Science!

For the past week or two I have been conducting an experiment. It is an experiment we have done before, but you never get quite the same result.

First, grab a trash bag full of dead leaves and "leaf litter" from the forest understory. Then go do the same thing in an older forest, or a younger forest. Now, put your different leaf litter samples in a funnel over a hot, bright light for a week or so. Below the funnel put a mason jar filled with some alcohol.

Come back later with microscopes and ID what you find. A rich cornocopia of mini-life thrives beneath our feet you may come to realize. Thrips, copepods, ants, springtails, mites, psuedo scorpions. But does this biodiversity, the species richness and abundance, change between the older and younger forests?

Well, that is what we were here to find out. Science is that easy, and fun!