Scientist Profile - Eric Fergaus of TEAM Network

Eric Fergaus is director of information systems at Conservation International's TEAM Network.  He wrote an insightful piece last week for the Huffington Post about how new technologies are allowing ecologists to efficiently analyze the large amounts of data they are now collecting.

Check it out...

"In today's globalized, technology-driven world, we are inundated with information on a daily basis. Faced with a deluge of data emanating from traditional news outlets, advertising and our social media networks, we must constantly sift through this mountain of data and evaluate which information is the most accurate, important and relevant to our lives.

Within the scientific community, things aren't much different. Technology has now enabled us to collect near real-time ecological information on scales ranging from a 1-hectare plot to an entire continent via space-, air- and ground-based sensors. Global, regional and national monitoring networks and observing systems can now use these technologies to capture information from more geographies and time periods than ever before."
Read more...

Common Paraque

Just when my last night hike was seeming less eventful than the first, Kenneth pointed out a common paraque on the forest floor.  He had to guide our eyes to it over several minutes then said he wanted to try and sneak up to it and pick it up.  If he was trying to impress the six lady science teachers I think it worked.  Check this out…

This bird can be seen along roadsides near fields or on the forest floor.  If you sweep your flashlight along the ground you’re likely to see the reddish glow of their eyes.  It calls out loudly at night and its sound reminded me of the whoop-pir-will, another in the nightjar family that we hear when out camping in Wisconsin.  

Scientist Profile - Mike Wells and the Band-backed Wrens

Mike Wells says he makes birds fight for a living.  He became interested in the social behavior of animals after taking a course in college on primates and another on behavioral ecology.  In an interview he said, "You see spectacular forms of cooperation in many populations of animals" - (i.e. army ants).  He is now studying the cooperative breeding behavior of a Costa Rican bird species where there is a dominant pair that breeds while the rest of the 4-12 member family does not.   They stick around sleeping together in a dormitory nests and helping to support the offspring by foraging for food and defending their territory. 

This type of indirect reproduction is fairly common in nature - it is mostly seen in the Hymnoptera (wasps, ants, and bees).  It's called kin selection and it refers to strategies in evolution that favor the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at the cost of the organism's own survival and/or reproduction.  Fascinating research! This behavior is less common in other animal groups but Mike is interested in how and why this type of kin selection evolved to varying degrees in different wren species of the Campylohynchus genus.

Jen and I woke up at 5am to meet him and his assistant as they attempted to net and band one of these wrens in a local family but he had no luck.  He thinks they were on to him.  In the video you might be able to tell that he's using a recording device to play a distress call then you hear the family make their own distress call, back and forth.  So he's stressing them out, getting them in fight mode so they'll fly toward him and get caught in his net.  By banding one of their legs they are easier to track and study.  He did manage to net a Golden-hooded Tanager, one of the prettiest birds I've seen here :)  After a little wrestling with the net and wings it was set free.

And he showed us a Montezuma's Oropendula nest that had been accidently dismantled as one of the owners was attacking an intruder.  Only one egg inside :(  

Our ECO Classroom Project Presentation - Chicago Northwest

ECO Classroom - Chicago Northwest on Prezi

My team....

Mantled Howler Monkeys

Notice anything strange in this picture?  ....if you guessed my worst nightmare you're right.  I often bore my friends with all of the things I'd rather do, or eat, or have than a bot fly larvae living inside of me.  I even refuse to show my students video of bot fly extractions during my weekly Strange Behavior videos.  This poor fella kept scratching what looked like at least three of them.  That's all I'm saying about the bot fly.

This is a Mantled Howler Monkey, one of 15 species of this type (genus) of New World monkey .  From Mexico to Ecuador there are three subspecies of the Mantled Howlers. I think the ones we see here are the Golden-mantled Howler monkeys.  They are differentiated by skull shape with their northern cousins and fur color with their southern cousins.  They feed mainly on young leaves so don't get a lot of calories and try to conserve energy by resting a lot.  These monkeys also have a low-pitched howl or grunt to help them locate other troops or to communicate disturbances, another energy-saving adaptation which prevents them from having to move around too much.

Howlers eat leaves, fruit, and flowers but manage to avoid dangerous plant toxins like alkaloids and cardiac glycosides by focusing on sampling small quantities of younger leaves with lower concentrations and by learning to recognize and find the safer trees.  They are thought to create mental libraries and maps to help them distinguish between these closely related species.   Kenneth Glander found that howlers will avoid the leaves of 146 Madero negro trees while eating from the only three without the toxins.  He hypothesized that the evolution of higher intelligence in primates may have been sparked by this need for this complex discrimination of food sources.

They seemed to be pretty indifferent to our presence but apparently are really good at using humans for defecation target practice.  : /  

To the top of Volcan Barva...

At almost 3,000 meters in elevation, the top of Volcan Barva is a different world.  Joanna from TEAM Network took us up to collect biodiversity and carbon storage data here.  They have subplots set up where they collect vegetation and camera trap data four times per year.  They're really good about showing us exactly how they do their work.  Ten of us got the full experience with an extremely nauseating 4WD ride up an almost impassable road.  Here you find less biodiversity, a cooler temperature, and surprisingly more above-ground biomass according to our calculations (we'll ask Joanna about this - could be due to our small sample size?).

