Our three weeks here in Nicaragua have been speeding by. With almost a week to go everyone is working harder than ever to complete both projects. I have been waking up for the past week at 5:30 in the morning to have time to do enough work in one day. In the morning, Brigit and I catch 100-120 harvestmen, mark them with paint pens on their abdomen, and move them to new sites for our behavior research project. Our afternoons are devoted to collecting data on our conservation project.

Brigit and I decided to focus on the effects of logging on leaf cutter ants’ nest quality and activity. On the third day in Nicaragua we noticed that the leaf cutter ants were dropping leaves on the outside of their mounds. This was particularly interesting because leaf cutter ants use the leaves they cut to feed an underground fungus garden. The leaf cutter ants then feed on the fungus they grow. We began wondering why they would expend so much energy to climb high into the trees, cut a leaf, and carry it back, just to drop it outside. After fleshing some ideas out with Dr. Shier, we began pondering whether the amount of canopy cover over the ant nests had an influence on this leaf dropping behavior. Much of Refugio Bartola has previously been cultivated and logged. The forest is divided into primary growth forest, where no logging has occurred, and secondary growth, where the forest has begun to grow back from the agricultural stress of past plantations. After noticing more leaves on the outside of secondary growth nests, we became curious about how logging has effected the activity of the leaf cutter ants. After a lot of flagging leaf cutter ant trials and mounds, we began taking data on canopy cover, humidity, temperature, and ant activity at eight sites in primary growth and eight sites in secondary forest. We have already seen a trend of higher temperatures and humidity in secondary growth, which is exciting! We think the cut leaves shielding the nest’s soil could possibly help mitigate the harsher conditions in logged, secondary parts of the forest.

Field research requires so much work, patience, and time, but I’m really starting to enjoy the privilege of working outside everyday. There are definitely times when I am all natured out. For example, I get at least three spines in my hand a day, I have to touch creepy spider-like creatures, and I got stung by a wasp while trekking through the forest in the pitch-black darkness. However, there’s something really rewarding about seeing our little leaf cutter ants and harvestmen everyday waiting for us to learn more about them.