I once read a quote that went something like “travel is dangerous to a closed mind”. I do not remember whose quote it was, nor from whence it entered my life, but my guess is that it was referring more to cultural understanding than to scientific discovery. The prescience of the statement, however, is that indeed it can be applied to science also.

Both Ty (a fellow PhD student also doing research at Wog Wog) and myself have been fortunate to travel around the World. Speaking only for myself, I have traveled to learn about and experience cultures other than that of the United States. Yet as ecologists we have conducted the bulk of our experiments in Colorado. Neither of us would pretend to know the full spectrum of ecological interactions within Colorado; but we would have a pretty good idea of what to expect during any outing within this state. The forests that surround Wog Wog here in Australia are another story.

A three-hour drive south from Canberra found us in the long term Wog Wog forest fragmentation study (See posting from October 8). In conjunction with CSIRO (http://www.csiro.au) we have returned to find the old pitfall traps, open them for a week, then close them and return to Canberra with a new sample of ground dwelling fauna. We are led by Dr. Brett Melbourne, a professor at the University of Colorado (CU) who has previously worked at Wog Wog, (http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultysites/melbourne), and accompanied by his father Erik.

Our first day and a half was spent locating and repairing old pitfall traps. Over the course of 25 years many of the traps have become hidden with overgrowth. Erosion has also undermined or covered traps and animals have pulled a number of the traps out of the ground. This process was aided by the use of a metal detector without which a number of traps would not have been relocated.

Crawling around Australia’s bush is an educational and sobering experience; one further punctuated by the nature of our experimental design. From an observational perspective: the soils within the Eucalypt and Pine forests are different in color, moisture, and apparent rate of leaf litter decomposition; the insect and spider communities seem to be very different with the Eucalypts accommodating more ant species than the Pines; and the canopy of the two forest allows different levels of light to reach the ground. These are educational aspects that will lead to more questions and analysis.

The sobering aspects are: a number of the ant species are large and aggressive. Most notably is the Bull ant (http://faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=251). Basically this ant is composed of large mandibles and painful stingers. There are also Funnel Web spiders. The suggested treatment if bitten is to get to a hospital: it won’t kill you but you will feel bad for a while. The density of the Kunzea, a large shrub, can be frustrating with branches grabbing clothing, ears, and equipment. Also sobering is the beauty of the avifauna and their songs in the morning. This aspect of the bush is absolutely outside the range of experiences I have ever had, and will forever remain as a natural welcome to the Australian wilderness.

Once all the original pitfall traps were relocated and rebuilt when necessary, we opened the traps (Videos of this process will be posted soon). The traps are currently still open. Ty and I will be returning to Wog Wog tomorrow (October 29) to close each trap after having been opened for seven days. We will then return to Canberra and CSIRO with our samples, transfer them into a solution that is legal to air freight and have them shipped to CU where they will be processed.

We have yet to spend much time getting to know the Australian culture, but we are learning a great deal about its dirt, forests, and wildlife. Hurray for travel!

An Achilles heel of many ecological experiments is the short time period over which they are conducted. Two, three, and five-year experiments are typical. Ecological patterns and interactions cannot always be fully understood with data collected within these time constraints. A unique aspect of the Wog Wog Fragmentation Experiment is that it is one of a handful of ecological studies in the World that has run for more than 20 years.

The experiment was established in 1984. At this time the fragments were located in continuous Eucalypt forest (See http://www.australianforests.org.au/australiasforests/forest-types-eucalypt.htm). In 1987 the Eucalypt forest surrounding the fragments was clear-cut and replanted with Pinus radiata (Monterray pine, See http://www.conifers.org/pi/pin/radiata.htm). The Monterray pine is essentially an invasive species in Australia. Unlike the Eucalyptus trees, Pine trees tend to have a closed canopy thereby limiting the amount of sunlight that reaches the ground. The result of this is that few understory plant species inhabit pine-dominated forests. Pine needles also produce thick mulch on top of underlying surrounding soil. A result of this is that soil pH decreases (becomes more acidic) to the point that few plant species can survive in soils dominated by Pine trees.

The experimental design involves the placement of pitfall traps within each fragment. This is a method to collect ground-dwelling insects. Pitfall traps are basically cups that have been placed in the ground deep enough such that the rim of the cup is level with the soil. A small amount of solution is then placed into each cup. The idea is that any insects that fall into the cup will be immobilized and preserved until they can be collected. For the purposes of our experiment, the traps will be left open for a week. To date, 655 species of beetles, and 50 species of ants, had been captured in the Wog Wog fragments using this technique.

The collected insect data allows for the investigation of a number of questions. Included are: How do insect populations at Wog Wog respond to invasive plants?, Are some insect species more likely to go extinct in the presence of Pine trees when compared to Eucalyptus trees?, Are there long-term fluctuations in response patterns of resident insects?, and What influences how the insect communities within the Eucalyptus and Pine trees is assembled?

These are big questions, and the answers are not yet known. The next few years should see us inch closer to a better understanding of this ecosystem. Stay tuned.

Welcome. This will be the site where I will post weekly observations from our research trip to Australia. Stay tuned for pictures, thoughts, and travel with a scientific bent.