-Sara Guiti Prado- Ph.D.

So, I know this post is under the ‘tropical ecology’ tab, which is where this research should be, but unfortunately Covid 19 put a damper on those plans. As a tropical ecologist living in North Carolina, my research plans have all had to change due to Covid. Our university pretty much forbade all international travel in March, meaning my plans to travel to Peru in May were ruined. But, in order to still be able to get some research done, and collect some data which could be used to apply for larger grants, my supervisor and I have adapted the project to carry it out in Raleigh, NC.

Strangely, even though I’ve lived in NC for 10 years, I’ve never really studied any of the plants or animals living here. So, even though this is my home, I don’t feel at home when it comes to research! Anyway, we started our research in June and still have another month to go before we’re done collecting all of our data; but it’s going well.

What are we doing, you ask? Well, essentially, we’re studying how ant species diversity changes with ambient temperature, and how the ambient temperature an ant is exposed to in its natural environment may affect it’s temperature tolerance, preference and hydration state. We’re sampling ants in forest patches in cool and hot locations around the city of Raleigh. Hot forest patches are usually surrounded by dense residential or commercial buildings and roads, and cool forest patches are in parks.

We’re a team of three, and each one of us is carrying out a component of the research to minimize social contact and passing equipment back and forth. My work involves going out to each site 3 times a day (morning, midday and night) to set out baits and see who’s there. In the evening, my supervisor accompanies me and she collects live ants for the thermal preference and desiccation study. She and our undergraduate technician also return to the site the following day to collect live ants to see what their thermal maximum is.

It’s a lot of work, but I’m so grateful to be able to get out of the house and be in nature. I’ll post another update when we start analyzing the data!

Stay safe and healthy, and if you’re feeling blue, go take a walk in nature…being out in nature does wonders for your mental health!

I’m really happy to say that I’m back to doing research as a Research Assistant in the Youngsteadt Lab. We’re setting up a research project in the Peruvian Amazon, in the city of Puerto Maldonado, where we will study the effects of urban warming on ants. We plan to assess whether ants’ physiological traits predict species’ persistence in warmed habitats, whether species adapt or acclimate to rapid warming, and to what extent these species compensate behaviorally for rapid warming. Cities provide an excellent study system to assess the effects of warming on organisms because of the ‘urban heat island effect’. We’ve all experienced this, when we’ve walked outside on the hot pavement and felt the heat radiating not only from above, but also from the asphalt. Buildings, streets and other urban structures can retain heat resulting in cities being warmer than the natural areas around them. In Puerto Maldonado, Peru, on one given day, temperatures in the city were 5-9°C warmer than natural forests around it. We all know that temperatures are predicted to rise over the coming years as the global climate changes. Here we use cities as a window into the future to see what might happen to ants if temperatures were to increase. Overall, we’re hoping this study will improve our understanding of tropical insect vulnerability to global warming.