What I learn from ST 2137

What is Data?

"Data" is defined as

-things known (the attributes of Ficus species worldwide)

-assumed facts or figures

for which conclusions can be inferred. (which attributes are related to invasiveness, threatenedness)

What are the uses of data?

-To draw conclusions and make decisions (So which species are potential invasives and which species might we potentially lose forever? So we know which not to be cultivated and which to protect)

-To confirm statements (Is it true that smaller fig size mean more animals can eat and more well dispersed thus more weedy?)

-To make predictions on events to come (This species might go weedy, this might be threatened)

What is data analysis?

-The art of examining, summarizing, and drawing conclusions from data

-Transforming the data into knowledge.

Questions (hypothesis)-->Collecting data (which I don't do physically, unlike my other Honours friends)-->Analyzing data-->Answers/More questions/Any patterns/relationships (we all must do this and write it in our thesis)--> either conclude or collect more data

So technically all research students who work with data collection are doing data analysis.

Also Prof. Chan Yiu Man mentioned "we must get evidence to support what we believe in". This is my weakness. I must believe in Science. I must trust that the data and analysis method I use and produce evidence that creates knowledge and I must be able to stand by my work.

I work hard and I believe in what I do.

Fascination with Ficus

Sometimes I get a little disappointed. I am not still not good at doing research. I still don't quite get it. I might feel a little inferior to others actually.

But let me not do research to prove to others I can do it, rather, let me do it out of love, a passion for knowledge, to know and be known.

Sitting down here, looking at papers and websites, can get dry at times. I'm not very explorative (what an irony right?) but just now I was exploring Fig Web and I found faces, faces of Ficus lovers, Ficus researchers. Check out George Wieblen. He looks very extroverted and a fun person. And I see the smiles on their faces, the many many publications they have come up with... It's crazy, I mean they really love Figs, to do all these things. And they're people like my Professor, like my lab mates and possible people like me. 

Let this passion drive me to do work, not obligation.

I feel like I'm living in a world of Science.

taxonomic revisions

I am slightly stunned. 

I am reading a paper by C. C. Berg called "Proposals for treating four species complexes in Ficus Subgenus Urostigma Section Americanae (Moraceae)" [Blumea 52:295-312].

The problem with the Neotropical taxa of Ficus is that "The species complexes in Urostigma section Americana comprise a number of partly allopatric entities ('forms') that are morphologically so close that recognition is often very difficult or sometimes even impossible. Moreover, the pollinators of entities within within the complexes can be different, possibly implying genetic isolation" [Experientia 45:605-611].

Hmmm... I think basically what it means is that it is hard to classify these species because they are similar, yet different. So should we treat them as distinct species, or should we see them in a broader sense, as complexes or a common species/subspecies.

What Berg did was to propose a treatment for the four species complexes (F. americana, F. aurea, F. citrifolia & F. pertusa).

What stunned me was that many of the species known to be threatened are now being grouped together with others under one name. What that possibly could mean is that I might have less threatened species than previously thought...

It took me a long time to get used to this shifting and moulding, this plasticity of taxonomic groups. How one day, this species is here, another day, it's there when someone realizes it's been identified or evaluated wrongly. It's so flexible and changing. There are rules, but with new discoveries and knowledge, species are shifted around and sometimes ceased to exist when I suppose identified wrongly.

I feel very raw and new to this. A actually you probably can tell from the way I tried to explain what I know. I still can't grasp it proficiently at the moment. But I am in awed at the complexity and have started loosening up.

I used to think these things were fixed and do not change. But they do, they do!

*sigh*

It's true isn't it. The more you find out, the more you realize you have not found not. The more you know, the less you really know. 

The more you try to dig deeper, the bigger the mess you realize it really is.

But... There should come a point when it all makes sense, despite the mess.

I can't wait to arrive there.

I think too because Man gives plants their name and their classification, these things changes and there's not clear cut answer to a classification scheme.

Prof. Tan told me today that a data-miner must be resourceful. I must be about to plough through all the information and find what I need...

I hope to have a good reference section that I can be proud of. Being a perfectionist, if that can be something I am proud of, it must be very good.

Okay!

I really pray I can get my act together and do my best for this project.

I want to be a good data-miner and a Ficus expert by the end of the project.

And every step of the way, I will get better.

Some Hands On

Biologists are known to get their hands dirty and all. And being an "arm chair" biologist, brings its fair share of mocking. I feel that a lot of the data miners, the Plant Systematics Lab denizens, are not well looked upon by the people in the other labs.

Just moments ago, I brought out my Flora Malesiana and my Fig book and my camera and went to have a look at Ficus glossularoides on the ridge (I forgot we have it in our native plant garden). I read the description, I looked at the plant to understand, and took some photos. (I am so blessed. A cute little black bird with a red cap and a red patch on its back was chirping happily away and picking on some red fruits near me. I took a photo of it, shall put it up here once I can.) 

Ficus grossularioides (White - leafed fig)

"This shrub is very common along secondary forest edges, in wooded undeveloped land and along disturbed hedges. It may grow to a small tree, up to 9m... distinguished by its characteristic white leaf undersides. This fig is also called Ficus alba in older references..."

"Figs usually below the leaves on previous season's growth, in pairs, sessile or with a peduncle up to 0.2cm long."

"Leaves spirally arranged; lamina elliptic to oblong to ovate or (when juvenile) (sub)palmately 3-5(-7)-lobed to -fid, 3-15 by 1.5-7.5 cm (when juvenile up to 35 by 30 cm)"

Dicaeum cruentatum (Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker)

"A tiny bird of the tree tops constantly on the move feeding on flower nectar, buds and small insects and fairly common where these occur but due to its very small size may be easily missed..."

In a way, I really like my project. I actually much prefer this kind of "field work". (Actually there's no field work involved, but I hope to on my own initiative, do my own. But I look forward to any herbarium kinda visit.) I like to identify, I like to appreciate the structure and take some photos. I actually don't quite like doing experiments, even the outdoor kind, like we did in Tioman. I don't like to repeat experiments, being a perfectionists, I cannot stand it that there are factors we cannot control (but that's life isn't it. We face that in life all the time), I prefer collecting and making lists. 

I only realized it now, but this project actually quite suits me. Plus the fact that it allows me the flexibility that I need, with my external commitments.

By the end of this project, I'm supposed to become a Ficus expert (wouldn't that be cool? Work hard if you want that, dear girl!). I will know the geography of the pan tropical region (excellent for Missions). 

I really need to work hard if I want that effect. So, this  really must be my priority. I don't know where this will lead me, but if it were to lead me anywhere at all, I must do a good job. 

Currently the list is getting longer. I've yet to get rid of the synonyms or find a way to do that. But hope to have a chat with Prof. soon and get that going. 

I took a long one month break to focus on this Special Semester module called LSM4263 Field Studies in Biodiversity. I was rushing to complete the oral presentation and report.

Now, I'm back to figging.

I have visited the Botanic Gardens library twice to check out their Floras. They have a wider collection than our lab.

I'm currently trying to complete my list. I'm searching for the 730-755 species of Ficus. Currently I have about 700. But it's an incomplete and imperfect list with probably quite some mistakes, so the numbers could be lower.

I'm also finding out the cultivation status. Could it be that cultivated figs are more prone to becoming weedy??

Soon, I would need to find these figs corresponding wasps.

It looks like things are picking up speed.