Today (Thursday) was the first day I went out into the field. Right after breakfast, we (Tyler, Ben--who's been here for 3 weeks already working with Tyler, Eric, Ibrahim and I) headed out to the "South" (just the south third of Mpala). We're looking at a few different species of Barleria. This is basically a spiny shrub that grows out in the savanna, and the species we were looking at today has purple flowers. Tyler's interested in a bunch of different things about this plant, and today we were starting an experiment to look at the relationship between these plants and the trees that are there. These trees are mainly Acacia trees, which have these huge pointy spines on them. Tyler's examining how much these plants rely on the trees for defense when they're in association with them. To look at this, we cut down the trees around some of the associated plants to expose them and remove that source of defense.
Back at Mpala, we're done for the day, and I'm trying to get caught up on this blog (because it's only my first full day here and I'm already behind). I'm sitting on the porch in front of the library, just looking out around me. There's a parade of colorful birds going by, none of which look almost anything like those at home. Tomorrow we're driving up to the North to do the same thing as today, but we're going to be back a little earlier because there's a 4th of July party up at the ranch (about a 10 minute drive from the center, where I'm staying). After tomorrow, I may be working on some different projects, because right now there are more than enough hands to help with Tyler's work. So we'll see.
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| An acacia tree |
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| The "during" picture. This plant is becoming un-associated with the tree it uses for protection. |
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| The view from where we were working this afternoon. |
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| The "after" picture. The plant was exposed. |
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| A single Barleria plant. |
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