I think it’s safe to say that most ecologists choose their career because they love nature. On some level, they just want an excuse to be outdoors, communing with the landscapes and living things they’ve always loved. What this usually looks like is fieldwork. Leaving your desk behind, setting an email autoreply explaining that you’re
Thanks for being so up-front about the challenges of finding a position on the cusp of field and lab work. Also about the difficulty in tying your work to results. I've often wondered about how hard it must be to arrive at reliable conclusions and make useful suggestions---to say nothing of getting those insights translated into action. I'm thankful for the growing number of experts that are making this effort. It couldn't be as easy as it sometimes seems to the average guy like me just enjoying the outdoors. I'm glad someone's finding ways to make a difference.
This is great detail and you ask the important questions that can apply to many other practices. Where do we place ourselves within the spectrum of "grunt" woek and "mind" work. My question re: the Alps research. What were you measuring? What types of changes would the data show over time?
Ok, these answers may be more detailed than you're looking for but here goes, and please feel free to ask follow up questions! I'll probably write a bit more about these things in my next post this weekend.
As for measurements: For the ORCHAMP elevational gradient project (the main focus of this post), what I’ve been helping with is taking soil samples that will be analyzed for both soil properties like nutrient content (nitrogen, carbon) and pH, and for sequencing “environmental DNA” which just means the DNA of whatever bacteria, fungi, etc are living the soil. The exact microbes aren't usually identified but can be clustered into distinct types and those types can be compared across time to see how the microbial community is changing, and/or how it’s related to other soil/environmental properties and plant distributions.
As mentioned, there are also botanists identifying and counting plant communities every summer, and camera traps documenting animals, and a few other biodiversity monitoring things like that.
As for expectations about the data: I'm just speculating here, because I haven't been involved with the actual analyses so far. A few things that could be of interest: whether plant communities are shifting upward in elevation as the climate warms, whether soil microbe communities are also changing with temperature, whether this seems to be related to any changes in plant communities (are the plant-microbe relationships are staying intact or being disrupted, since plants are often adapted to certain soil communities), whether the changes are happening faster at different elevations, and whether things like livestock grazing slow down or speed up these processes (something my own research is interested in, but using computer models). I don't think answers to any of these precise questions have been published yet! It's a relatively new and evolving project as these things go. But there are a lot of people involved and I'm not aware of the extent of their work yet.
This is a superb post, thank you. I've been saving it to read and I was not disappointed. You tell so much here, in a way which is both informative and engaging.
I love this.
I remember when I was doing some (archaeology) fieldwork in the mountains in central Spain. The professor in charge had gone off for a weekend conference, and some hunters complained about us. The supervisor and I tried hard to explain to two policemen that we had all the right paperwork, and were not treasure hunters, nor were we trying to scare away game. For some reason, one of them kept his hand on his gun all the time, until he finally became bored of viewing iron age pottery fragments and they left. That involved a lot of joviality and smiles and bad attempts at communication.
As an aside, I received a camera trap a few years ago for Christmas and was delighted. I used it high up in the woods not too far from the Ecrins, away from any trails or other humans but, one day, it was gone. I know my brother in law, who works for the University of The Highlands and Islands ["Doctor of Forestry, Surgeon of Trees" as he calls himself) also lost several fieldwork cameras due to theft. I was really sad though, I had been getting a wonderful series of images of the local wildlife. Fairly sure it was a local hunter, as no one else went there, but no way to know. Next time I get one, I'm going to try and have a SIM card and transmitter version, so at least I can receive images of anyone pinching it-that, or have two pointing at each other...
Thanks a lot Alexander, so glad you enjoyed it! It was a bit of a doozy to write, haha. A lot more I could say about fieldwork. And you have some great fieldwork stories too, it sounds like!
The camera traps used in the ORCHAMP gradients are in special boxes that can be locked to the tree, but maybe that's still not enough for a determined thief. Sorry about yours!
I'm looking forward to hearing more of your fieldwork, past and present. In another reality, I suspect I might have followed a more fieldwork-centric career.
This is not too detailed at all. ".A few things that could be of interest: whether plant communities are shifting upward in elevation as the climate warms, whether soil microbe communities are also changing with temperature...". This explains perfectly. Thank you.
I do think your theme of division of labor in the many-step process in your piece is an important one. As i said, the challenge you pose applies across disciplines and art forms.
Great! One of the things I like about academic research is actually being able to rotate a bit through the different roles and tasks--field work, data wrangling, coding, writing, creative work--though that may change as a senior scientist.
