The Field Team at ESI helps users carry out field tasks and manage sites while dealing with maintenance and ingest from collections. The field team visits the 24 OKEON network sites every two weeks, and maintains the suite of sensors and passive monitoring equipment deployed there. Our team brings in data and processes collected specimens into long term storage. We can help you deploy new equipment and sensors, maintain devices, and support expeditions in Okinawa. Please contact us so we can help you with new or ongoing terrestrial research in Okinawa.
Field Work
In the Field
Our Field Team travels around Okinawa multiple times a week to maintain OKEON network field stations. We maintain and collect data and samples from malaise traps, trail cameras, acoustic recorders, and weather stations. We may also take some field samples via litter-sifting, tree-beating, light-trapping, and leaf collecting. At some sites our team measures canopy height in dense forest, samples tree diameter at breast height (DBH), and takes canopy photography to assess canopy density over time.Our team also prepares sites as necessary for oncoming Typhoons. We have various tools and equipment to aid in the field such as power tools, shovels, saws, mosquito jackets, gloves, sampling gear, etc...
In the Lab
Our team has a lab space dedicated to managing incoming field equipment and samples. We have sterilization cabinets, microscopes, imaging tables, z-stack micro-imaging, collection trays, cabinets, pins and freezers. Coming in from the field our team manages collected specimens and handles and curates part of the collected data. This may involve processing collected samples into vials, sorting insects to groups, measuring wet weight of samples from malaise traps, and time unit sampling (TUS) of previously collected samples.
Previous Work
The Field Team has been involved in numerous research and outreach efforts over the years. Our field team has supported projects involving vegetation surveys, deploying devices for recording bat vocalizations, collecting from specific ant colonies, deploying trail cameras to detect intrusive animals, collection of atmospheric samples, invasive species detection, and collecting specimens from remote islands in Okinawa Prefecture. Our team has also been involved in outreach and education including OIST's science festival, collaboration in promotional materials, and education outreach.