Otter501

Otter 501 is a story about a stranded sea otter pup, an adventurous young woman that rescues her, and her new passion for understanding the species and their struggle to survive.

 It's a very inspiring story and we were lucky to get an early screening of this film and then Skype with the actress/biologist who starred in it.  She was asking for feedback about how they might expand teacher resources associated with the movie and discussed her hopes for creating a database of nature video clips so that students can learn to create their own documentaries.  I want to make my own movie too!!

It's not available yet for purchase, but we can book a screening at our school or nearby theater...  Anyone interested?  

Why are we at La Selva?

We're not just bird/monkey-watching or coffee/banana plantation-touring here!  We're also here to learn about the research being done to study plant and animal biodiversity as well as the long-term effects of climate change on ecosystems.  We're then developing and sharing lessons which will get students to conduct comparable research and data analysis out in the field at home.

TEAM Network is a group of scientists collecting real time data to monitor these long-term biodiversity and climate trends in tropical areas around the world in order to potentially have an early warning system for life on Earth.  We are hoping to do the same with our students in our little corner of the world.  TEAM is operating in sixteen sites across Africa, Asia, and S. America with a process like you see below:

 

Perhaps our local version of this could be the beginning of a new Citizen Science project.  Here are the lessons we're working on so far:

• Measuring carbon sequestration over time in our local forests and prairies then comparing to other ecosystems around the world.
• Conducting a biodiversity index of our chosen field site at or near our school.
• Camera trapping - identification and long term monitoring of species visiting or living in or near our site.
• La Selva Biological Research Station (Costa Rica) scientist profile lesson - reveal how the students and researchers here chose their research topic, what the relevance is of their research, and how they got interested in this field.

The three other teacher groups are working on slightly different projects including land use effects on local ecosystems and ecosystem services.  I think it's important to always make the connection between changes in these ecosystem services and the impacts on our well-being.  So, we'll definitely be tying that in.

I don't think I've ever been so productive with my work and hobbies at the same time in my life!  Birding, lesson-planning, listening to eye-opening lectures and presentations, river kaying, birding...  Good stuff happening here and it's nice to be this immersed in curriculum planning with with such an innovative group of teachers and scientists.

I guess I should also say thanks to Northrop Grumman and Conservation International for this opportunity! :) 

Early Morning Bird Walk

Kenneth and Albert took some of us on a two-hour bird hike this morning.  Good birds!

The guides here (and in other parts of Costa Rica I've been to) are amazing.  I can't imagine how many years it takes to remember all of this information.  Many times they know scientific names, Spanish names, and English names.  They also have lots of fun facts - like describing the mating displays of certain birds, mimicking their calls to see where they are, or dashing your illusions about what you thought was a gentle fruit-eating toucan. >:(

Social Flycatcher

Gray-necked Woodrail

Squirrel Cuckoo

The Violaceous Trogon has recently been split into three subspecies due to significant differences in their songs in the North, South and Western parts of Costa Rica.  Speciation in action?  If ladies in one area no longer respond to the calls of males in another and their paths cross, they may no longer mate.  This is called sexual selection (as opposed to natural selection).

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan...  I just can't look at these birds the same after what I've learned about them.  But I'll have to save that buzzkill of a story for another time.  

Coffee Plantation Tour

Today we took a tour of an organic, fair trade, coffee plantation.  It is 100% owned and operated by a Costa Rican cooperative group.  There are 137 farmers in the coop spread out over the northern part of the country near Sarapiqui.  It was fascinating to see the process of shade-growing the plants, picking the ripe berries, choosing "first quality" beans inside, shelling and drying them, then shipping them around the world.  It's quite a sustainable operation too... They use the dried second shells for fuel, along with scrap bark wood from local furniture-makers to dry the beans.  They compost the berry shells along with bad beans and other scraps in order to make organic fertilizers for their fields.  They have worms helping to compost this waste and many of the rapidly reproducing worms get fed to tilapia that they keep on site and sell at the local markets.  And finally, they have a series of man made ponds where the dirty rinse water they use for the beans slowly flows through allowing decomposition and a decrease of nitrates and phosphates before being released into the river.  


They had some fabulous lunch options to have with coffee after the tour and it seems like this kind of tourism is really good for the local economy.  The waterfall was nice too! :)

Camera Trapping!

Joanna showed us how to program and set up the wildlife camera traps today.  What a huge database of wildlife photos these have generated!

Traditionally these surveys have involved scientists walking forest trails and carefully observing for signs of animals in the area (tracks, feces, dens, scrapes).  But they inevitably missed a lot - animals living at low densities, those scared of humans, and small ones.  Using newer technology with camera traps provides lots of advantages for these scientists:

• they can get all sizes of animals
• even elusive animals are able to be photo-captured
• cameras work 24 hours a day
• individual animals with unique markings can be tracked 

It would be nice to have these at Maine East in our oak savanna.  Perhaps we could create some lush habitat by the pond, keep it filled with water, stock it with native critters, wait for migrant birds, and follow a similar protocol to TEAM Network's.  I've seen kestrel hawks out there in the dead oaks and other migratory birds.  A few teachers said there used to be a family of foxes living in the NW corner brush pile.  Who knows what else...!

