It’s really hard to believe, but I will already be departing Panama tomorrow.
It’s really hard to believe, but I will already be departing Panama tomorrow. When I arrived a week ago, on February 5, I had a hunch but didn’t fully appreciate just how busy our AVUELO ground and airborne teams would be keeping up with our ambitious sampling and data collection plans and schedule. For me personally, getting to participate in the campaign was exciting because it meant a continuation of my past tropical forest research in Panama, which included similar sampling and objectives at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s (STRI) crane sites and on Barro Colorado Island.
I had some expectation of how long and challenging the field days would be, especially when they are repeated for multiple days in a row. Yet for AVUELO, the sheer scale and scope of logistical coordination across multiple teams and locations, instrumentation, and lab analyses have been impressive to witness, including how well the whole team has stepped up to meet the challenges and the correspondingly long days in the field and lab. The whole team has come together to support the goals and interests of everyone involved, and it’s been humbling to witness how quickly the team gelled and really became a “well-oiled” machine. I will surely miss helping with sample processing after I depart!
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