DOnbuE30XzUGwNVdOikyvY70z-PASAGSImY-3-1JtGHrQrhi7emGueTx5BwZ_fmNLPVrPGgCga0yQ8uWeOF77JQ_hONGE7xGqoEKaHU8ltYS6QQdUALaDaDcJZ399QDY2G5OsmjQ/s1600/IMG_5258.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK0N0DOnbuE30XzUGwNVdOikyvY70z-PASAGSImY-3-1JtGHrQrhi7emGueTx5BwZ_fmNLPVrPGgCga0yQ8uWeOF77JQ_hONGE7xGqoEKaHU8ltYS6QQdUALaDaDcJZ399QDY2G5OsmjQ/s640/IMG_5258.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Forest Canopy</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj26_piX1jD33Vb5fedx2VRt8Mc8oRSsd0s8JU2fI8kXFhC5w2taFgeq2SGv0TAIvIUAcKDF0OdTqcHXh2LiSui8uTMfwnOKqm9KERDU3DjYshoBNgO_ZC3Q99r5HKwo-S_IFlHqr15Sts/s1600/IMG_5260.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj26_piX1jD33Vb5fedx2VRt8Mc8oRSsd0s8JU2fI8kXFhC5w2taFgeq2SGv0TAIvIUAcKDF0OdTqcHXh2LiSui8uTMfwnOKqm9KERDU3DjYshoBNgO_ZC3Q99r5HKwo-S_IFlHqr15Sts/s640/IMG_5260.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wasp nest, but these wasps are small. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0btcFoIxDitBHBYRVJ10oXi6STiUBHCAe7mYa5r0rGruhYH6REpnxTOXbEw-Yof7ImdxVHyQrlAv64iixQMWwTm3N98WXBJTMMa-1bj64wDeHI4Z0x7gHjrRV-ajdv7-TFg62BrZKVY/s1600/IMG_5263.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0btcFoIxDitBHBYRVJ10oXi6STiUBHCAe7mYa5r0rGruhYH6REpnxTOXbEw-Yof7ImdxVHyQrlAv64iixQMWwTm3N98WXBJTMMa-1bj64wDeHI4Z0x7gHjrRV-ajdv7-TFg62BrZKVY/s640/IMG_5263.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ortiga Plant, gives rashes when you touch it's spikes. However, there is a tea that can be made from its leaves also that will not hurt you.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">termites, ewww</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-13754687483202812092013-06-06T03:41:00.001-07:002013-06-06T03:41:24.025-07:00El Yunque History, 6/5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have been trying to kick my coffee habit, but I get caffeine headaches so I ditched that idea. At least for now. I was so set on it, I didn't bring any coffee with me. Well, I woke up and was making breakfast when Seth, who works on web building spiders in aquatic ecosystems, asked me if I wanted any coffee. I said hell yeah. So he was using this fancy coffee maker, pictured below. Turns out, it's an espresso maker and it's totally awesome and quick and small and CUTE!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCbV6xv_BWxfkCBtTy5TsbzahPnKC1IemkS_7Cu4CZqhZZwqbLBvNTfJH1D2ZgS3fcnFVzjt86F6pBJaIGQkBD29qjUudat-ytzKXFYm8X1gNwM6J0Ab7CQh3eYtNrPYz-iLDiHxUurg/s1600/espresso_stovetop.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigCbV6xv_BWxfkCBtTy5TsbzahPnKC1IemkS_7Cu4CZqhZZwqbLBvNTfJH1D2ZgS3fcnFVzjt86F6pBJaIGQkBD29qjUudat-ytzKXFYm8X1gNwM6J0Ab7CQh3eYtNrPYz-iLDiHxUurg/s1600/espresso_stovetop.gif" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the fancy espresso maker<br /><br /></td></tr>
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Today was a good day, we had a lot of fun touring the forest with a long time researcher, Chris. (Chris said to tell you hello, Quentin. He said something about needing you do dig a soil pit for him?) He was very well informed about historical and current research at El Verde. Howard Odum, (brother, Eugene Odum, both very famous early ecology minds) studied here in the 60's and received a grant from the Atomic Energy Commission to do research on radioactive material. Turns out, there was a radiation plot that they set up during that time in order to understand the effects on forests. (Keep in mind, this research sounds very negative (Jessica, he described it as "not nefarious"- that word!!!), knowing what we know now but the goals of the scientists were not evil. Nuclear power & radiation were not well understood at this time, this was an attempt to learn something new.) There was a radioactive chunk of cesium in a lead box, that set up on a tripod. They would open the box via switch from a cement box a few kilometers away and stick a geiger counter out the window to see if it was working, and it did. The radiation treatments burned a small radius via radioactive waves. (Radioactive waves, not a point source pullutant that stays in the system for a long time, its more like a flashlight beam of radiation versus a spray bottle of radioactive fluid that persists) The small trees died, seedlings were roasted. There was a larger tree that was badly burned on one side of it but did not die until decades later. When it died, it fell right onto the tripod and knocked it over! Poetic justice isn't it? The lead box and radioactive cesium were gone by this point.<br />
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This was from yesterday, 6/5 but the power went off before I could post it.<br />
