File: <Securing biological data.htm> Pooled References GENERAL INDEX [Navigate to MAIN MENU ]
PROBLEMS WITH
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND COLLABORATORS IN
SECURING BIOLOGICAL DATA Researchers may often encounter problems when
deploying technical assistance or collaborators in the acquisition of biological data. Especially without constant supervision
the assistance of a person not thoroughly knowledgeable in an experiment can
produce conflicting results. Several
examples of actual conflicts clarify the problem: 1. While
comparing the effects of various lethal compounds on wheat field populations
of the brown wheat mite in Idaho and Utah the assistance of a graduate
student in counting mite numbers on specially processed samples resulted in a
discrepancy when checks were made by the project leader. However, as the use of a binocular
microscope was required the counts might vary with the nearsighted student
and far sighted project leader. 2.
Comparisons of herbivorous fish for aquatic weed reduction in
experimental ponds at the University of California could not be made because
the technician began to feel sorry for the fish that had consumed most of the
vegetation in some pond replicates.
He had therefore supplied them with catfish pellets as food without
informing the project leader. 3. A
several year study of field populations of a species of Matsucoccus mite on pinyon pine in
California involved taking yearly samples during the late winter months when
the mites were in hibernation. This
mite had no known natural enemies to regulation its population. Samples consisted of twelve inches of
terminal shoots, which were taken to the laboratory where the number of mites
present on the first six inches of each shoot were counted by the project
leader and a technical assistant. All
of the data was provided to a graduate student who expanded the study to
obtain a Masters Degree. However, the
student received erroneous information from the technician involved in
counting the samples who told him that all mites on twelve inches of a sample
were counted. 4.
California cultures of gregarious and solitary races of a parasitic
insect on house fly, Musca domestica in South America were provided
to a laboratory in Europe for further study.
The California cultures that had been maintained for several years by
various technicians eventually became mixed so that the experiments in Europe
revealed some differences from previous published results. Acquisition of new cultures from the field
in South America also differed to some extent. Nevertheless, some differences were blamed on procedures used
in the original studies. 5. The
introduction of Australian natural enemies of the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, were made in a purchased cotton field in
Western Arizona that was to receive no insecticides. A graduate student assigned to the project
while taking cotton samples in the field observed an airplane spraying the
entire field with insecticides. 6. The
successful establishment of Goniozus
legneri on Navel orangeworm, Amyelois transitells, in California involved field
liberations of the natural enemy at multiple statewide sites to guarantee
survival. One collaborator at Chico,
California who had a mature almond orchard that he no longer wanted to keep
had the whole orchard cut down just before samples were to be taken to
appraise the results. When he was
asked why the researchers were not notified before the removal, he replied
that he was not satisfied with the number of parasitic insects that were released
in his orchard. A second orchard in
the Chico area nevertheless produced positive results for the establishment
of the parasite. |