Why are we going?

The easy answer, to me, is to say we are going to study ants. Do I need any other excuse? What do you mean this isn't enough of an explanation?

I need to tell you a bit of a story to explain some interesting aspects of the ecology of the area we will be working. Of the ~7000 species of flowering plants that occur in southwestern Australia, more than 1,500 species produce seeds that are dispersed by ants. Compared to other parts of the world, this is a high diversity of flowering plants and it is also a large number of plants that have ant dispersed seeds. In fact there is only one other place in the world that is comparable - the fynbos in South Africa. It is slightly richer than western Australia.

The plants having ant dispersed seeds is just one part of this story. Another part of this tale is what the plants are doing to get the ants to move their seeds around. The plants produces an auxiluarly structure, called an eliosome, that is attached to the seed coat. This structure is rich in some type of nutrients that ants like. Different plants produce different compounds but regardless of the "flavor" of a seed's eliosome, the plant is investing energy to produce a food reward for the ants. An ant that happens upon the seed will pick it up and bring it back to its nest. The eliasome is eaten and eventually the still intact seed is discarded. The ants then are providing a service to the plants by moving the seeds away from the parent. This is an example of a mutualism, where both species interact and benefit from their assocaction with one another. The specific ant - plant, eliasome bearing seed association is called Myrmechophory.

With this context, now I can tell you about the quest of our ant adventure in Australia - the study of Rhyditoponera violacea. This ant is very common in the Kwongan Heathlands habitat where we wil be working. In fact, work done in and around our study sites showed that 70% of the variation in seed movement is explained by R. violacea. When this ant is present it moves most of the seeds on the ground. Where this ant is not found many of the seeds are not moved at all. Other ants do take seeds but none are as important as R. violacea, at least in this area.

Maria and I will spend a month trying to learn all that we can about the basic biology of R. violacea. The pace and timing of its foraging, how big the nests are, the shape and structure of the underground nest chambers, how they throw out their seeds when they are done with them, etc. I know I will have a lot of fun. As for Maria, this will be her first foray into myrmecology (the study of ants). Perhaps after a month of digging in the dirt and playing with ants , she will shift her focus from those vicious pond critters she studies.

Dave

Where are we going?

A little geography primer, some specifics about the area we will work, and a few maps to set the stage for our travels.

Australia is, more or less, a vast desert. There are a number of coastal regions that are not as dry and this is where most Australians live. All of the larger cities and heavily populated areas, with the exception of the city of Perth, are in the eastern half of the continent.

The western third of the continent is a single state that is simply named "Western Australia." It encompasses over 1 million square miles. How big is that? More than 3 times the size of Texas. To gain some perspective on the the extent of the desert regions there - the combined area of the three major deserts in Western Australia are twice as large as California. The Perth metropolitan region is home to ~1.5 million people, which represents 3/4 of Western Australia's total population. This means there are a lot more large kangaroos in Western Australia than people.

We will fly into Perth and then drive roughly 200 miles north to an area called Eneabba (see the green pushpin on the map to the right). A long stretch of the coastal region north of Perth has been dubbed the coral coast (the dark blue region on the map to the left) and it is renowned for its amazing diversity of flowering plants. This plant diversity is one of the reasons we are going to work there (a future posting will hopefully discuss this in more detail).


Despite the fact we will not be on the coast, our study area is a small part of an extensive sand-plain coastal region. The particular habitat type we will work in, the Kwongan Heathlands, used to cover a large proportion of the coastal sand plains. It has been greatly reduced in its extent, primarily through natural habitat being converted to farmland.

and in the begining...............

.....you need a visa!

My biggest challenge in preparing to go to Australia, so far, has been trying to get my visa application settled. I was therefore very happy to discover that my passport is on its way, via UPS overnight delivery, back to Arlington. I had to send my passport to the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C. so it could be "evidenced." This apparently means they put something in my passport which shows customs I have a valid visa.

Having my evidenced passport back in my hands again will be my official confirmation that my 419 visiting academic visa status is approved. In other words, the Australian government is Ok with me coming down for a visit, going out into the bush, digging in the dirt, and playing with ants. (Hopefully I did not confuse anyone with the term bush......unlike our own U.S. use of this term - bush being a synonym for incompetence - in Australia "bush" is slang for the outback. I'll be sure to try to keep pointing out these language differences as they crop up in my posts.)

Perhaps I will look back in a week or so and laugh at the idea that getting my visa seemed a chore, in light of other mountains I may need to climb over on the way to November 1. That afternoon will find Maria and I at Logan airport to begin our long day's journey to the other side of the world:

01 NOV 07 - THURSDAY

UNITED AIRLINES FLT:181 ECONOMY

LV BOSTON 245P
AR SAN FRANCISCO 619P NON-STOP

UNITED AIRLINES FLT:863

LV SAN FRANCISCO 1024P

03 NOV 07 - SATURDAY

AR SYDNEY 650A

QANTAS AIRWAYS FLT:575

LV SYDNEY 845A

AR PERTH 1130A