Me and my sifter, collecting mites in Eastern Canada
Field Trips and Collecting Trips
A joy of being a field biologist is going on field trips. Essentially these are collecting trips for discovering biodiversity, for me - new species of soil mites. Collecting trips can be of any length, from half day trips to local habitats to trips of many weeks or months. In turn, longer trips can be to a range of habitats, for example, collecting in habitats in national and provincial parks and reserves in British Columbia. Or they can be to a specific ecosystem, e.g., tropical rainforest which includes a range of habitats. I was lucky to be on at least one long collecting trip from 1973 to 2009.
I was on many field trips prior to 1981, but most of these were short. We had field trips to various habitats in Ireland (peatlands, bogs, sea shore, lakes, rivers) to learn first-hand about these habitats during my B.Sc. studies in Zoology and Botany at University College Dublin. For my M.Sc. I had collecting trips on a monthly basis to my research site which was a Black spruce, Jack pine forest in the boreal of Quebec. While Research Assistant on the International Biological Program (IBP) I took monthly field trips to the blanket bog of Glenamoy, Ireland and during my Ph.D. research I spent long periods in subarctic and arctic Alaska and the eastern Canadian arctic. Then I was lucky enough to have an extensive field trip to subarctic arctic alpine and arctic habitats in the Russian Far East.
The objective of Collecting Trips is to learn about the biodiversity in a particular habitat or ecosystem. But the scientific questions may allow for qualitative or quantitative sampling. For my M.Sc. the question was ecological: how did soil mites respond to the fertilizer regime being tested in these forests? The sampling was quantitative: taking specific volumes of soil from the habitat in a design that allowed for future statistical analysis. I did not sample all soil habitats in this Black spruce forest, rather my samples were a specific distance from trees etc. Similarly, sampling for the IBP research was quantitative. In contrast, I did not need quantitative data for my Ph.D. research; I was dealing with biodiversity in the North American arctic and subarctic and trying to sample and collect mites from as many different types of habitat as possible, from ivory gull nests to frost boils to tussock tundra. I took approximately the same volume of sample, but I could not expect the same from friends and colleagues who collected for me on the many arctic islands or on the Aleutian Islands. My data was species richness in any habitat. As a Research Scientist at Agriculture Canada my objective was to know the oribatid fauna of Canada and for this I needed qualitative samples from as many habitats as possible across Canada, and areas of the USA that had not been sampled for oribatid mites. My senior colleague at Agriculture Canada had collected mites in a range of temperate habitats across Canada and the USA, but with a general focus on plant and soil mites. We were continually surprised at how our samples complemented each other rather than having even 50% overlap.
A Field Trip is preceded by extensive preparation. First there is the decision on which area is rich in the biodiversity that will support the research that you are doing. For example, I had a series of field trips to bogs and fens in Ontario and Quebec while working on one group of mites. Our Institute had a commitment to Parks Canada to do a study of Arthropod diversity in various parks and so for 2 years my field trips were to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The mite group I was working on was particularly species rich in dry to desert landscapes and so I had a series of field trips to such habitats across Canada and the northern USA. The biodiversity of arthropods in Grasslands in Canada are poorly studied leading to field trips to grassland habitats. The western Canadian arctic of Yukon is significantly different from that of the eastern arctic and is more like that of eastern Russia because of glaciation patterns during the Pleistocene, so we collected a number of summers in Yukon. For any field trip I pore over map, aerial photos and now google maps to decide ahead of time which hikes to take to get to specific habitats, where is the best place to camp or where there is a close and cheap motel. Colleagues will suggest roads or off-road opportunities to get to obscure or unique habitats.
Then there are the logistics of getting permission to take soil samples, from private land owners to Long Term Study sites to Universities to Provincial, State and National Parks. Because I work on soil mites and need to get these out of soil, I need somewhere to set up my extractors, and ideally I need electricity. I have set up my extractors in barns, motel rooms, bathrooms, attics, garages, camp sites, research stations and in the tundra using a generator. All those who have accommodated these extractors are my heroes, they make my life easy on the field trip. Motel/hotel rooms are my least favourite places to set up my extractors - of course there are some flying insects and spiders on the soil surface and these can get loose!
Packing for sampling and collecting is easy, all (knife, trowel, sifter, plastic bags, note book, marking pens, GPS, cheesecloth, scissors, whirl paks, gloves) needs to fit into one backpack, which I’ll use it for holding the collected samples. I have two sifters, but my favourite is that given me by a coleopteran colleague: Dr. Ales Smetana. Its large and long, made out of rip-stop nylon and is beautifully balanced, so that I can sift litter for long periods without my arms tiring. Another backpack holds collapsable extractor funnels, ethanol, extension cords, clothing line rope (to hold the funnels), hooks, ties, light bulbs. I extract while on a field trip, and if I’m really lucky can sort through the extracted samples while still in the field. For this I need a stereomicroscope and of course, vials, labels etc. brush, forceps for the sorting process. If I’m driving to a field collecting site, I usually have a microscope with me.
Most of the collected material since 1981 ends up in the Canadian National Collection of Insects of Arachnids, where I curate the Oribatid mite collection. When I started at Agriculture Canada in 1981 the oribatid collection was primarily restricted to slide mounted specimens. Now it is a major alcohol collection also, probably the best collection of oribatid mites in alcohol in North America; it gets visitors and loan requests from around the world.
