The first week of fieldwork in the Cordillera de la Costa forced us to rethink our sampling protocol. We had planned to collect leaf litter from ten plots under Quercus rubra every morning, but the terrain and the unexpected rain on day two changed that. By the third day, we reduced the number of plots to six and extended the collection window to the afternoon. The tradeoff was clear: fewer samples but better quality, with less moisture interference in the bags.
The practical constraint that shaped the rest of the week was the pH meter. The portable unit we brought failed calibration after the first use, so we switched to a field titration method using a handheld kit. It added about fifteen minutes per sample, but the readings were more consistent. We recorded a pH drop from 6.1 to 5.6 in the top 5 cm under the densest canopy, which matched the preliminary data from the previous season.
By day five, we had enough data to see a pattern: the acidification was strongest where the leaf layer exceeded 4 cm in depth. The lombriculture microcosms we set up alongside the plots showed that Eisenia fetida activity remained steady even at 6 °C, though the burrowing depth was shallower than expected. This meant the aeration effect was concentrated in the upper 3 cm, not the full 10 cm we had assumed.
The week ended with a decision: for the next round, we will place the microcosms at two depths instead of one, and we will use a mechanical corer to measure macroporosity directly. The practical angle of this first week was not about confirming a hypothesis, but about adjusting the method to the real conditions of a wet forest floor in autumn.