Salamander Chronicles

JUNE 2012

The string of good news continues! The American Philosophical Society awarded me the Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research! This award allows me to start work that I did not think would be possible until next year. I will now be able to purchase long term data loggers w/ sensors for temperature, moisture, and relative humidity. My goal is to set up four preliminary long term microhabitat monitoring stations in both Wayne National Forest and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Each station will be contained within one of my 1 m^2 plots. I will place a HOBO Micro station with one soil moisture sensor placed into the top 5m of soil of open ground (not covered by rocks, logs, etc.) and one soil moisture sensor into the top 5 cm of soil under a cover object. I will also place three temp ibuttons to record temperature 20 cm below ground, 5 cm below ground, and in the leaf litter. Finally, I will use a temp/humidity ibutton to record temperature and relative humidity just above ground level. Each station will be able to record data continuously every hour for over 6 months. These will be critically important data. Hopefully, I can increase the number of stations next year.

For now, I will start collecting data and refining my methods!

MAY 2012

I have finally gotten most of my field gear together. In all, I will be carrying a lot of equipment out with me every day, but it manages to pack down to a fairly compact size.

It certainly seems like a lot but you can see it all packs down into a pelican case, hiking pack, and a fanny pack (I may switch that out for a photographers vest). I have tried the gear on and over all it seems like it will not be too difficult to hike around with it. I may also lighten my load a bit after I test out my methods in the next couple weeks. Right now I am thinking a cube (shown put together in my first photo) will let me photograph and measure cover objects and vegetation in my plots. However, I think I can easily accomplish this using only the square base with one or two poles sticking up for height measurements. If I use this approach I will save probably 2 kg of pack weight. 

I will be starting much later than I would like and will only be able to get one months worth of data in before the middle of summer.  However, this should set me up for a very productive field season this coming fall and next spring. The main goals for this year is to collect preliminary data, narrow down my field sites, tweak my data collection methods, and prepare for my proposal defense in fall. At the moment I think I am on the right track.

I also made a walking stick out of left over PVC pipe. I marked off 1 m in 0.5 cm increments. This will function as a handy walking stick but also will let me easily measure leaf litter, vegetation, and other things while I am out in the field. In addition to the obvious equipment in the photo I also have a 50 m tape measure, 6 inch digital calipers, and several steal rulers on the way. I also stocked up on spare batteries for all my electronic equipment. 

I am also going to try something relatively risky. I plan on recording my data on my ASUS transformer prime tablet. I consider this risky because I will be out in the forest and exposed to the elements. Therefore, recording data on it may not be possible in all situations, and there is also the possibility of damage to the tablet. I am taking three major precautions to help prevent any problems from occurring. Firstly, I purchased a Gumdrop protective case for the tablet which should protect it from falls and make it at least splash resistant. Second, I will be storing it in my pelican case with my other electronic devices, so it should remain well protected when not in use. Finally, I also purchased rite-in-the-rain copier paper to use as a back up system. This means if it is raining or appears like it might rain I can simply use the rite-in-the-rain paper to avoid potential damage to the tablet. If the tablet ends up working, I will save myself from entering a lot of data.

I am certainly starting to get excited. I will update more once I start collecting data.

MAY 2012

After accumulating $500 in funding for my master research in 2 years, I have managed to secure $5000 for my PhD dissertation work.  This is after I heard last week that I received the the Rosemary Fund grant of $2000 from the Society for the Study of Evolution. This grant is only available to PhD students in their first two years so this was the last year I was eligible. SSE is a great society and they publish one of my favorite journals so receiving a grant from them was certainly a boost to my confidence. It will also greatly help my first two years of research. I will be able to purchase all of the field equipment I need to get started and even purchase some long term data loggers which I did not think would be possible until next year.

I have already made some purchases including a Kestral 3500 weather meter. This will allow me to record air/water temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, among many other weather variables in a nice hand held waterproof/durable yet still accurate weather meter.

I also ordered some waterproof high accuracy temperature probes and infrared thermometers from ThermoWorks which should be here next week.

The piece of equipment I am most excited about is the HydroSense II which I just received from Campbell Scientific earlier this week. This item will allow me to record soil moisture quicker and more accurately than some cheaper options making it a worth while purchase despite the hefty price tag. It also has a built in GPS so I will be able to confirm all measurements recorded are for the correct plot when I am entering my data.

I am really excited to get out into the field!

Still waiting on one more grant for the spring season…

APRIL 2012

I found out during my masters research at Texas State that funding can be hard to come by. In fact, I applied for over a dozen grants during my masters work yet I only received two, and that netted me only $500. Well, $500 barely paid for gas to get me out to my field sites and back, so essentially I ended up spending a lot of my own money.

Starting a new project up here at Ohio University I was fairly nervous that I would run into the same problem. In all, I will probably need a minimum of $10,000 to complete my project over the next 3 years, but in reality, closer to $25,000 would be ideal. The more money I receive the more continuous data loggers I can purchase, which can record soil moisture and temperature for months at a time. These data loggers will help me tie together all of my micro-habitat data as well as help make comparisons with macro-habitat data. However, the most nerve racking aspect of the project was that in order to collect preliminary data this spring I needed at least $2000 to purchase a handheld soil moisture meter and fund my travel to field sites. I also have already had several grant rejections which certainly magnified by nervousness. Well, luckily The Explorers Club came through for me and awarded me the Exploration Fund grant of $2500. The title of my grant proposal was “Exploring below the undergrowth:the role of micro-habitat in the evolutionary ecology of a bioindicator taxon”, which admittedly is a bit over the top. However, given that it was successful, I may be sticking with it, at least for a little while.

**Just a quick note, the official dates on all of these posts will be incorrect because I recently had a problem with my previous WordPress account.  I am re-posting all of my blog posts and will keep better track of my blog back ups in the future.  I will also include the approximate date each post was made at the top of each new blog post.**

APRIL 2012

This blog will chronicle the adventures of my dissertation research at Ohio University. I will be starting my field work this spring and it will continue through 2014. I will be conducting all of this work throughout the Appalachian Mountains including the Great Smokey Mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway National Parks, as well as Pisgah, Cherokee, and Wayne National Forests. I plan on using this blog to post stories and photographs of my research and associated travels. I fully anticipate having a very exciting three years doing my dissertation work (if you find hiking, looking for salamanders, traveling, and attending the occasional conference exciting…which I do). I will also post interesting research on salamanders or other generally cool research regarding evolution or ecology that I come across.