Arrived in Fortuna

I have arrived safely in Fortuna. Pictures to follow.

Fortuna-Bound

I am off to Fortuna tomorrow! When I get there and settled in I will provide some pictures and a tour of my field-lab. I can't say that everything is ready to go--it isn't. But I have to go sometime and I've got more than a truckload of things coming up there with me. Hopefully I can supplement my supply from hardware stores and plant nurseries from David.

But I won't begin to expand on my technical troubles now.

Anyways, wish me luck. Or send money. Whichever you feel will be the most helpful.

A tentative schedule

Feb 13-23: Panama City, pre-departure preparation/Carnival delay
Feb 23-March 2: Jim Dalling visit and Fortuna Departure/get experiment running
March 2-20: Working at Fortuna, monitoring experiment, training potential assistant
March 20-27: McKenna visits me at Fortuna
March 27-May15: Running experiment, making field measurements, training assistant
May 15-May 25: An estimate of McKenna's second visit
May 25-June 1: More time at Fortuna collecting samples to analyze with Ben Turner
June 1-14: Lab work with Ben Turner in Panama City
June 14-July 7: finishing up experiment and Fortuna measurements, harvest plants
July 7-August 16: complete the last of the lab work with Ben Turner in Panama City

Video of Acid-Wash

because life is not short enough, nor chronicled in its every particular, here is a video of calcium carbonate dissolving in HCl

Sandman

Science can be enormously boring. For those curious as to what I’m up to now, it is sieving and acid-washing approximately 1750 lbs. of marine sand (literally scooped up off the beach). The acid-washing is necessary because the sand is rich in calcium carbonate, a natural buffer. Since the plants at Fortuna are acid-loving and grow in soils with pHs from 3 to 4, a neutral sand buffer would be antagonistic to growth.

So this is how it all happens. First I go to Noveys in Caledonia, a run-of-the-mill chain hardware store, and purchase the sand. As my Spanish is quite poor at the moment, it is my good fortune that one Manuel Seegasty (300-9257) speaks fluent English, and even commiserates with the sudden need for nearly one ton of sand.

The sand can be shipped to Tupper labs, where it arrives on a large pallet. Plastic containers (also procured at Noveys) act as vats in which the sand can be washed in hydrochloric acid. Since this is sand just scooped off the beach, it must have the large shells, rocks, and various beach detritus sieved out of it. Manually.

Once that is done, the sand is put into the tubs and washed with approximately .05 M HCL, which is about 50 mL of concentrated HCL in one liter of water. The mixture is allowed to sit over-night so all of the calcium carbonate can dissolve. Then the acid bath has to be removed, and some of the silt with it. This is done simply by putting a hose in the horrible soup and letting it drain out.

Not an overly exciting process, or one amenable to expedition, but utterly necessary.

Grow-house

Here is the grow house we were able to obtain from the arboretum at Tupper Laps in Panama City. A common field design is an outdoor garage frame--which can be purchased at a hardware store--but these tend to be light and are liable to blowing over in the wind. This set-up has a steel frame and a gutter hooked up to a rain barrel for collecting water. Fortuna is too far away to haul deionized water back and forth, so the chemical stock solutions in my experiment will be diluted in rain water and fed to the plants.

Quieres llamarme? Puedes ahora!

You can get a pre-paid phone in Panama and avoid outrageous international calling rates on your US plan. I purchased mine through Movil, at the Allbrook Mall, for around $35. International calls cost .16/min.

You can call me at (507) 6697-3779. But I should call you back, since you’ll be charged if I am the recipient.

Diablos Rojos

The Diablo rojos (‘red devils”) are a public transport system around Panama City . My short videos here do them little justice, and I will endeavor to get a better photograph of the detail that goes into their graffitied décor. My first night in Panama I saw a string of about eight of them, neon blue light underneath and various day-glo insignia along the hood and sides. My first impression was that this must be some sort of raving caravan. However, when the next day when I noticed them again, and everywhere, I formed my second impression—that this must be the public transport system of the ninth rim of Hell. However after kind of settling in, I appreciate the originality that goes into them, and the curious juxtaposition of various trademarked characters—from Yosemite Sam and Wolverine to the Cool Aid Pitcher and Sonic the Hedgehog—with religious symbols, including Jesus, Mary, and the Archangel Gabriel. I have yet to ride in any of them.

It's okay, I'm a biologist.

Finally! I fulfill my dream of having a badge establishing my status as a biologist, which I can wave at people who find my behavior in natural parks or in the vicinity of large reptiles unacceptable, thus reducing them to a smoldering pile of awe and contrition*.

*note--pass has no such powers.

Tupper Labs main building

Tupper Lab entrance

Tupper Labs, Panama City

The Tupper Labs

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City is housed in a former-hotel building called Tupper Labs, after Earl Silas Tupper (see photo of bust), of Tupperware fame. It is in Balboa, bordering on Caledonia (the Panama City “ghetto”), and near the Museum of Contemporary Art. While lab space is not overwhelming, it is a modern facility with a conference center, library, and cafeteria. Tuesdays are the busy days, when researchers stationed in Gamboa and the Barro Colorado Island come back from the field.

Lab work for my project will take place here, as I require a mass spectrometer to measure the foliar phosphorus levels in my tree seedlings. The Fortuna "lab" will consist of a table and entirely of materials I take with me. But more on that later.