Day 5

     Today we had a mandatory meeting at 6 am with Destry to discuss the laundry and to check on our wellbeing. I am doing well but this humidity is kicking my butt, this isn't Great Plains weather but it's nice to be in another Indigenous tribes area. We got a tour from Edmundo, he showed us the pasture for grazing  and the cattle here in Panama have shorter hair and saggier skin but this is to keep them cool in this climate. He discussed the soil depending on the percentage of slope of the land, after this he showed us his applied theory of planting trees with diverse vegetation to help make shade for the cattle. This was in the beginning steps of his idea but it was nice to see his vision slowly coming to life. We then were shown the Teca lumber mill and this is mainly used for furniture but is primarily exported to India, China, and Taiwan. He then showed us the Teca plantation and the under crop to help support the Teca trees, He was very informative and I like the way he showed us around. We then collected data with our mentor, taking pictures of the surrounding vegetation and the area. We then had to share coordinates of our research sites incase anyone wanted to replicate our project.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3

      Today we discussed our projects and got paired up with our mentors to discuss the game plan. I will be working with Marcos and our mentor is Juan, we will be studying the various soil types in our designated areas and will be setting up a field lab as well. This will be my first time studying and working in the field, I am very excited to learn and get the field experience. I am willing to do whatever is asked of me by the mentors, I am a hands on learner so once I figure out the process I can't wait to work smoothly. We flew from Panama City to David it was a hour long flight wasn't bad but the whole time we were in the air I couldn't believe I was in a different country. We arrived and it was raining hard the whole time but back in the United States I love thunder storms so it was very cool to experience a storm in a new country as well. 
Read more

Day 6

      On this day, we collected 5 samples from the high compact area of the Batipa area. A native from this region assisted in the extraction of the Boton De Oro plant and root system. The tops were cut and given to Jake and his team for the plant analysis, we collected the roots and the soil from the main root. This was very intensive labor but very rewarding, after the samples were collected we made our way back to the Lab area for further study. Here we washed the roots, this was done to separate the fine roots and the  thick roots. Then we mixed the soil samples of 235 mL with 235 mL of water, this is done to check soil temperature, conductivity, PH, and elements in the soil. 
Read more