Herbivory Research

Hello everybody.

We've spent the past two days, and tomorrow, doing herbivory research. We've spent our time at different field sites recording data on 4 native NZ plants in different types of environment (natural environments and restored environments), to see if bugs are present and if the bugs are eating the plants.

Basically, we find these plants, measure them, pick and take photos of the leaves (for analysis later to see how much has been eaten), and then wack the plant with a beating-stick and catch the invertebrates that fall out in a big tarp so that we can save them in ethanol.

I believe the hypothesis is that there will be more herbivory on remnant plants (plants that have always been there) than restored plants (plants that we recently planted). I hope that makes sense to you all. I can be pretty bad at explaining sciency things.

On a different note, there are two people at Lincoln University, where we're staying, that potentially have the swine flu. They're both being quarantined down the hall from me. But, I'm perfectly healthy, we all are, so that's good.

For now,
Hilary