For this course I wanted to learn to how do the temperature response curves and analyses, and in general to learn more about trait-based approaches, field techniques and analyses. I think I realized my goals, not only because I did learn how to use the LiCor 6400 \o/ and understand the basics of how it works, but I also could peep and help a little at the trait wheel, and work for a day in the carbon group. There are many sub-routines, tips, tricks and hacks that are only transmitted in the field and in the lab, so watching people work was a huge source of learning. I would have loved to dig deeper in the analysis part but there will be time for that. Still, the best part of the course was meeting everyone 🙂 It was fun and I hope we’ll meet again Wayquei!

I learned that I am more organized than I thought, in spite of not working in a lab environment and with other people. I thrive in collaboration and having good people around makes me very happy. I can sustain long periods of time in front of a machine that is not a computer provided there is salsa. I still need to learn how to extract the most of the work I do in real life but that’s another story.

Surveying people was fun, and people were very approachable, some even got in line for doing the interviews. There was a little language barrier in Paucartambo, but people were very curious about us. That’s when we saw that the language was complicated, some of the phrases could have been written in a more spoken way. Regarding climate change perceptions in Peru, I expected the topic to be non-controversial, and that was mostly what we saw. People feel that there has been a change, they describe it, and they know humans are behind those changes. Although people feel that most of the climate change is being caused elsewhere, by industries and machines, they recognize that their own contribution is related to littering, using plastics, cutting down trees, etc. Maybe some of these impressions are technically wrong, but I think that knowing your own ecological footprint in general and not only related to carbon is essential, and I like better this attitude than simply saying «it’s not us». I remember a 64 year old woman in Cusco who asked me to read for her, and her answers were so complete, so full of conscience. It made me think the local government has done a good job in doing divulgation. But I also thought that giving great answers doesn’t mean that the person is doing something, only that she knows what should be answered. Sometimes the problem is not knowing things, but doing the right thing according to what we know regardless of what other people are doing.

the view from our post