An interdisciplinary team of botanists from the University of Bonn and University of Heidelberg as well as zoologists from the University of Hamburg were on fieldwork in Chile from February, 13 to March 15, 2023.
The focus was on conducting plant phenotyping and substrate sampling in the CRC1211 wide Tillandsia landbeckii field close to Caldera (B01) and in the coastal Huidobria fruticosa transect north of Paposo (B01, B07). It was nice to find the tagged Huidobria fruticosa plants in good shape and see that they have grown in volume since the last field campaign one year ago. A 10 km transect south of Taltal was newly established for genotyping and phenotyping of over 100 individuals of Huidobria chilensis, aiming at future comparative analyses of this close relative to Huidobria fruticosa (B01, B07).
At all study sites the scientists were keeping an eye open for potential animal-plant interactions and new project ideas. The team greatly acknowledges the support of our collaboration partners Alexandra Stoll (CEAZA La Serena) and Eduardo Campos (Universidad Católica del Norte Antofagasta).
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Huidobria chilensis. Photo: Julia Bechteler |
Sampling Huidobria chilensis in our new transect. |
Huidobria fruticosa. Photo: Julia Bechteler |
Zoologists Danilo Harms and Valentin Ehrenthal searching for spiders and pseudoscorpions. |