What is a job related stressor?
Ask A Biologist Monday 5/16/22
Answers from Biologists:
Did we put the boat plug in and did it get pulled out after?
Did I close the -30 freezer all the way? One time the answer was no.
Anything related to chemical control for invasive plant species in wetlands.
If we eradicated the entire colony of red imported fire ants near a ground bird nest.
That one of my motus towers will fall and crush someone.
Packing enough food for days in the field.
Forgetting to relay vital info to a tech.
Making sure I lock all the gates/freezers/cameras/pens/everything.
Whether I’ve truly found every plant species actually in plot.
Keeping current on constantly changing policies and making sure stuff if up to date.
Did I drop something in the field?
Trying not to step on nests that have been perfectly evolved to be hidden (plovert/tern).
That I didn’t release all my captured bees and there’s a stowaway in the cooler.
The public. Conservation in state/federal parks can be miserable because of the public.
Did I turn the temperature loggers on?
Regularly changing scientific names and staying up to date on new technologies.
Whether or not updating R will break my old computer.
Checking weather/trying to guess which creeks are low enough to sample.
Balancing perspectives of field staff, the public, headquarters, and politics to inform policy.
Locks. All the locks.
Releasing species information in a responsible and legal way.
How to survive summer in the field in the Mojave desert.
Whether I closed all the traps for the day even after triple checking them.
Did I make sure the collar was working before I let that animal go?
Are any health problems something that I could have prevented/noticed sooner?
I have stumbled into illegal marijuana grows (and people) while doing fieldwork. Not fun.
Correctly locking gates that keep bison in a pasture. I go back and double check a lot.
I have nightmares that I’ve left a mist net open. Didn’t actually happen.
Poor management.
Waiting for monarchs to enclose and praying it goes smoothly.
Making sure I take the magnet off the collar.
Whether our design accounts for most variables for best chance of success.
Technology not working. Especially government issues. Why is is so slooooow?
Asking property owners for permission to access privately owned land.
Did I actually turn on the detector before I walked away? Did I swap cards?
Leaving gate keys behind at the logging gate. Happened once, got them back. Idk if boss found out.
I misread the tides and my boat is high and dry when I come back. Or it’s just gone.
Illegal armed groups when going to new places.
Matching the SD card to the correct camera. Learned some sunscreen can erase sharpie.
Keeping date organized and usable.
Trying to find where I missed a parenthesis in R.
Snakes.
Injuries.
Safety of new techs. Especially during fire season.
What happens to my kids/students when they leave my class (home life, etc.)?
Making typos in the database.
Crass men at boat ramps who think they can say anything they want to me because I’m a woman.
Having to talk to private landowners about CWD.
Finding the nest before the chicks fledge (brood parasite mitigation).
Working temp jobs, not knowing where I’ll be working beyond 4-6 months at a time.
Insufficient information to be able to proceed forward and no one around knows the answers.
Worrying if doing nest checks might lead a predator to it.
Locking the truck keys in the truck, especially while in the field.
The patriarchy.
Grants.
Weather.
Did I properly close our shipping container or will it be full of thousands of angry bees tomorrow?
Is my tag properly activated when I put it on the bird?
Permits/regulations between agencies overlap and contradict but still need to be followed.
Rain for mistnetting birds. Run to close the nets ASAP in the north.
