Oh, right, the fire ants...

I kinda just left ya hanging on the last post. Oops. Well, the fire ant thing is going rather swimmingly, I'm happy to report. We've collected and processed at all but two sites, so we should finish up the sampling stuff next week and be able to go home as scheduled. We had trouble finding enough colonies at a couple sites, so we may have to revisit those, and the power in my trailer keeps blinking on and off. Dammit. OK storm, you've had your fun, now go away. There we go, OK power, please stay on? Anyway, I've only been bitten/stung about 7 times and without any adverse reactions, so I'm pretty happy with the project. I'm really not looking forward to sampling at the 75 sites. These were abandoned several years ago and 2 new sites were created. Now, they have 10 foot tall blackberry stalks. Not kidding. One of the PIs has offered me his chaps and recommends carrying something to beat back vegetation with. We're gonna die. And now for your entertainment, here's a video of fire ants swarming:


Notice how my camera becomes possessed by Satan at the end of the video.
It's been doing that since I took it to Mexico.

It occurred to me recently, that I've never fully explained the Corridor Project. It can probably be gathered from the name that the project has to do with habitat corridors. The experimental landscape is pretty sweet, though. There are 8 sites with 5 patches: a square central patch (A), connected by a corridor to patch B (also square). There are three more patches (C, D, and E) surrounding A, but not connected. These patches are either rectangular or winged (they have half a corridor extending from 2 sides). C and E are always the same shape, and D is the other shape, and which is which varies between sites. The square patches are 150m X 150m, and all patches are separated by 150m of matrix. The matrix is the forest (mostly pine) between the clearcut patches. The patches are meant to be a restoration of longleaf pine savanna, a natural community in this area maintained by fire disturbance. Thus, prescribed burns are conducted at the sites every so often. Here's some pictures, because my explanation is probably confusing:

From center, then clockwise from top right: A, B, C, D, E

I think this is patch D at site 8 (could be wrong)

So this project has been around at least 15 years, with tons of experiments conducted and papers written. My project is only one of at least 10 going on right now. The original landscapes were a bit different from this, but this landscape was designed to test for more factors than just connectivity. Patch shape and edge effects can also play a role in explaining various environmental phenomena, and I'll get to see if they affect my project results in addition to connectivity. For its size, this particular experimental landscape is the best replicated in the world, so it's actually kind of exciting to work here. Who knows, maybe I'll come back here...

As for the people on the project, they're pretty awesome. I've been having a lot of fun with them, and I'm sad that it's getting to the end of the summer and people are starting to leave. Including people on other projects at SRS (they're awesome too), I think 6 or so have left, and it sucks that I'll probably never see them again. So we've done a lot of partying and going out in the last few weeks, which has been a kind of bittersweet fun. Anyway, I'm the next to go, so I'm expecting at least one more good party before then.

Since I feel bad for not updating much lately, if I'm bored enough tomorrow I might post some random stories, photos, etc that I've been meaning to all along. But only if I'm bored enough.