Habitat trips

For my habitat trip I went on Saturdays field trip to the Berkeley Marina and took some observations at a grassland ecosystem and then a salt marsh ecosystem.

Grassland: Growing on top of 12 feet of garbage (It's an old dump site on the western side of Berkeley) this grassland is relatively new.. Some things I saw there were: California Poppy, tall grass, Coyote Brush, some Willows, Long Beaked Storks Bill, Sage, Blue eyed grass, Wild Radish, Poison Hemlock...Among others. It was interesting to observe the grasslands and the areas where it was obviously more saturated with water (lower elevation possibly), as plants became more green and fertile looking (Ex: I saw some type of happy looking ivy). Since this "grassland" is built on an old dump, my guess is that the plants growing here are some of the stronger and more durable and invasive plants we have around this area. A lot of the grasses looked to be of the same species and the most prominent plants were definitely the Coyote Brush and the tall grasses.

Salt Marsh: It was a semi low tide where we were by the water so we got to see some fun little critters! We saw: Pickleweed, Isopods, a Jellyfish, barnacles, salt grass, three different types of crabs, and an array of birds. Some things that stood out to me are all the insects that live in the rocks (Arthropods and Isopods). It must be a good place for them to anchor as the tides change. The pickleweed plant seemed to be more thick and dense then other plants in the grassland as well, my guess is that it's because it has to be more salt tolerant. This area definitely seemed to be an ecosystem for a lot of little critters looking to maintain life. The birds definitely enjoy this area, I imagine they get a lot of food from jellyfish, fish, crabs and mussels too!

Posted on March 2, 2014 01:24 AM by marceairene