My name is Kate Henderson, and I'm a rising junior at Villanova University. I'm spending 10 weeks in Panama with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) as part of a National Science Foundation funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grant. I'm working with Dr. Michael Kaspari, his PhD student Jane Lucas, and another intern named Annika (who you'll meet in the next post) on a project studying Azteca trigona ants. This project is based on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal's Gatun Lake. Barro Colorado Island (often referred to as BCI) is part of the protected Barro Colorado Nature Monument, and has been administered by the Smithsonian since the 1940's. If you're interested, you can learn more about the island and the STRI's facilities here. BCI a really fascinating site with lots of long-term tropical research! You might have heard of the 50 hectare plot, where all of the trees are censused every few years to monitor the dynamics of a tropical forest.
Barro Colorado Island. Image Credit: NSF
My project examines Azteca ants and how their waste can impact processes and nutrient cycling in the forest. Azteca make an excellent study subject because they build large, long-lasting nests in trees. Their refuse will accumulate under these nests, making it easier for us to determine the impacts of this refuse. A previous study by Clay et al. 2013 on Barro Colorado found that the ant refuse is enriched in several important nutrients, and that decomposition rates were higher under nests than in the surrounding area. This summer, I'm going to be working on a project that examines several issues related to ant refuse- whether it impacts tree seedling growth, herbivory on tree seedlings, or the behavior of other organisms in the area.
An Azteca trigona nest on Barro Colorado Island
For now, we're still doing setup for a lot of the experiments. We have tree seedlings growing in pots in the lab now, which we're hoping to bring into the forest sometime within the nest week. Some will go under Azteca nests, while others will be placed a short distance away. Once the seedlings are in the forest, I'll measure them and look for signs of herbivory on the leaves once a week. We also have refuse collection buckets set up under a few nests. Ant waste falls from the nest into the bucket, and I collect it every few days for use in a future experiment about organism behavior. Updates to come as the summer progresses!
Refuse collection bucket under an Azteca nest
For now, I have gotten to do some great hiking and see some of Barro Colorado's incredible wildlife!
The view from the STRI facilities on BCI
Snake! It was so still we almost stepped on it before we saw it
Howler monkey
View of the forest
Me marking a plot for an experiment
Green and black poison dart frog
Thank you for reading! We'll have updates coming from various projects throughout the summer. If you want to learn more about the REU program at STRI, you can find their website here.
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