Presentation Day
April 18, 2025
Previously, our class visited Quail Ridge and Putah Creek to help formulate research questions for our ultimate goal of conducting a project in field ecology. During our last meeting on Monday, we narrowed down our topics to four species and ended the session by assigning groups to present possible research questions for each species. Today, the four groups presented their interesting and creative research questions that they devised for butterflies, ticks, sharp-tailed snakes, and crow.
Meeting Minutes
- 10:00 AM: Met at Briggs Hall, room 122.
- 10:10 - 11:45 AM: Groups did their presentations on butterflies, sharp-tailed snakes, ticks, and crows
- 11:45 AM: Voted to work on butterflies as the main species of the project
- 10:55 AM: Voted on the specific research question we wanted to conduct for butterflies
Presentations
Butterflies: Grace, Chloe, Sai, Manu, and Eva gave their presentation on butterflies and proposed two possible research questions. The first was asking if other male butterflies exhibit the shortening of the spermatophore after reproducing as observed in a recent novel experiment. This was an innovative topic since if this process applied to multiple butterfly species, then it would allow for the large-scale field survey of male reproductive success. The second question asked if butterfly flower preference changed with the addition of visual and olfactory cues. This was an interesting project since it could help understand foraging behavior and allow for new insights for conservation efforts.
Sharp-Tailed Snakes: Samantha, Magali, and I (Joseph) gave our presentation on snakes and proposed that we study how temperature affects their habitat location in relation to elevation, human activity, and habitat type (wood/tin). This was an innovative question since not much is known about sharp-tailed snakes, and how they react to varying temperatures can act as a general guide on how snakes are affected by changing temperatures due to climate change.
Ticks: Cameron, Courtney, Athena, and Yeri gave their presentation on ticks, and their research question asked how varying distances impact the ability of adult ticks to reach and quest along trails. This was an intriguing question since it could potentially give insight into tick behavior, which is surprisingly understudied. Additionally, tick behavior and strategies pertaining to questing could be used to help further prevent the spread of Lyme disease.
Crows: Tina, Shiv, and Valeria gave their presentation on crows and proposed two main questions. The first was which types of anthropogenic noise had the greatest impact on roosting crows. The second question asked if crows in high-traffic urban areas showed different daily patterns compared to low-traffic areas. Both of these questions were interesting since these topics are relatively unexplored and could help with future conservation efforts in areas with endangered crow populations.
Voting and Results
We ultimately decided to go with butterflies for our project, specifically focusing on whether butterfly flower preference changed with the addition of visual and olfactory cues.
Pictures
Reminders
Read Today’s blog (good job if you are reading this)
R assignment 3 is due tonight (4/18)
Make sure to complete the weekly reflection
Complete the homework assigned by Adrian before class next Monday (4/21)
Please review the field guide before class on Monday to ensure you are properly prepared to go butterfly hunting
Itinerary for Monday (4/21)
10:00 AM: Meet at Briggs Hall and discuss what we found from our research of the literature
10:25 AM: Split into two groups and head out to the two field sites (will be voted on)
10:35 AM - 10:55 AM: Arrive at each group's respective field sites and begin observing/capturing butterflies
1:30 PM: meet back in the classroom, store any captured butterflies, discuss observations, and decide what our next steps will be moving forward
1:50 PM: Let the blogger add any additional comments
1:55 PM: End of class
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