Welcome to new lab members and field trip to Brazil
Welcome to new postdoc Gisele Biem Mori, field technician Flamarion Prado Assunção (Pinduca), and affiliate PhD student Gustavo Lemes! All of them are based in Brazil.
Adriane, Evan, and Vanessa traveled to Manaus to start the Gigante project at Reserva Ducke along with the new lab members. They all saw really cool giant trees, flooded streams, soil types, all types of gaps, evidence of lightning in the forest, snakes, toucans, and a harpy eagle! The most abundant giant tree at Ducke is Dinizia excelsa (known there as angelim) from the Fabaceae family. It rained most of the days in the field, but the rain helped to cool down the otherwise very hot days during this field campaign. Most of the time in the forest was spent practicing the field protocol, training Pinduca, Isabella Braga and César Arruda da Silva, installing soil moisture and temperature probes, and building the resistograph protocol for studying tree heartrot. However, there was also time for cooking very good farofa (toasted cassava flour with sweet plantain) and eating delicious tapioca (cassava flour “crepes”) . During some of the days they participated in media coverage with lots of filming and interviews about the Gigante project. Stay tuned for the release!