The camera is motion activated and can be set to photo rapid fire as an animal crosses its path.  These photos might give us some ideas for research topics.  Taking night hikes with proper guides has made me realize how much might be lurking out there just under foot.  And it's amazing how technology is making the analysis of these species so much easier...

Measuring Carbon Sequestration

After breakfast Morgan introduced us to the TEAM Network protocols as well as the TEAM education portal.   We hiked into the old-growth forest to learn the protocol used by TEAM scientists to collect vegetation data (biodiversity index, carbon storage in above ground biomass, etc.)  Joanna is in charge of the TEAM Volcan Barva site which includes parts of La Selva.  She showed us how they use many random 1-hectare plots with 10-m transects to collect their vegetation data.  The diameter of trees and lianas, species information, and tree density can be plugged into a formula in order to find changes in above ground biomass over time and indirectly measure carbon sequestration.

2012 Trip: Day 2 Wildlife

Saw this slaty-tailed trogon right outside the labs :o  It's related to the famous resplendent quetzal which was considerered to be divine by the Aztecs and the Maya.  Isn't it just...?  Some of them nest in occupied termite mounds.

We went on a two-hour night hike.  This was on a low branch only about eight feet up.  Poofy little guy! White-collared manakin, closely related to the red-capped manakin which moon-walks like MJ to impress the ladies.

Smoky Jungle Frog - eats almost anything

Owl Butterfly

Red-eyed Treefrog

2012 Trip: Climate Change Lecture

Professor Steve Gaines is the University of California Santa Barbara dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.  He is also a marine biologist  and AAAS fellow.  He gave an excellent lecture on climate change from an interesting perspective.  (outlined below)

WHY is climate science such a difficult subject to communicate about?

• Why is it difficult to understand?
• Why so much controversy?
• Teaching opportunity?

Many things affect the climate....   (and it's hard to communicate the complexities of all of these to the public)

1. Sun's output 
2. Earth's orbit (mainly eccentricity) 
3. Drifting continents (can affect ocean current patterns and consequently heat distribution)
4. Volcanic eruptions (sulfur compounds have a net cooling effect)
5. Greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, H2O, N2O, etc.)

Only 1 degree C increase since Industrial Revolution, 2 - 5 degrees by 2100?  (is that so bad?)

• If another 1degree rise, how far would you have to move to maintain life in your favorite climate?  ~200km?  Now, what if it rises by 2 - 5 degrees C?
• One of the most extreme ice age events was only 5 degrees C colder - you see how this can make a big difference.

The time period on a graph matters.  

• Scientists talk climate - most people feel and think weather.    There is a big difference.
• Cherry-picking data is tempting when you have confirmation bias.

How do scientists determine temp/CO2 values over the last 800,000 years? (complex data to interpret for the general public)

• ice cores (oxygen isotope ratios for temp., CO2 levels with isotope signature)
• tree rings
• isotopes in rocks containing plant fossils
• ocean sediments

*Many uncomfortable with any uncertainty on these, but for time periods where it is possible to compare and overlap these proxy data, they do fall in line - no wild anomalies.

Most future projections of events are analyzed using MODELS.  Some people not comfortable with that.

• The graph of six different groups' modelling data for temp. projections are different based on assumptions that are different about variables that will impact temperature.
• Global average temp. since the 2007 IPCC report  has increased faster than the most extreme projections in the report.

Uncertainty in the past and in the future.

• Projections in science almost always involve some uncertainty.  
• Many of us are uncomfortable with uncertainty, especially if personal action is required in the face of it.  

2012 Trip: Into the Jungle!

Out of the Chicago heat and into the lowland Caribbean tropical evergreen rainforest bordering the northern edge of Braulio Carillo National Park.

Conservation International, Northrup Grumman, and the TEAM Network (Tropical Ecology Assessment & Monitoring) have teamed up to provide an exciting opportunity for 16 middle and high school science teachers - the first annual  ECO Classroom trip.  Check it out...

We will be learning from local scientists about field data collection methods for the study of biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and the impacts of climate change. The TEAM Network is a partnership between Conservation International, Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. They have developed the protocols for collecting this data. Here's their mission statement.  Essentially they're saying we've got early warning systems for hurricanes and other catastrophic events. Why not have one for life on Earth?

We kicked off our exploration of flora & fauna with a 2.5 hr hike into some secondary then old-growth forest.  Lanine (sp?) was our guide and he really came through for us!  Already a few species of toucan, the collared aracari, woodcreepers, rufous-winged woodpecker, black-faced grosbeak, white-necked puffbird, kiskadees, passerini's tanager, and lots more...

 Great Curassow

 Green Iguana

 Howler Monkey

Three-toed Sloth w/ babe

Rufous-winged woodpecker

Fer-de-lance, most dangerous snake in CR

One of our hiking groups, Homo sapiens

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