C. Philip Wheater - Practical Field Ecology

Then came the end of the journey and the challenge to transport the samples back to the UK and keep them frozen when flights, transfers, and baggage handling are largely out of the team's control. Gareth had a small cooler to aid in this process, but key to its success was keeping it cool throughout the journey and at all costs trying to avoid it sitting on a blistering tropical tarmac runway. The team froze sponges in the last of the liquid nitrogen and packed them in to the cooler around the samples, while also accidently freezing part of a colleagues' shoe! They had also frozen Nalgene bottles full of water to act as ice blocks, but ones that have better longevity than your standard home freezer block (the ice is much thicker). These were also packed in the cooler. However, days prior to this, Gareth had realised the ambitious nature of the journey home and the fear of the samples defrosting. Despite extremely limited internet access, he had managed to get an email out to his post‐doc with an emergency request to organise delivery of 2 kg of dry ice to the hotel in Bahrain where they had planned to spend the 9 hours transit time prior to their UK flight. Dry ice is a solid form of carbon dioxide and is around −80 °C. The two 1 kg dry ice blocks kept the samples frozen all the way to Manchester airport and the following 1.5 hour taxi journey to the safety of a freezer.

Always plan ahead and have back‐up plans A, B, and C for fieldwork. Remember to stay safe even when pushed for time under challenging circumstances – it could have been much worse than a frozen shoe! When transporting frozen samples, invest in a good cooler with proper insulation, pack it well (i.e. leave no air spaces and put the most important samples at the bottom), and make your own ice blocks that have a large volume to surface area ratio. Finally, do not rely on luck on the day as Gareth did, but instead organise any additional supplies you may need for your sample journey to be a success well ahead of time.

Ensure the availability of equipment before starting and obtain essential items well in advance of beginning your research project. You may need to allow adequate time to order specialist equipment or materials. If your project requires technical support, arrange this as far in advance as possible.

You need to be as familiar with your equipment as possible before commencing your fieldwork. This includes knowing how reliable it is likely to be under the conditions in which you are working and whether you need to have access to spare components or extra full items of equipment. For example, small mammals will eventually chew through the sides of an aluminium trap and, and they rather more quickly get through the sides of an equivalent plastic trap. Whilst it is possible to patch these up, this is tricky in the field, and therefore spares should be taken. Anything that runs on batteries (e.g. data loggers or light traps) need to be recharged on a regular basis and spare batteries, bulbs, etc. should be available whilst in the field. If you are using multiple pieces of equipment, then you should ensure they are comparable (e.g. different makes of bulb may provide different wavelengths and illumination in light traps, and monitoring equipment from different companies may have different levels of accuracy and resolution). Wherever possible, ensure that identical equipment is used for an individual project. Instrumentation errors may occur if users are unaware of the limits of the equipment (e.g. where attempts are made to estimate between gradations on an analogue scale). Some equipment may require regular calibration against standards of approximately similar values to the variables being measured (e.g. calibrating pH meters at pH 7 for neutral soil and water pH measurements). It is also important to take care of equipment, including protecting it against vandalism, theft, and animal damage (many a moth trap has been trampled by inquisitive cattle when placed in their pasture, and crows and magpies seem to very much enjoy pulling white pitfall cups out of the ground).

Keep all your data and notes in an organised format, preferably in a hard‐backed notebook (see Box 1.3) and scan these on a regular basis to retain an electronic second copy. Have a standardised way of recording your data, including everything that might be relevant: the date, weather conditions, and notes of any important points that occur to you whilst carrying out the project. It is useful to record data in the same layout as you will on a computer spreadsheet for analysis (see p. 28). If you do use sheets of paper (similar to the one illustrated in Figure 1.3), make sure that they all go into a ring binder as soon as possible. It is very easy for single data sheets to get lost. It is worth checking to see if there is a standardised recording sheet available for use with the technique that you are employing. Examples include the recording sheets produced for the Biological Records Centre 23 and Breeding Bird Survey. 24 Make photocopies of data at frequent intervals and scan them into a computer if possible. If data loggers are being used either to note climatic variables (see Chapter 2) or to log behaviour (see Chapter 4), then make sure that you take backups of your files as soon as possible. Enter data and comments in electronic form whenever possible and create backup copies on a regular basis, including copies saved on a networked drive, internet hub, or cloud (NB: emailing copies to yourself and co‐workers/supervisors can provide useful protection).

Use a field notebook to write down data, ideas, observations, tentative conclusions, and hypotheses as you do your fieldwork to create an immediate and faithful history of your research. Produce comprehensive, clearly organised notes as a reference and so that you can reconstruct the research timeline and follow the development of your thoughts and ideas. Although you may use other collection sheets (e.g. pre‐printed data collection forms to ensure data are collected consistently in different locations and at different times), your field notebook should provide the context for data collection and help resolve ambiguities or inconsistencies when preparing for analysis. After data analysis, reference to your notebook may generate further hypotheses and suggest further lines of enquiry.

Select an A5 or A6 hardback notebook with a spiral binding and wide‐ruled lines, ideally on waterproof paper. Use a clutch‐type propelling pencil with a moderately soft lead (HB or B). If you do not use waterproof paper, then encase your notebook in a plastic bag large enough to cover your hand and the notebook when writing. In very wet conditions, write on an A4 sheet of white plastic with a thick soft pencil (use kitchen cleaner to erase your notes after transcription).

The first page should include contact details in case of loss, the subject of your research, and the start and end dates of the period covered by that notebook. Include any conventions used, e.g. ‘All times are recorded as local time’. Number the pages and ideally add a contents table to make searching for information easier. Write on the right‐hand page only so the left‐hand page can be used for ideas generated by reading about similar observations or relevant research papers. Leave a few lines between observations for comments to be inserted later (e.g. ‘No bark damage here 23 June, see p. 39’). Add a 2 cm margin to write the time, location (e.g. from a GPS reading), or other identifying labels. Create lists of codes, acronyms, specialist terminology, etc. at the back and include any emergency numbers (e.g. those of field buddies). Other useful notes about equipment (how to use, limitations of instruments, etc.) and any numerical information you might require in the field (simple formulae for calculations, random numbers, etc.) can also be added here.