Sand dunes!!

Hello everybody,

Yesterday we had a break from our herbivory field work to do some sand dune work. Basically, we went out to the beach, set up a giant grid on the dune, and looked at the density and type of plant growth in 1m X 1m squares. They've looked at this area a few years ago, and want to know if the sanddunes have grown or changed sine then.

It was pretty cold out there, but it was a nice break from leave collecting. And, the data is important for sand dune restoration.

After lunch we met with Jason, a city worker, who told us more about sand dune restoration. The two native plants that help build up the sanddunes are spinifex and pingao. Spinifex is a faster growing grass, so we had the oppurtunity to plant a bunch of that along the dunes, which was really fun!

Then we drove out to a place where the forrest meets the beach. We got to see Katipo spiders!! They are related to the black widow spider, are poisonous, and live on the sanddunes. Noone has died from a Katipo spider bite for a long, long time though, so it was only partly scary, and mostly really awesome.

Today we have the day off. Some of us are going grocery shopping for our camping trip to Banks Peninsula on Thursday-Sunday. Other than that, it's raining here, so we're all just sort of hanging out for the time being.

For now,

Hilary