Today we set out to travel from Barcelona to Andorra. We were to meet at the Barcelona Sants bus station, all 11 of us. From there, we were to take a greyhound-like bus for 3 1/2 hours up to El Serrat, Andorra (very close to the Andorran/French border).
The meeting time was at 11:00am, bus departure at 11:45am. Most of us were there by 11:15, but poor Kendi, traveling for the first time herself from Philly, landed at the airport at 9:00am, and was planning to take the train directly to the bus station…but there is a train strike happening in Barcelona!! Dr. Claramunt met us at the bus station, was able to navigate Kendi into a taxi, and she made it! We all boarded the bus, and started out our 3 1/2 hour ride. Super pleased to report the bus was large, roomy, and air conditioned (and with this European heat wave, very important…)
The initial climb out of Barcelona (elevation at sea level, latitude 41°N) appeared to be a very chaparral -like biome, similar to California
We followed the Segre river traveling northwest through Spain. This river starts in the French Pyrenees and dumps into the Ebro river, which then forms a delta that exits into the Mediterranean Sea.
We saw some beautiful stretches of the Segre, as well as the Oliana reservoir (dam) in the Segre Valley.
At the end of the bus ride, we made it to La Vella, Andorra, the capital of this country, where Jana and Uri came to pick us up and drive us to the Hotel we are going to call home for the next week and a half.
Once settled in, we had classroom time for about 45 minutes, which was a preview for what we will be helping these scientists with.
- We learned that we will always be working at the tree line (so high!), because this ecotone (where one habitat meets the next one) is easiest to monitor and collect data for when a change happens to a species
- Because ecosystems can change vertically (for us, increasing or decreasing in elevation), we will be monitoring low areas and high areas
Projects that we will be collecting data from include
- Small mammals: there are 8 total plots, each with 36 traps. We will be checking all the traps (because we want to release the animals) every day for 3 days in a row.
- bird banding: we will be setting nets to capture birds, and then band and release them to monitor population of birds (and compare high vs low ecosystems)
- nest boxes: there are nest boxes set up for birds to lay eggs, but in the last 3 years garden dormice have been invading into the boxes and birthing their own young
- camera traps: we will be collecting photographic footage from the cameras that are set up in the areas of interest and tally the animals that are captured on film.
- Soil composition experiment: we will also be digging up tea bags that were buried in May to monitor if increase of decrease of chemical activity has occurred, I will explain the science behind this next blog…!!!
I now leave you with a video from the bus going through these incredibly narrow streets of small towns in Spain. These drivers know what they are doing…