Thanks for being so up-front about the challenges of finding a position on the cusp of field and lab work. Also about the difficulty in tying your work to results. I've often wondered about how hard it must be to arrive at reliable conclusions and make useful suggestions---to say nothing of getting those insights translated into action. I'm thankful for the growing number of experts that are making this effort. It couldn't be as easy as it sometimes seems to the average guy like me just enjoying the outdoors. I'm glad someone's finding ways to make a difference.
This is great detail and you ask the important questions that can apply to many other practices. Where do we place ourselves within the spectrum of "grunt" woek and "mind" work. My question re: the Alps research. What were you measuring? What types of changes would the data show over time?
Ok, these answers may be more detailed than you're looking for but here goes, and please feel free to ask follow up questions! I'll probably write a bit more about these things in my next post this weekend.
As for measurements: For the ORCHAMP elevational gradient project (the main focus of this post), what I’ve been helping with is taking soil samples that will be analyzed for both soil properties like nutrient content (nitrogen, carbon) and pH, and for sequencing “environmental DNA” which just means the DNA of whatever bacteria, fungi, etc are living the soil. The exact microbes aren't usually identified but can be clustered into distinct types and those types can be compared across time to see how the microbial community is changing, and/or how it’s related to other soil/environmental properties and plant distributions.
As mentioned, there are also botanists identifying and counting plant communities every summer, and camera traps documenting animals, and a few other biodiversity monitoring things like that.
As for expectations about the data: I'm just speculating here, because I haven't been involved with the actual analyses so far. A few things that could be of interest: whether plant communities are shifting upward in elevation as the climate warms, whether soil microbe communities are also changing with temperature, whether this seems to be related to any changes in plant communities (are the plant-microbe relationships are staying intact or being disrupted, since plants are often adapted to certain soil communities), whether the changes are happening faster at different elevations, and whether things like livestock grazing slow down or speed up these processes (something my own research is interested in, but using computer models). I don't think answers to any of these precise questions have been published yet! It's a relatively new and evolving project as these things go. But there are a lot of people involved and I'm not aware of the extent of their work yet.
Thanks for your comment Mark, and great question! I will answer it properly tomorrow when I’m more awake.
Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing this - it’s riveting, and I’m looking forward to more!
So glad to hear that, thank you Susannah!
This is a superb post, thank you. I've been saving it to read and I was not disappointed. You tell so much here, in a way which is both informative and engaging.
I love this.
I remember when I was doing some (archaeology) fieldwork in the mountains in central Spain. The professor in charge had gone off for a weekend conference, and some hunters complained about us. The supervisor and I tried hard to explain to two policemen that we had all the right paperwork, and were not treasure hunters, nor were we trying to scare away game. For some reason, one of them kept his hand on his gun all the time, until he finally became bored of viewing iron age pottery fragments and they left. That involved a lot of joviality and smiles and bad attempts at communication.
As an aside, I received a camera trap a few years ago for Christmas and was delighted. I used it high up in the woods not too far from the Ecrins, away from any trails or other humans but, one day, it was gone. I know my brother in law, who works for the University of The Highlands and Islands ["Doctor of Forestry, Surgeon of Trees" as he calls himself) also lost several fieldwork cameras due to theft. I was really sad though, I had been getting a wonderful series of images of the local wildlife. Fairly sure it was a local hunter, as no one else went there, but no way to know. Next time I get one, I'm going to try and have a SIM card and transmitter version, so at least I can receive images of anyone pinching it-that, or have two pointing at each other...
Thanks a lot Alexander, so glad you enjoyed it! It was a bit of a doozy to write, haha. A lot more I could say about fieldwork. And you have some great fieldwork stories too, it sounds like!
The camera traps used in the ORCHAMP gradients are in special boxes that can be locked to the tree, but maybe that's still not enough for a determined thief. Sorry about yours!
I'm looking forward to hearing more of your fieldwork, past and present. In another reality, I suspect I might have followed a more fieldwork-centric career.
This is not too detailed at all. ".A few things that could be of interest: whether plant communities are shifting upward in elevation as the climate warms, whether soil microbe communities are also changing with temperature...". This explains perfectly. Thank you.
I do think your theme of division of labor in the many-step process in your piece is an important one. As i said, the challenge you pose applies across disciplines and art forms.
Great! One of the things I like about academic research is actually being able to rotate a bit through the different roles and tasks--field work, data wrangling, coding, writing, creative work--though that may change as a senior scientist.