Introduction and Pre-trip excitement

Today I am embarking on an 11 day Earthwatch expedition studying climate change and caterpillars in south east Arizona. My flight to Tucson takes off at 2 p.m.! There is so much unknown I am anticipating and many adventures I will share with you over the next eleven days. I do know I will spend time collecting specimens and maintaining experiments in the field and bringing back plant material for the caterpillar zoo back at the lab. This is part of a larger study of climate change and caterpillars around the word, see http://www.earthwatch.org/exped/dyer_arizona.html.


I am so excited to participate in this research as I am an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, teacher, and tree hugger. I am also particularly fascinated by the idea that climate change can be seen in the balance of biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem. What I will learn about climate change by studying caterpillars?  


I already have a little background in studying caterpillars and their interactions with other living things and their environment. Every summer I grow tomatoes in my own urban Los Angeles backyard. Every summer I battle the voracious tomato hornworm. With luck and the balancing effects of natural predators I end up with a decent crop and  I get to enjoy watching my garden ecosystem. This year a black phoebe has claimed my yard for her territory. She perches on a bamboo stake and snatches the hornworm moths mid air as they flutter around my plants. 

 The tomato hornworm eats the leaves off the tomato plant and it even eats the fruit. I think the green spider bellow eats the hornworms when they are much smaller.