A group of 20 Hamilton students and their faculty advisor, Biology Professor William Pfitsch, are on a two week trip to study tropical field ecology in Costa Rica.
Student Daniel Fillius '02, reported in from the La Selva field station.
Our first stop was to Palo Verde National Park to study a dry forest. Palo Verde is experiencing its six-month dry season and temperatures reached 104 degrees while we were there. We sampled leaf litter for plant diversity and found 68 different species per hectare. We also studied Pseudomyrmex ants that live in thorns on acacia trees.
On Friday, (March 16) we drove eight hours to a "wet forest." The area around La Selva receives about 4 meters of rain per year. When we arrived the area was in the middle of a "mini- drought" --virtually no rain for an entire month. Our task was to compare the plant diversity of the two sites, so we've been busy sampling leaf litter here also.
We were also treated to a snack of termites-- they taste kind of minty -- and warned to avoid the 1.5 inch-long bullet ants with stings that feel like bullet wounds!
Please check back for a full report (under Exploration and Expeditions) the week of March 26 when Dan gets back to Hamilton. The photo shown here is of some "minty" termites.
