The great decomposition experiment on the Gigante fertilization plots has all been picked up. Risa and I are busy in the throes of washing all the hemicellulose and lignin so it can be dried and later weighed to determine decomposition rates in the litter over the last month or so.
The island has been getting more and more quiet in the last couple of weeks. Many of the scientists and students who arrived after we did have already left, but for us the work continues. It’s actually pretty nice. Tonight on the lounge patio a group of five spider monkey males ambushed three of us as we sat sipping beers. They evidently thought there might be food in the trash cans and had come to check it out. Finding it empty, the left quickly, but for me, the day had been made: accosted by spider monkeys–this place is ripe for great stories. One of the ‘long-time’ student residents, Mariah Hopkins, left the island for good this evening. Having finished the field portion of her Ph. D work on howler monkeys, she is returning to Berkeley. Laura, Christian, and I sent her off on the late boat with a pathetic imitation of a howler monkey chorus–god it must have been awful.
Risa and I both need to harvest our field work towards the end of this week. Since last Saturday, the work here has been a large ‘mop-up’ action: data is being gathered, harvested, and cataloged so we can return to Oklahoma. Perhaps, as we finish next week, someone will give a rousing send-off with…an ant-like…something…