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Today, I meet my mentor, Sofia who I will be working closely with throughout the summer. I am super excited, I have heard nothing but really great things from the researchers about her.<br />
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Good stuff! oh, and I took tons of photos yesterday, but it takes forever for them to load, so I will work on them today and post them tonight in their own blog post.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQFcJk8HZGWK7xjNp8KLrpmDTGJGXE2UwVUAJiWpUc7BpCFXsJgcpdE1v78Y9Ui4xfFG3iQSAmT8zjHf772_XU-_I6sagxpL_Ft3E0fzrfgwMLsaUEfig0N5qglGHYU3-wkaL1dVDvymk/s1600/IMG_6708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQFcJk8HZGWK7xjNp8KLrpmDTGJGXE2UwVUAJiWpUc7BpCFXsJgcpdE1v78Y9Ui4xfFG3iQSAmT8zjHf772_XU-_I6sagxpL_Ft3E0fzrfgwMLsaUEfig0N5qglGHYU3-wkaL1dVDvymk/s400/IMG_6708.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meow</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This little dude guards the trash receptacle.</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-12242901634924861342013-06-04T17:53:00.001-07:002013-06-04T17:53:09.401-07:00Power is off at 9, Goodnight!People here drive like maniacs! We went to the grocery store. It was way more familiar than I anticipated and when I spoke to cashiers in english, they would respond in english. I came home and made a delicious quesadilla with sauteed onions, jalepenos and pico de gallo. The two kitchens are shared here at el verde. In the refrigerator, (which is huge, like the large glass paned ones where beer is kept in the gas stations) I have a small basket to myself, as does every visitor to El Verde, just to keep organized. In the pantry, I have a larger tupperware that is mine for my dry goods. There is place for community items, like bags of potatoes and onions and garlic. The second kitchen has two picnic tables lined up in it draped with fall inspired table cloths, which makes for a good community table for preparing food, working and eating.<br />
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There are these little frogs that inhabit the forest, they are called Coquí. Quickly, I learned why they are called that. At dusk, they start they're chirping, (listen & see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54-FzuE-w0U">here</a> instead of reading to a ridiculous explanation by me) and slowly increasing in coquí calls as the sky dims down, by dark the forest is loud with thousands of these adorable little coquí frogs. Researchers who study them have to work at night.</div>
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We had a mini introduction today, but we haven't gotten to explore the trail system yet. That comes tomorrow. Emily and I did however, explore right around the field station, and this is what we found...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The admin building of the field station & our ghetto bus! This thing is already sketchy and then add on how wild these people drive, and you've got yourself a death wish :) This photo is taken from my study area from the previous post, so you can see how small the station really is. It's two buildings; dorms/kitchens and admin/drying room/conference room /computer lab.<br /><br />I love it here already.</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-50429686256808039272013-06-04T04:24:00.002-07:002013-06-04T13:51:36.477-07:00First Day Here (Written June 3, Posted June 4)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Whew, what a journey today was alone! I'm writing in my bunk, it's 10:00pm and we just arrived about an hour ago. (I wrote this and posted when woke up & the wifi was back on) I like the rainforest, it's peaceful here.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Worm dropped me off this morning, and saying my byes, it became real. I'm off on my own. It's a good feeling, rather exhilarating because it's my first ever solo trip. The airbus that took me from Charlotte to San Juan was half full so I got to stretch out & check out the aerial views arriving on the island from a window seat. It was beautiful, blue green waters, bays that from above seemed small, all outlined in bright sandy beaches. My flight was late but I followed my directions, waited for my ride. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">While waiting, I met a student, Peter, from Asheville who was heading to a remote island (can't remember the name..) to do GIS/mapping work for the summer. Initially startled by his approach, I realized that we were both two kids, who looked lost, out of place, and ready for a day in the jungle. There must have been something obvious about my get up and demeanor that said to him, "yeah, we're kind of in the same boat here". That was short lived, he went to get lunch and then Alonso (the program director) arrived.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">He took me to the University of Puerto Rico and dropped me off with one of the mentors, Keysa. Keysa is a sweet girl. She took me to her apartment where we talked a little bit about many different topics; REU life, academia, Puerto Rican & US culture. We were awaiting the arrival of another student. We picked up the last student, Emily, from the airport and headed to the grocery store for some snacks for the next day. The highlight of the day was just after that, Keysa took Emily and I to the el verde BBQ where we had a delicious dinner at this local dive. It was dark and had been raining off and on when we arrived. The el verde BBQ sits at the base of the mountain that is home to the field station. We walked up to the counter, which was covered but outdoors, there was music blaring and women dancing. She ordered us all a whole chicken to split, it was great. The cashier/butcher/bartender/chef took a machete and a pair of tongs and with a few heavy blows to the whole chicken on a cutting board, chopped it up into a few finger friendly pieces. Her machete was intimidating, I mean- a bread knife would have sufficed. So there was the crispy, greasy skinned and delicious chicken plus 3 side dishes I am not familiar with. One was yucca, and it was sort of like the consistency of dense mashed potatoes. The next was some sort of a ball, made from fried chopped plantains, onions, spices and pork fat. The third was a sort of sweet potato only, it was yellow, not orange and less stringy than a classic sweet potato. This was my favorite side dish. Sides were served with a great garlic oil for added flavor. We walked around the back to a little patio with stone tables and chairs. It began to pour the rain. It was dark by this time and we began up the mountain..</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A twenty minute drive and we were finally at the field station at 9 pm! The forest looked so different but it was dark and stormy out. I found my bunk (bottom bunk, woo!) and got situated. I'm writing this from my phone, without service and will post it tomorrow. Today is Monday the 3rd. I am fixing to go to bed, lights are out and doors are open (screens in tact). It's hot and humid and the rain has been pouring off and on every twenty minutes or so. I hear lots of insects, frogs, crickets and other unidentified creatures. I've always enjoyed the sounds of nature, so getting used to this will be no problem.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> Night, B<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-47966472703807762722013-06-02T08:13:00.000-07:002013-06-02T08:13:26.658-07:00Last day home, to be well spent<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Almost gone! </span><div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It has been a good last few days speding time with family and friends. Yesterday, mom, dad and I had Chaiyos for lunch. That panang curry is a newfound love of mine. (3 star spicy, nothing too crazy) Kaci, Brianne, and I had dinner and a few drinks on the patio last night to say our goodbyes, I'll miss those crazy two. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Today, mom is cooking up a special request menu for me :) We are going to have huli huli chicken, (huli huli sauce is a hawaiian marinade-Lauren, if you see this while in Hawaii, try some, it's great!) asian dumplings, spring rolls, green beans, kale and anything else that she decides to cook up. For those of you that don't know, she is an amazing cook, a wizard in the kitchen to say the least. Worm is off work today (yay!) and will be joining us with Chuck and the rest of the family sans my brother Michael, who is partying in the Ozark Mountains right now.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have been putting off packing but it's finally done. Jody convinced me to get a knife and glad I did, it will be handy. Worm is convinced I will lose it though. He'll see. :) </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It sure is pouring outside, I'll have to get used to this. El Yunque is a rainforest and June marks the start of hurricane season. I'm fond of rainstorms so it will be alright.