Hola from the Cuericí Biological Station! The whole crew survived the hike to the Mirador of the continental divide where we successfully rigged trees and climbed with a beautiful view. We ate lunch looking over the high elevation montane forest, watching the clouds move across the mountains. The long walk across the elevation was totally worth the views!!
Today was our first day collecting data at this location, and we were able to climb three different trees to evaluate the epiphyte characteristics. We are continuing this work from Las Cruces, and will be able to compare data to see how the functional characteristics vary not only within individual trees, but also across the locations we are visiting. We have added an additional research question to our project and are also looking at how insect diversity and abundance, particularly of pollinators, changes across vertical tree stratification. We created traps to capture insects and installed them at two levels in the canopy, as well as on the ground. Stay tuned to see if our traps are successful, and to watch the rest of our adventure unfold! Pura Vida!
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