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August 26, 2009
The Internship Winds Down
Fifty plots, one hundred soil samples, and more than a thousand plant specimens, collected and pressed to a crisp, characterize the past five weeks of my internship here in Paraná, Brazil. It has been a busy month!!
Like I said in my last post, the objective of the research with the Paraná Biodiversity Project has been to compare native vegetation regeneration under three treatment types: areas planted with native trees, areas planted with eucalyptus, and areas that were simply fenced off and isolated. The results will hopefully indicate a preference for the restoration of natural vegetation in the region. In this post, I hope to provide a clear picture of the research methodology that was used this summer.
In total, 50 plots from about 30 different private properties in the municipality of Diamante do Norte were examined: 12 isolated; 20 planted with eucalyptus; 10 planted with natives; 8 planted with both natives and exotics. The plots range in age and distance from the nearby rivers (all are located within 250m of any river). Within a given treatment and distance from river, the specific locations of the plots were determined randomly by the roll of a die.
Six types of data were collected in each 5m x 50m plot. First, we recorded the diameter at breast-height (DBH) for every woody species with a DBH greater or equal to one centimeter found within the site. Second, we recorded the occurrence of every plant species found within the plot, collecting a sample specimen for any unknown or new species. Next, along a 50m transect tape that ran down the middle of the plot, we recorded which species were crossing the line for every ten centimeters. For every ten meters, we measured the depth of the O-Horizon of the soil. We then collected a sample from the O-Horizon and from the first 10cm of the A-Horizon at each of these 10m distances to be analyzed for pH and nutrient content. Finally, we determined the color of the A-Horizon using a soil-color chart book, and we considered the plot completed once the coordinates of the site were recorded.
Now, I’ve been using the pronoun “we,” demanding a description of the three incredibly important people who accompanied me in the field. First, there was my neighbor in the State Park of Caiuá, António Terto. He works directly for the state’s environmental agency (IAP) as the equivalent of a US’ forest park ranger. He provided transportation to the different properties and facilitated the research process, always encouraging the most efficient methodology possible in order to fit in as many plots as we could during the short time we had in the field. Next there was Seu João, who works with the organization COMAFEM. COMAFEM is an inter-municipality body that provides environmental technicians and support for a number of different projects and programs. As the individual who held the most experience working with forestry in Diamante do Norte and who could handle a machete with incredible ease, Seu João helped to both tame some of the most grizzly of plots (and by grizzly, I mean too dense or too spiny to pass) and to provide the common names of scores of plants, labeling anything from indistinct ground-cover to common trees. Finally, there was Valdir Leite da Silva. Valdir, who also works with COMAFEM, held the most experience working with other visiting researchers in the area. Consulting often with this native-born, Diamante do Norte resident, I depended greatly on Valdir’s local knowledge and his scientific-minded advice.
And so, accompanied by these three, Paraná Biodiversity Project collaborators, I finished up a busy, month-and-a-half of field research, and have since returned to the Botanical Garden of Curitiba to identify (to the scientific name) all of the plant specimens that were collected and pressed from the field. The herbarium in the Botanical Garden of Curitiba possesses the largest number of plant families and genera in Brazil, and the botanists there, principally Juarez Cordeiro, utilized this incredible resource to assist me in identifying the hundreds of samples that I brought back from the northwestern region of the state.
Of course, the identification process will never be fully complete. Many of the plants did not have flowers or seeds to properly distinguish them to the individual species level, yet the internship has to end at some point! Thus, this week is the last official week of the internship, and these days mostly consist of tying up loose ends and enjoying Brazil before leaving for the States. Juarez Cordeiro at the Botanical Garden has agreed to continue identifying plants until neither time nor material will allow for more identification, the list that he provides will contribute greatly to the quality of the data analysis that I will begin upon returning to Brown.
I think that is all for now!! I will post another blog tomorrow, reflecting on my experience with the Paraná Biodiversity Project. Thanks again for reading. Abraços e até mais!!
Posted by Megan Whelan at August 26, 2009 06:57 PM
