The Shushupe

Israel-Cuba Torres, who works with me on the fertilisation experiment, was working in Tono in January 2008 in the middle of the rain in the swampiest part of our plots.  He was hacking his way through the jungle with his machete when he cracked through the middle of a fallen bamboo only to discover The Shushupe directly behind it, and not too happy.  The Shushupe went into full attack mode--straightening up, flaring out, and hissing/rattling.  Israel froze to watch his life flash before his eyes before carefully retreating.  He grabbed his camera and, insane as he is, returned to snap a photo in the pouring rain.  The flash startled The Shushupe and both it and Israel ran off in opposite directions, never to see each other again...

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachesis_(genus)):

The Shushupe, also called The Bushmaster, is of the genus Lachesis of venomous pitvipers found in the remote, forested areas of Central and South America. Lachesis refers to one of the Three Fates in Greek mythology—Lachesis determined the length of the thread of life.

Adults vary in length from 2 to 2.5 m (6.5 to 8.25 ft), and some may grow to as much as 3 m (10 ft). The largest known was 3.65 m (12 ft), making it the longest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere. It is one of the largest and most dangerous snakes in South America, capable of multiple bite strikes and injecting large amounts of venom—even the bite of a juvenile can be fatal.

Ecuador

After my field work in Peru, I visited a similar project by the Germans in the Ecuadorian Andes. They are doing a lot of similar measurements as we are at similar altitudinal sites. Some of their students will do measurements that we are lacking on our sites, and we are welcome to do our measurements that they are missing on their sites. We'll talk more on this at the Switzerland meeting.

Now for a few photos...

Border crossing between Peru and Ecuador.


Estacion San Francisco has electricity and internet!


Panoramic from the 3000 m site.


Bromeliad for Steven.


Orchid for Rosa.


The hills were burning with this fiery orchid.


Crossing the river by pulley into the 1500 m site.


And you thought climbing the waterfall to San Pedro was bad...just kidding, this is just a scenic spot at the bottom of the 1000 m site.

The full photo blog can be found at: http://josh.yosh.org/travel/loja/loja.htm

Alo from Amazonia

Hi All,
After driving 1400km in MAto Grosso State, I am now in Ji-Paraná, Rondônia, Brasil.
The first part of the trip was really great. I went to Alta Floresta, northern of the State to work with people from an NGO called ICV, that I believe are the ones pioneers in implementing REDD policies as a study case in real in a region. I gave a talk there, and discussing our data, I guess I found out that they will be soon somehow involved with the RAINFOR network, as they will help to set the plot in the Cristalino area.
Driving around was really exciting, new deforestation hotspots, abandoned areas with capoeira and juquira (2 phases in the regrowth process), broken bridges, trucks carrying lots of woods, pastures and happy cows, soybean, corn and cotton fields….
Yesterday I arrived in Ji-Parana, and today I was working in the UNIR (State University of Rondonia), whereI meet some students and finish organizing my next trip – starting tomorrow!
I will try to update some photos now,
Hope you all are well,
Beijos
Liana

Fieldwork in Wytham Woods

This post is from Su-Yin, who asked me to post for her.

On Saturday, I went with Terhi and 12 volunteers from the Earthwatch and HSBC
Climate Partnership to collect leaf and soil samples for my MSc dissertation
project on nitrogen uptake in forests. It started out as a rainy day, but the
weather held up for the most part after the volunteers arrived. Manned with
our trusty shovels, trowels, and a newly purchased telescopic tree pruner, we
set off for a morning of fieldwork in Wytham Woods.

After an introductory talk and demonstration, we separated the volunteers into
two groups - the soil collection group with Terhi and the leaf collection group
with myself. The volunteers were HSBC employees under the 'climate champions'
programme from the UK, Turkey, and Malta. They were very enthusiastic about
the hands-on learning and had fun using the pruners and equipment for obtaining
soil and leaf samples.

Just as the sun's rays peeked out from behind the clouds, we finished sample
collection earlier than planned and headed back to the field station. What did
the volunteers gain, you ask? A glimpse of how to undertake research in the
field and building their 'climate champions' credentials. What did we gain?
Some samples for my study, of course. :) What did everyone gain? A pleasant
morning of wandering in the woods, leaf-picking, and the grown-up's version of
playing in the dirt. ;)

Now for the fun part - processing samples!

All the best,
Su-Yin and Terhi

in Peru? need $100,000?

sorry, just saw this...keep your eyes out for the walking $100,000?

http://www.theofficemonk.com/david/?gclid=CO-KtcfLkJQCFQ4LuwodBhlXmQ

hi from the east

I gave a talk at Korea University in Seoul, S. Korea last week on the state of UK climate modelling to an audience of about 40 people. They are very interested in developing collaborations with the UK climate modelling community and using our models to develop regional climate models for Korea. I was even paid for giving the talk, as well as taken out on the town for lots of fun activities and excellent Korean food! I'm currently in Moscow (Carmel has a conference here) and will be seeing lots of you in Poland this week!

Peru: rope request

For those coming to Peru, while you are discussing logistics:

There is a rope in the wet lab - its in an orange bag, labelled "Ecosystems Lab - 200m rope". The bag actually contains a 100m rope that would be very useful. It is heavy - maybe 10kg, so it might need someone with a large luggage allowance to bring it.

Could you work out if its possible to get the rope here by the 5th August?

This would be great if possible because currently we are unable to climb the bigger trees in the lowlands.

thanks and hope all is well,
Steven