I went back to Desierto de Los Leones National Park to obtain more samples on May 29th, 2022. I arrived at 9:30 and left at 3:10 after hiking a 14 km in-and-out trail up the El Caballete Hill. The initial elevation was 3,000 m, and the maximum elevation was 3,640 m. During this visit, the temperature was cooler than other visits (22 C on average) because it was cloudier and there had been some rain on previous days.
My original plan was to collect 50 replicates by taking 10 samples along five different elevation lines. However, due to the treacherous nature of the terrain, I was only able to get 40 replicates along four elevations – two at the top and two and two from the bottom of the hill. In addition, I had to modify my original sampling design. I had planned to take a 2x2m sample every 28 m and cover more distance, but since it was so hard to walk among the tall grasses and the terrain was very steep and soft, I decided to take a sample every 15 m instead. On the second elevation line, I was forced to climb down to the track after taking only eight measurements (instead of ten). Moreover, there was a fear of encountering a rattlesnake among the tall grasses after coming across one near the sampling area (Crotalus triseriatus, Image 1) For this reason, I took the samples closer to the hiking path than I had initially planned.
During my measurements, I noticed that most instances of Mountain Roses happened in clusters and usually on or near rocks. This could indicate that there are more factors at play than my original hypothesis takes into account.