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, Worm and I decided not to go to Peru immediately when I get back home. We are going in december over winter break instead. Jeremiah suggested it one day and after some quick thought, it was really glaringly obvious. (wont miss the first week of school, our winter is their summer, more time to plan, more time to save, more time to stay down there too) It's a huge relief too, not having to worry about planning Peru with Worm while I'm going to be busy in Puerto Rico. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No photos yet, but you better believe that there will be tons of them coming soon. I leave in the morning and arrive at 1:30p in Puerto Rico (same time zone as Knoxville). I'm not yet sure of phone service but I'll keep everyone posted. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It has not felt real and probably will not until I leave Worm at the gate. The number one thing people ask is "Are you excited?" and "What will you do without Worm?" I have an enormous excitement thats been brewing since I found out I would be going, a healthy bit of nervousness and then too, a curiosity like no other I've had before. Worm and I agree, we are not dying at the thought of two and a half months apart, we are excited that I have to chance to follow my passion and learn something new about the world. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's gonna be good :) </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541318230609436259.post-22636652398888689072013-05-24T10:23:00.000-07:002013-06-06T03:46:10.496-07:00Summer Plans and Such<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I wanted to start a blog so that I could keep friends, family and coworkers informed about what I am up to all summer without making 50 phone calls a day (I hate the phone..) Honestly, I don't even know if I will have access to a phone. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There a TON planned for this summer, it will be memorable. First there is Puerto Rico and a day after I get back, I'll be off with Worm to Peru to explore the Western coast of South America from Lima, Peru to Santiago, Chile during their winter. Hopefully we will both be brushing up on our spanish in the next few months.. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am heading to Puerto Rico (no, not Costa Rica as everyone likes to mistake it) on Monday morning June 3, 2013 at roughly 5:30am. It's so early, I will probably skip the coffee and take a nap instead. I have been so excited about the trip lately, I have all my gear ready except for a few items. (knife, travel towel, rain boots etc.) I am going to Puerto Rico because I was accepted for an REU, Research Experience for Undergraduates, after applying to about 10 different locations. These programs are all across the United States and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The point is to learn something about science, specifically here, tropical ecosystem ecology while experiencing a new place outside of my comfort zone. I will be staying in the <a href="http://luq.lternet.edu/">Luquillo Forest</a>, which is a Long Term Ecological Research Site (LTER). These LTER's, which are in numerous places about the US and the Arctic are dedicated to research in Ecology across large spatial and temporal scales. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another name for the Luquillo Forest is the El Yunque National Forest (same exact boundary) and within that, The University of Puerto Rico's <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/ites.upr.edu/el-verde-field-station/">El Verde Field Station</a>. At the field station, where I will be housed I will be working on a project with my mentor, Sofia Burgos-Caraballo. I am so excited to meet her but have only been in contact by email thus far. We are designing a project based upon the effects humans can have on aquatic ecosystem function. Our focus is the biofilm (algae, the slippery stuff and lots of other microbes, silt, fungi detritus, etc.) that forms on surfaces in rivers and streams. This REU is perfect for me for because I am interested in river and stream (riparian) ecology and also, anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems. In Puerto Rico, our project will combine the two.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am super duper excited, my trip is only a week away. More than anything, I am happy to get the chance to experience something that will teach me something about field biology and my own budding interests in ecology. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'll miss you guys!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03108880421838051598noreply@blogger.com0