Peter Charles in the Americas

Yeah..I have permission to sample the Quabbin Reservoir, Boston ’s water supply (http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/central/quabbin.htm). Had to pull strings in the USEPA in Cincinnati to get connected, and even the director of the Water supply is interested and would like to come out on one of my field trips and they are dedicating a ranger and boat to escort me into their restricted areas. I do feel privileged.

Most of my sampling up here has been in Harvard Forest . Harvard University has a well equipped research facility 70 miles west of Boston and I have been using kayaks to sample the water bodies around their research station. The station has some well known and experienced plant ecologist and they are also keen for me to look at the water bodies in their upper catchment, perfect. This is great for me because they have all the knowledge of plant production in the catchment, I am not a land person so that information is critical to me and they have been studying these catchments for years. The biggest concern for me is the lakes/ponds in Harvard Forest . They are not influenced by urbanisation, indeed it’s so isolated that you have to drive 45 minutes to find a restaurant. They are shallow ponds (2m) and have masses of a particular plant species that I thought was a weed but since then have discovered it is a protected Water Lily ( Nymphea ordorata ). See picture attached, that I am very proud of. So this will complicate my research story there as I am trying to link the land plant production to the water bodies and there is so much of this water Lilly that I won’t be able to tell who is contributing what. Hence my joy, I am able to work on the Quabbin reservoir. It’s an oligotrophic lake similar to our water storages in Brisbane and has a protected catchment of which the Harvard researchers know and have studied the plant production. So it is ideal for my research project and it’s exciting plus I get to use my own boat again!!

So what it’s like living here compared to the Jungles of Central America? Another type of jungle with different rules and skills to survive by, like driving on the wrong side of the road!! I miss the natural beauty of Central America but love the feel of clean dry sheets at night, fungus not growing on everything and not being bitten by insects all the time. Then there is the social life. Boston has a plethora of live music spaces that make for great night time listening, some are good others are pretty bad. And you can get lost in a big city where no one knows you, I like that.

Boston is a fascinating city, it holds much of North America's Political history with the likes of Paul Revere, the birthplace the Kennedy’s mother, the Boston Tea-party, the signing and first reading of the declaration of independence from the old state house on the corner of Washington and State streets, the birth place of Benjamin Franklin, and the list goes on. It’s a strong hold of the Liberals (Barack Obama), our equivalent of the Labour Party. I find that such a contradiction of terms.

Boston and Cambridge are separated by the Charles River . The river is dammed at the sea port to stop saltwater intrusion. The river is thus freshwater with a temperature of 26C, Dissolved Oxygen concentration of 8 mg/Litre, a pH of 7.6, and a specific conductivity of 0.15 mS/cm). It’s pretty healthy for a river running through the Boston CBD. I’ve fallen in three times, taken in a few mouth full’s of the river and have yet to get sick. Cambridge is where I live and work.

Cambridge is a University town, it’s Harvard (established in 1630). The native Bostonians have a strong accent, to me they sound like they come from Brooklyn (NYC) so they are obvious but living in Cambridge you rarely hear the accent. That is because the city is made up of people from all walks of life from all over the world that, in one way or another, are linked to Harvard. I am based in the Harvard University Herbaria ( http://www.huh.harvard.edu/ ) working with the Smithsonian Institute and their CTFS group (Centre for Tropic Forest Science). I am surrounded by 5 million plant specimens, in one of the 10 largest Herbaria in the world in number of specimens, along with the library it forms the world's largest university owned herbarium. Well I needed to know how plants contribute, could you think of a better place to be in the world!!

Found this wonderful saying that I will depart on ............

“Our innate love of beauty may still be our best hope for preserving our natural environment” after Amelia Amon