The end of the summer marks the end of the field season. And to my lab, the end of the field season means Phragmites harvest! All of the plants in all of the chambers must be measured, documented, and a pre determined sector are sampled. It is an extensive task! There are the three experiments: the 1m chambers, the 2m chambers, and the Phragmites chambers. I was doing other things when we did the 1m and 2m chambers, but I helped out with the Phragmites harvest!
We took all six panels off the sides of the chambers and set up a 5x10 PVC pipe grid along the bottom of each chamber.
Once the grid was set up the great census began! Each team had two or three people. In the three people team, one person measured, one person recorded the measurements, and one person labeled the envelopes for the Phragmites leaf samples. In a two person group, the same person recorded and labeled. 
It was very thick in some of the Phragmites chambers!Chamber 4 was a nightmare!
Look at all those Phagmites and other species. You can barely see the other side, which is only a few dozen centimeters away. Parts of chamber 12 were almost as thick, and had aphids all over their leaves. The aphids got all over us, they were very itchy!
But we finished ahead of schedule.
All of the Phragmites chambers were done in two days, it was a fabulous experience!
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