Hastings Natural History Reservation

06 Jun, 12 PM - 15 Jun, 01 AM

The purpose of this visit is to inspect wood rat stickhouses in several types of habitat on the Reserve, determine if they are active and if so to collect samples of sleeping nest material and fresh vegetation, particularly any located near the sleeping nest, for analysis. The analyses, (Gas Chromotography/Mass Spectrometry done in collaboration with Edith Stout of the Vassar College Chemistry Department, will be aimed at detecting and identifying any volatile oils present in the plant materials the wood rats are utilizing or potentially could use, i.e. near the stickhouse even if not actually in it. This is of interest because certain essential oils have insecticidal, insect repellent and antimicrobial properties that may make their use adaptive. Oils of interest will be isolated, purified and evaluated for pulicidal potency using an assay that I have used many times in my lab. Repellency may be assessed as well using adult fleas or mosquitoes as assays are developed. Because of concerns about Phytophthora ramorum, dichloromethane extraction of some plant materials, at least, will be done at Hastings so that oils only, not the plant material itself, will be shipped back to Vassar. Activated charcoal paper strips will be placed in some stickhouses for a week to sample volatiles that may be present in the air near the sleeping nest. These strips will be placed inside small hardware cloth ?envelopes? to prevent their destruction by the wood rats, a technique I have used before to protect foliage. Berlese extraction of ectoparasites on part of the nesting material sample will be done to test for an association between ectoparasite abundance and the presence/concentration of essential oils near the nest. A sample of 20g of nest material will be adequate and will typically amount to less than half of the nest material in the sleeping nest. In no case would more than half the nest material be removed from a stickhouse. The work will be done in areas at Hastings where I have worked recently. New areas representative of different habitat types may be chosen in consultation with Mark Stromberg. Quite small amounts of foliage will be adequate for extraction and analysis. I shall take precautions so as to avoid collection of foliage from any rooted plant that might be rare, securing permission first. Incidental to this work we shall be determining GPS location and marking stickhouses to facilitate future work on this and related projects.

Visit #7198 @Hastings Natural History Reservation

Approved

Under Project # 1668 | Research

Vassar College - Biology

faculty - Vassar College

Reservation Members(s)

Richard Hemmes Jun 6 - 15, 2005 (10 days)
Richard Hemmes Jun 6 - 15, 2005 (10 days)
Richard Hemmes Jun 6 - 15, 2005 (10 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Hastings Cabin 3 Jun 6 - 15, 2005
Ranch House 3 Jun 6 - 15, 2005