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 50 experiment: step 2 DHJanzen100132.jpg high resolution
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| In step two, all of the vegetation in the plot was cut down to ground level with a machete. However, each of the ant-acacias was cut off at 60 cm height so as to keep track of them. Also, the cut was made so that you can see in the above photo the white tops of the ant acacia stumps (see high resolution image). The string marks the boundary of the plot. In this particular plot - the experimental plot - each ant-acacia crown, with its ant colony, was hauled to the outside of the plot, piled up (which started an enormous ant war among the colonies), and burned. The result was a relatively ant-free site. In the paired adjacent plot (from where the photograph was taken) the process was the same, except that each newly cut ant-acacia crown was left lying at the base of its stump. This produced a plot of living cut stumps with the same number of large ant colonies as was present initially. Then we wait. | ||
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