A joy of being a field biologist is going on field trips. Essentially these are collecting trips for discovering biodiversity, for me - new species of soil mites. Collecting trips can be of any length, from half day trips to local habitats to trips of many weeks or months. In turn, longer trips can be to a range of habitats, for example, collecting in habitats in national and provincial parks and reserves in British Columbia. Or they can be to a specific ecosystem, e.g., tropical rainforest which includes a range of habitats. I was lucky to be on at least one long collecting trip from 1973 to 2009.
I was on many field trips prior to 1981, but most of these were short. We had field trips to various habitats in Ireland (peatlands, bogs, sea shore, lakes, rivers) to learn first-hand about these habitats during my B.Sc. studies in Zoology and Botany at University College Dublin. For my M.Sc. I had collecting trips on a monthly basis to my research site which was a Black spruce, Jack pine forest in the boreal of Quebec. While Research Assistant on the International Biological Program (IBP) I took monthly field trips to the blanket bog of Glenamoy, Ireland and during my Ph.D. research I spent long periods in subarctic and arctic Alaska and the eastern Canadian arctic. Then I was lucky enough to have an extensive field trip to subarctic arctic alpine and arctic habitats in the Russian Far East.
The objective of Collecting Trips is to learn about the biodiversity in a particular habitat or ecosystem. But the scientific questions may allow for qualitative or quantitative sampling. For my M.Sc. the question was ecological: how did soil mites respond to the fertilizer regime being tested in these forests? The sampling was quantitative: taking specific volumes of soil from the habitat in a design that allowed for future statistical analysis. I did not sample all soil habitats in this Black spruce forest, rather my samples were a specific distance from trees etc. Similarly, sampling for the IBP research was quantitative. In contrast, I did not need quantitative data for my Ph.D. research; I was dealing with biodiversity in the North American arctic and subarctic and trying to sample and collect mites from as many different types of habitat as possible, from ivory gull nests to frost boils to tussock tundra. I took approximately the same volume of sample, but I could not expect the same from friends and colleagues who collected for me on the many arctic islands or on the Aleutian Islands. My data was species richness in any habitat. As a Research Scientist at Agriculture Canada my objective was to know the oribatid fauna of Canada and for this I needed qualitative samples from as many habitats as possible across Canada, and areas of the USA that had not been sampled for oribatid mites. My senior colleague at Agriculture Canada had collected mites in a range of temperate habitats across Canada and the USA, but with a general focus on plant and soil mites. We were continually surprised at how our samples complemented each other rather than having even 50% overlap.
A Field Trip is preceded by extensive preparation. First there is the decision on which area is rich in the biodiversity that will support the research that you are doing. For example, I had a series of field trips to bogs and fens in Ontario and Quebec while working on one group of mites. Our Institute had a commitment to Parks Canada to do a study of Arthropod diversity in various parks and so for 2 years my field trips were to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The mite group I was working on was particularly species rich in dry to desert landscapes and so I had a series of field trips to such habitats across Canada and the northern USA. The biodiversity of arthropods in Grasslands in Canada are poorly studied leading to field trips to grassland habitats. The western Canadian arctic of Yukon is significantly different from that of the eastern arctic and is more like that of eastern Russia because of glaciation patterns during the Pleistocene, so we collected a number of summers in Yukon. For any field trip I pore over map, aerial photos and now google maps to decide ahead of time which hikes to take to get to specific habitats, where is the best place to camp or where there is a close and cheap motel. Colleagues will suggest roads or off-road opportunities to get to obscure or unique habitats.
Then there are the logistics of getting permission to take soil samples, from private land owners to Long Term Study sites to Universities to Provincial, State and National Parks. Because I work on soil mites and need to get these out of soil, I need somewhere to set up my extractors, and ideally I need electricity. I have set up my extractors in barns, motel rooms, bathrooms, attics, garages, camp sites, research stations and in the tundra using a generator. All those who have accommodated these extractors are my heroes, they make my life easy on the field trip. Motel/hotel rooms are my least favourite places to set up my extractors - of course there are some flying insects and spiders on the soil surface and these can get loose!
Packing for sampling and collecting is easy, all (knife, trowel, sifter, plastic bags, note book, marking pens, GPS, cheesecloth, scissors, whirl paks, gloves) needs to fit into one backpack, which I’ll use it for holding the collected samples. I have two sifters, but my favourite is that given me by a coleopteran colleague: Dr. Ales Smetana. Its large and long, made out of rip-stop nylon and is beautifully balanced, so that I can sift litter for long periods without my arms tiring. Another backpack holds collapsable extractor funnels, ethanol, extension cords, clothing line rope (to hold the funnels), hooks, ties, light bulbs. I extract while on a field trip, and if I’m really lucky can sort through the extracted samples while still in the field. For this I need a stereomicroscope and of course, vials, labels etc. brush, forceps for the sorting process. If I’m driving to a field collecting site, I usually have a microscope with me.
Most of the collected material since 1981 ends up in the Canadian National Collection of Insects of Arachnids, where I curate the Oribatid mite collection. When I started at Agriculture Canada in 1981 the oribatid collection was primarily restricted to slide mounted specimens. Now it is a major alcohol collection also, probably the best collection of oribatid mites in alcohol in North America; it gets visitors and loan requests from around the world.
Collecting unsifted soil samples, Eastern Canada