A team of Museum scientists and volunteers visited Slapton Ley Nature Reserve between 21-25 July to sample invertebrates from a variety of habitats. Rachel Clark writes about their final day in the field.
25 July 2014
Today was the last day of sampling and we all loved it! Unfortunately Sara had to leave today, so we took the final photograph of us all together before we set off for sampling.
All of us looking a little more tanned than when we arrived. Front row (left to right): Jan, Ryan, Fez, Georgie and Sara. Back row (left to right): Rachel, Thomas, George, Miranda and Beau.
Every evening this week we've been preparing the specimens we collected back at the field centre, and it's fiddly work!
The new age of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
Some of the specimens collected during our fieldwork are destined for the Museum’s new Molecular Collections Facility (MRF), where they will be stored in liquid nitrogen at -150 °C to form a collection that can be used by scientists worldwide who want to study the DNA and other cellular contents of the species in question.
Over three evenings, after our lovely cooked meal served by Shaun from the FSC, two groups of four carefully collected tissue samples from freshly killed specimens.
The sample tissue (often the legs) were put into special small plastic vials then placed into liquid nitrogen vapour in a dry shipper, which freezes and preserves them.
Left: the small vials which contain tissue samples. Right: a dry shipper with nitrogen vapour inside.
In total we spent 49.5 person-hours over three days preparing the samples from 220 specimens, each sample taking on average 14 minutes to process. We tried to ensure that we only collected a maximum of two of each species - all being larger invertebrates (flies, grasshoppers, wasps, spiders etc).
Our last site!
While some enjoyed sweeping, pootering and collecting butterflies, two of us (Miranda and I) went in search for a new site on the lake to put down yellow pan traps. We ended up on the edge of Slapton village - a four-mile round trip!
The large, miles-long Slapton Ley!
The beautiful walkway created by the FSC, which runs through the swamp fen in the south grounds of the Nature Reserve.
We did get some amazing views and got to sample right in the middle of Slapton’s Swamp Fen, which is something we would not have achieved! The photograph above shows just how big the Ley is: miles!
Our last Supper
In the evening we headed off to our last dinner together before we packed up to head home. This was held in the main FSC centre in Slapton.
We would like to say a massive thank you for the staff that looked after our stomachs during our time in Slapton, and particularly Shaun who was there every day serving us breakfast and dinner!
Thank you for reading - I hope you have enjoyed our blogging!
Rachel
Goodbye beautiful Slapton!
The sun setting over Devon, from the field across from our base, Start Bay Centre.