Arrival

Today I met the rest of the team at our rendezvous point, which was BWI Airport. We loaded up the bags, jumped into the van and headed out to the research station, which is pretty remote, but not nearly so primitive as I expected. The map shows the location of the research station, which is called the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, or SERC: http://www.serc.si.edu/ Navigate over to the site, and while you're there, have a look at the announcement of a new exhibit on soil--the topic that follows Monday's test. The challenge is the same for all soil scientists--how do you get people to care about soil?

There are about 80 people working on a wide variety of research projects on this "campus," which is basically a forest nestled between two waterways. In the zoomed image, most of the structures at SERC are visible. We are staying in the dormitory for visiting scientists, which is the large building to the northeast in the photo. The largest building (shaped like an L) is the Mathias Lab, which is well equipped and shared by all of the researchers.

Some researchers here collaborate with others at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), where tropical forest research is being conducted in the middle of the Canal Zone at Barro Colorado: http://www.stri.org/english/visit_us/barro_colorado/

So far, we've just toured the facilities, met some of the full-time staff, and settled in. Tomorrow, we have our scientific orientation and then we begin our work. I still don't completely understand what we'll be doing, but we are already talking about population distributions, age diversity, and invasive species. Part of our work will involve tagging, identifying, and measuring trees. The rest is unclear.

During this expedition, we will also get to hear presentations by three renowned climate scientists. I'll ask them for their presentations so that I can share them with you in the spring.

I hope that you enjoyed the forest DVD. When I get back, I hope to have some new insight into temperate deciduous forest for contrast.