Luquillo LTER

Plots were sampled during two time periods each year:  March (“Dry” season) and July or August (“Wet” season).  During each sampling period, there were 3-4 nocturnal surveys of each CTE plot.  Researchers were randomly assigned to subplots within each plot.  Each time a subplot was sampled, the surveyor spent 15 minutes searching all exposed surfaces (e.g., vegetation, rocks, leaf litter, soil surface) within the boundary of the subplot for snails and slugs.  All surveyors were instructed to minimize trampling damage to the plots by using walkways whenever possible, to avoid at all costs stepping in the seedling plots, and to avoid disturbing the plots by sifting through leaf litter, turning over rocks or dead wood, etc.  Snails and slugs were identified to species but, whenever possible, not removed from their substrate.  Block A was not sampled in March of 2005 because the experimental treatments were underway.