The last 2 months have been almost exclusively about data collection and research for me, but I am finally finished (with the data collection part, anyway). It's been so nice to be outside and hiking about and not sitting through lectures - I really enjoyed this part, even though it was a lot of work. The weather was not in my favor. Turns out pollinators are smart enough to stay in when it rains, but it has been the rainiest June on record in Ireland, so it proved quite a challenge. The next step is all mathematics and modeling, but I'm obviously incredibly nerdy, so I'm really excited about that part, too. A lot of you have asked about what exactly it is I've been doing, so I thought I'd take some pictures of one of my observations and tell you about it.
One of my sites is in a place called Glenmalure, south of the famous Glendalough in County Wicklow. There's no good form of public transportation to there, so awww darn, I had to backpack it. Such a tough life. I used a GPS to map out the area and record the specific coordinates of my work, and to create an elevation profile for the area. I did an intial survey of the site way back, and recorded all of the flowering plant species present, took photographs, and used a homemade plant press to save samples (which can be verified by a more legitimate botanist....). For each flowering plant species, I did 3 observations, 15 minutes each, across about 5 weeks. More or less I go and sit at each plant, and just record whatever insects happen to visit the plant within that time. If I couldn't identify them on sight, I took photographs to examine later, and for really tricky ones I had to try and catch them in a specimen tube. If i still couldn't identify them while in the tube at the site, I brought the tube home with me and put it in my freezer to identify later - scared a few people with that one. I also get to use a fancy anemometer to record wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc. for each observation. That's about it. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for how many insects and flowers there are that I walk past all the time without really noticing. It may sound a bit boring, but it was actually a lot of fun. The next part is taking all of that data and turning it into interaction networks and figuring just what they mean. And now some pictures for you viewing pleasure:
One of my sites is in a place called Glenmalure, south of the famous Glendalough in County Wicklow. There's no good form of public transportation to there, so awww darn, I had to backpack it. Such a tough life. I used a GPS to map out the area and record the specific coordinates of my work, and to create an elevation profile for the area. I did an intial survey of the site way back, and recorded all of the flowering plant species present, took photographs, and used a homemade plant press to save samples (which can be verified by a more legitimate botanist....). For each flowering plant species, I did 3 observations, 15 minutes each, across about 5 weeks. More or less I go and sit at each plant, and just record whatever insects happen to visit the plant within that time. If I couldn't identify them on sight, I took photographs to examine later, and for really tricky ones I had to try and catch them in a specimen tube. If i still couldn't identify them while in the tube at the site, I brought the tube home with me and put it in my freezer to identify later - scared a few people with that one. I also get to use a fancy anemometer to record wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc. for each observation. That's about it. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for how many insects and flowers there are that I walk past all the time without really noticing. It may sound a bit boring, but it was actually a lot of fun. The next part is taking all of that data and turning it into interaction networks and figuring just what they mean. And now some pictures for you viewing pleasure:
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