Allie Luftig, a senior at the University of Oregon, Honors College, was a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student at the Andrews Forest in the summer of 2006.
Ms. Luftig worked with Drs. Dave Shaw and Judy Li from Oregon State University.
She studied the vertical distribution of arthropods in the forest canopy to examine patterns that would help understand the forest canopy ecosystem. Her work showed that there was no significance in proportion of arthropods at different levels of the canopy, suggesting that no vertical stratification occurred when the data from all sample weeks were examined together. The strongest pattern of arthropod distribution was found among arthropods 2mm or less in size. Significantly more arthropods of this size class were found during the day than the night; however larger arthropods were not significantly different in proportion from the day to the night.
Allie has applied to Teach for America and hopes to teach science to high school students in New Orleans next year.
Enlarge this image