June 19, 2012

Keeping it short today. Had a long day in the field.

Today we went to the field to start taking spectral readings of rare and common native species. This isn’t the easiest process; there are many variables that affect the outcome. Major variables that we battled today included the weather. We were right on the edge of a rain shadow, so there were constant clouds moving over the sun which can throw off the spectral readings. Also we experienced several random short rain showers. During the rain showers we had to take cover because not all the equipment is water proof. If the weather is better tomorrow it will be nice to take some more readings of different plants to build a larger spectral library to eventually compare to high resolution imagery, to hopefully predict where rare, native and invasive species are located.

After a quick lunch on the beach, we walked along the Mahaulepu trail which fallows along cliffs. We headed to Hoouluia, which is a Heiau, an ancient temple. Here the archaeological team started their surveys. While they were surveying, the vegetation team took several GPS readings of nearby native and invasive plant species to see what is on the ground and what it looks like in aerial photography. This will help us identify species once we generate very high resolution imagery from the gatewing airplane.

In the evening we had a lecture by Chuck Blay. He is a geologist on the Island of Kauai. He lectured about the history and the formation of the islands. It was very interesting and gave some good background information that I was not aware of.

Going to sleep, very tired

Peace