July 25- Ant Research

As the summer field season starts to wind down on BCI, I'm getting close to finishing the field work portions of my projects.  In addition to helping out with a few of the lab's general projects, I have two of my own projects I've been working on as part of the REU.  Both are a continuation of work that the Kaspari lab has done with Azteca in past summers on BCI.

At the beginning of the summer, I collected Ochroma (balsa) seeds, cleaned them, and planted them.  Once the plants were around a centimeter in height, we placed them in the field.  I have 80 pots out- half of them under Azteca nests (where the seedlings receive nutrients from the refuse and potentially protection), and the other half ten meters from the nests.  Once a week I hike out to measure and photograph all the seedlings.  Next week, I'll harvest all of the surviving seedlings and weigh them.  I had expected growth and survival to be better among the seedlings under Azteca nests.  Initial conclusion: lots of things eat seedlings.

The other half of my project has been testing how other species react to Azteca.  Past studies have shown that leafcutter ants and army ants tend to avoid Azteca.  I'm trying to determine if Azteca refuse has chemical pheromones that might deter these ants.  I set out dirt, Azteca refuse, and Azteca nest material one at a time in front of the leafcutter or army ants, film each for half an hour, and then analyze the ant behavior in the video.  The issue has been that I need a perfectly stable camera set up on uneven terrain pointing directly at the ground for half an hour.  I've tried tripods, but found that the best setup utilizes PVC pipe, plastic dog food containers, and lots of duct tape.

It's been a very fun project.  Army ants are always on the move, so finding them always requires a few hours wandering BCI's beautiful 50 hectare plot.  Good days!