Fortunately my newest colleague wanted to go out with me; it was good to have another pair of hands and at a couple points I felt very much like I was going to pass out and it was reassuring to have someone there.
It was *extremely* humid - dew points close to 80, and the air temperature itself was not much over that. And it was sunny, and the sun makes it worse. I am not a "ginger," but I am close enough to one (very pale skin, and I have/had a number of relatives who were redheads, and my hair bleaches in the sun to auburn). So heat and humidity and especially intense sun make me feel very ill.
But we got it done; I made a little adjustment and did distances of 0.5 m, 2 m, and 4 m from the bole of the tree because my original plan of 1 m and 3 m seemed too close and unlikely to show a difference. I am comparing the communities under post oak and red-cedar (so: Quercus stellata and Juniperus virginiana) and I also collected enough soil for (a) pH analyses and (b) soil carbon content analysis, I think those are the two most important "easy" things I can look at. (I could get more soil later and do more nutrient analysis, or if I expand this study and write a small on-campus grant for it, I might be able to have them analyzed)
I drank all the water I had and almost didn't make it out at that, so driving back we stopped at the sonic and I bought her and me one of the sports-drink things (they have Blue Flavor Powerade. I don't love these drinks, there's too much sugar and colorant in them, but I didn't think to bring one of my brickpacks of coconut water, which would have done a similar thing).
After that, I felt okay to go back and set up the extractions:
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