Great day today, though tired is an understatement. Nothing like going up and down hills again and again, jumping up and down off of log and pounding rebar into the ground for 10 hours to make a boy feel spry. I guess I have to really explain what my research is aiming to answer for those of you who don't know. My goal is to use population data from a Monterey pine forest in Cambria, along with soil fungi data that I collect to see if seedling survivorship is influenced by the species of fungi. The soil fungi (Ectomycorrhizal fungi) create these networks between different plants roots that can potentially move nutrients and water from plant to plant...so, it would be really cool if I can show that seedlings survive more often in areas where certain soil fungi are present. Meanwhile, I'll be using the forest data on the trees to model (using these things called leslie matrices or population matrix models) the eventual "age"(but really stage) structure of the forest. This would also have the added bonus of telling me how fast the population of Monterey pine is growing (or not). Those are the basic of my experiment, but if you're interested, let me know and I'll tell you more...obviously, I love fungi and love to talk about them and how super neat they are.
Ate a good meal for dinner, though blood sausage would be appealing after a long day in the field (not quite), potatoes, onions, garlic, turkey dogs and eggs fried and mixed together. No, really...it was very tasty. Came across an interesting specimen of frog today, Pristimantis sesamestreetus. Such a charismatic and noble creature. I'm tired, Kristin is asleep. To bed I go. Have a good day all and be well, to those you love and the world you live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment