Lest people think all we do is eat, relax, and take photos of the weather, I thought I should post photos of what we're actually here in Uruguay to do.
One of the main research questions for my project is how "native" vegetation is affected by habitat and grazing regimes. So, I have five sites set up as experiments, with exclosures and nearby space that has continued to graze. With this design, I can survey vegetation in four treatments: grazed forest, ungrazed forest, grazed grassland, and ungrazed grassland. We're also surveying vegetation at different scales, to figure out if these habitats or changes in grazing affect vegetation diversity at very local or larger scales.
This is what the sites look like: forest habitats, munched grassland, and grassland that hasn't been grazed by cattle for 18 months (unless the fence was broken at some point and cows were able to get in and chow down temporarily).
This is one of the grazed grasslands up close. Some of the larger grasses are really sharp, so the cows avoid them, and just eat around them. So we get to survey vegetation in and around these large clumps, as well as try to distinguish different chewed grasses and plants around them.
This, by contrast, is one of the forest plots (denoted by PVC poles). It looks like there isn't much going on at all in the way of vegetation. In terms of cover, that is true, but forests do have almost the same diversity as the grasslands at the large scale, it's just not as abundant.
And this site, I loathe. In fact, everyone that has every helped me at this site also harbors severe hatred for this site. Not only is it partial wetland, and you sometimes get your boots stuck if there's been rain recently, but the water on the ground surface is hot. So when it's a really hot day, not only do you have heat radiating down on you, you also have it coming up from below. Add to that the miserable aloe-like plants that dominate this site, which are covered in really sharp thorns. Just try walking through or squatting over a plot to study the vegetation. It pretty much sucks.
We're saving this for last for this part of the project. After this, we'll get the reward of being done with the experimental sites, and moving on to studying plants in Eucalyptus forests. And possibly enjoying some good food and/or wine.
Are those actually a type of aloe plant, or just a look-alike? They look mean!
ReplyDeleteThey aren't an aloe plant at all, actually. They are actually in the carrot family (Apiaceae), so they are closely related to carrots and parsley. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, they are mean! They go right through pants. And to make them worse, the ants take them over, so a lot of the time they are spiky AND covered in ants.