The final survey in Panama’s BioBlitz has been completed. In this survey, a 20 meters by 20 meters grid was established and all trees and shrubs within the grid were identified and mapped. Here, a volunteer measures the distance between a shrub and a grid boundary.
More pictures of the volunteers are found at Flickr. Results will follow.
By the way, it was fun!
This looks like a wonderful experiment. I would imagine that in areas with large biodiversity that the results could easily vary tremendously from one 20 x 20 m lot to the next. It would be interesting, for example, to see what results might be obtained if the adjacent property that isn’t quite as manicured were measured in the same way. Or even to see how results might differ from season to season. Great job!
Hi Gordo,
Thanks. You may change your mind about “manicured” when I get the rest of the pictures up. Yes, the area under the trees is mowed (to keep snakes away) but, as you’ll see, there’s no trimming around the trees at all. We have several clumps with 4 or 5 other trees and shrubs growing around the base of a larger tree. But I anticipate…
Further, I agree that a survey of the adjacent “unkempt” property would be an interesting comparison. I hesitated to ask the volunteers to wade through the snake- and tick-infested weeds, but I may suit up and do it myself one of these days. I’m curious because we’re trying to keep this place as a sort of managed savanna, introducing plantings in only specified areas. We’ll see how it all turns out. Meantime, I have a few more days-worth of data crunching to do!
Oh my. Snake and tick infested. I don’t care for snakes, but I hate ticks and they just seem to love me. I look forward to seeing your results.