November 28, 2022

Walk through Farnsworth Reservation

Over Thanksgiving break I took a lovely walk through Farnsworth Reservation. It was a cool day, around 40 degrees Fahrenheit and very cloudy/overcast. There were very few animals I saw on my walk which I think is attributed to the colder weather and winter season settling in due to the tilt of Earth’s axis. Because of this, it was hard to find many animals or insects. The first thing I saw on my walk was a flock of what looked like to be geese migrating south for the winter. As I looked up to the sky and saw the geese in a V formation, I wondered their proximate cause of how and when they know to migrate. Do they use visual landmarks, sun compasses, star compasses, ect.? I also wondered what is the ultimate cause of their migration south. Is it for the warmer weather, a safer location to breed, better food availability? It was fascinating watching these geese fly in a V formation so that they use less energy when flying. The second animal I observed on my walk were multiple squirrels. I was not able to capture any photos of them because they moved too fast before I could take out my camera and take a picture, but I did enjoy observing them. Most of the squirrels were carrying an acorn or looked to be on the hunt for food to get ready for hibernation. It looked like there was a lot of competition between the squirrels to find the rare acorn as none of the squirrels were helping each other find food. These squirrels were also distributed randomly among the reservation I was walking through. The coolest thing I observed on my walk was a butterfly cocoon. This cocoon was wedged between rocks as to protect it from wind or prey. The cocoon did look to be vacant which makes me wonder if this past summer or fall a butterfly emerged from the cocoon. Lastly it was very interesting turning over rocks and logs to observe the many different insects crawling around.

Posted on November 28, 2022 02:55 PM by amyguggenberger amyguggenberger | 6 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

October 19, 2022

Plant Walk through the Pine Tree Preservation

I went for a lovely walk around the Pine Tree Preserve around 1 pm on Tuesday. It was mostly cloudy, around 56 degrees Fahrenheit, and very overcast with a slight drizzle for the first ten minutes of my walk. On this walk I focused on finding four different types of plants: Bryophyta (which are nonvascular plants), polypodiopsida (seedless vascular plants), gymnosperms (non-flowering seed plants), and angiosperms (flowering plants). I definitely did not find as many bryophytas as I had expected because the Pine Tree Preserve was not a very damp forest; although all the bryophytas I did observe were low lying and in small clumps. There was high species abundance of ferns for the polypodiopsida, but all other plants I observed had low species abundance. There was a high biodiversity of angiosperms in this alpha region. I observed multiple types of flowering plants in one region. Overall there was low to moderate biodiversity across all plant species and it was a perfect day to take a walk!

Posted on October 19, 2022 03:11 AM by amyguggenberger amyguggenberger | 11 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

October 5, 2022

Fungi Walk through Hammond Pond Reservation

I walked around the Hammond Pond Reservation on Tuesday afternoon. It was around 1:30 pm and the air had a slight fall chill to it. It was 57 degrees Fahrenheit and very cloudy out. The weather felt as if it was going to storm any minute - luckily the rain held off for my walk. The main purpose of my walk was to observe fungi, but additionally, I came across lots of diverse species. While looking in one small region of the reservation, I came across low alpha diversity, but high beta diversity. This reservation had many different environments with different species due to the wet and dry lands. As for the fungi, I mainly found them near wet lands or growing on the sides of tree stumps. It was interesting to observe how these fungi would inhabit a tree that is dead. We talked in class on Tuesday about how organisms need micronutrients to maintain life. We also talked about how some microbes will purposely die so that other microbes of the same species can use the dead microbe's nutrients to sustain life. I wonder if the same relationship goes for fungi living on a tree stump. Because the tree stump may be dead, does the fungi use the tree's nutrients to sustain their life? I also found it interesting that whenever I found a mushroom-looking fungi, I would only find one, not multiple. This led me to wonder if resources were scarce in the area or if selection pressures did not favor multiple fungi living near each other. All the fungi I observed had very neutral coloring.

Posted on October 5, 2022 04:45 AM by amyguggenberger amyguggenberger | 13 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

September 30, 2022

Walk through the Pine Tree Preservation

I took a lovely evening walk through the Pine Tree Preservation. It was around 6:30 pm just as the sun was setting. The weather was cool, around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with a slight breeze in the air. It became dark pretty quickly as the trees provided a thick covering that blocked any remainder of sunlight for the day. From bees, to moss, to flowers, the Pine Tree Preservation had a large amount of biodiversity. Lots of the species were co-existing together, growing in an intertwined way. This led me to think there is competition among the species for space and resources. There was lots of dead plants surrounding the living species which led me to think those species were not the most fit for that environment and were outcompeted by the living organisms who were better equip to use the resources around them to survive and produce offspring. Most of the fungi, lichen, and small plants all were very close to the ground, competing for rocks to inhabit. This area seemed to have a high amount of species richness, but a low species evenness. There was a wide range of different trees, bushes, plants, but only a few of each. There was an abundance of what looked to be like Bullseye Lichen found on almost every rock. This biodiverse preservation allows for Earth's natural processes to take place, provide clean air for humans to breathe, and a home for many species.

Posted on September 30, 2022 02:39 PM by amyguggenberger amyguggenberger | 10 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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