hzheng22's Journal

Ecosystem Assigned: Wetland Vernal Pool

At First Glance:
Even though it was only a span of a week, we saw some noticeable changes when we came back to the farm. Standing on top of the hill near the farmhouse, we could see the Red Maples beginning to show; the red was very noticeable from the distance. We also saw the willows starting to spread. Overall, there was a lot more green compared to the past two weeks, due to rising temperatures. It was also a lot drier than before, since it hadn’t rained too much before the trip, although walking through the field there were still places of wet mud that we had to step over.

Description of What’s Happening in BioCube (organisms found, anything changed, etc):
Looking in our BioCube, there was nothing different compared to last time. There were still a lot of leaves (some green, others brown, and some with a mixture of colors) most likely fallen from some of trees/bushes on the shoreline. There were also the branches that we placed in the BioCube, along with the yellowish brown under plants that continue to grow rapidly and dominate the area above the mud. We've noticed that these plants are also really sturdy and hard to cut. There was also green algae in the BioCube. Towards the end of our trip, when we were digging up our BioCube, we saw a water glider so we placed it inside a container to take back for further observation.

Description of What’s Happening in the Ecosystem/Nearby:
With the warmer weather, a lot of the plants/flowers are starting to bloom. The pussy willows have started to bloom, turning into a yellow color. Last time we didn’t see them, but this time we saw red flowers blooming along the shoreline of the vernal ponds, as well as others. The pond itself looks like it has expanded, especially with the rising water levels because of previous rain and the incoming Spring season. The vernal pool ecosystem on FoxCroft Farm is composed of three to four ponds that are linked together by small narrow streams of water. Before, the ponds were very small, but now the rising water has led to the formation of bigger ponds across the ecosystem. Besides the increasing amount of green and rise in water level, there was also an overall increase in the amount of life that we observed.

Observation of Organisms (New/Old) Found in Vernal Pool (New and Old):
We found the usual plants like the pussy willows and the milkweeds, but we also found new organisms.
Red flowers blooming on trees on the shoreline of the vernal ponds (multiple stenum).
Sea slugs. We found one just when we were about to leave on some leaves on the edge of the vernal pool.
Red berries (recently bloomed). We took off a branch and took a picture of it against a white background.
Sea snails. There were multiple in some in the vernal ponds further north (closer to the forest area). At first they looked like rocks, but upon closer inspection there was a distinctive shape because their shells look like cones. We managed to get some of the bigger snails and let the smaller ones go. They don’t come out at first, but if you leave them in the container with some water, they eventually will come out and start moving.
A mass amount of spiders. Just some light digging or moving our boots around will unveil several spiders (most likely the organisms Dolomedes triton indicative by the white spots on their back. Most of the spiders were small, but some of them were larger. We captured a lot of them and placed them inside one container. We wanted to see how they would interact. At first we thought that some of them might be mating, but upon longer observation it may be possible that all the spiders are male and are therefore fighting. At one point, many of the smaller spiders seemed to be working together to take down one of the larger spiders, causing it to lose one of their legs.
A large spider that is not the same species as the Dolomedes triton. This spider had no white spots and has an extremely fuzzy body and legs.
Water glider. It was the only one we found, and it only revealed itself when we were digging up our BioCube area.
Several kinds of flies, but they were often really small and constantly moving, so no pictures could be taken.
A water worm. We almost overlooked it because it was curled on itself, but when we left it on the lid of a container, it slowly uncurled and started to move around.
Pine cones. They were not there when we came last time. It seems like they most recently grew because of their very small size.
Water beetles. There were so many of them this time. Every time I stepped in the vernal pool, a lot of them (most of them were small, but some were really big) revealed themselves.
At one point we found a beetle that was really small but it was a metallic green color. We were not able to capture it to take back.

15 Minutes of Silence:
The 15 minutes of silence this time was very similar to the one from last week. There was a little more wind. There was also the sound of the water rippling, the grass rustling, the branches and plants rustling and of leaves falling into the water. We heard a plane go by at some point during this duration. We also heard cries of joy(?) and amazement, once from the swamp area and once from the forest area. It was mildly sunny with minor winds, but the warm temperature made up for it. We heard bird calls again, but this time one stood out more so than the others. It was really obnoxious just because of the volume and the continuous noise (it didn’t stop for a long time unlike some of the other birds).

Digging up the BioCube:
We had two group members who were willing to get a little dirty and muddy dig up the BioCube. We wanted to take as much of it as possible, with as much diversity as possible. Therefore, we dug up a lot of the mud and made sure to include some of the water as well. We also took some of the green algae and plants underneath, as well as the leaves and anything else that may have been in the BioCube at the time of digging (or close enough to the BioCube). It was when we were digging that we came across a water strider, which we captured and placed inside a smaller container.

Other Observations:
The best way to find new organisms and collect them is to just dig around or move around in the water to disturb the mud before ceasing all movements. Usually, the organisms that are present will naturally float up to the top of the water. This is how I usually found my spider and beetle samples. This time around, we even managed to find water snails using this method. All our other samples were also caught using this method, such as the worm. We stood there and waited, and sometimes used a branch or net to move the water/mud around a little more.
One the shore of the vernal pool, there were many plants and bushes that had thorns. We were really careful around these areas because they hurt if they snag on. Along the shore we also noticed small dirt mounds with small holes. We thought this was indicative a new digging organisms we could discover, so we dug in. In the end, we couldn’t find the organisms/source that created the holes.

Next Steps:
The next part of our journey into understanding field biology is to take the container with a part of our ecosystem and slowly go through everything and analyze. Our hope is that in the mud, water, plants or branches we’ve collected we can find more organisms (that were hiding) or learn something new about our ecosystem. We also want to take a closer look at the organisms we collected in the Tupperware containers. I am personally really excited to see the spiders (Dolomedes triton) and sea snails (Tritia obsoleta) I collected up close.

Ecosystem Assigned: Wetland Vernal Pool

Physical Description of BioCube Placement:
The BioCube was originally moved from where we placed it in one of the smaller pools. The place where we originally placed our Cube has been taken by the vernal pool team from Tuesday’s lab group. Our BioCube now situates an area further up north in one of the bigger pools that we thought would have more biodiversity. It is near the base of a tree/plant with sturdy branches and roots in the water. There are a lot of branches and leaves in the BioCube, as well as other plant species. It was also placed in a location where we believed it would receive equal amounts of shade and sunlight, which would therefore attract a more diverse number of organisms to the BioCube.

Description of What’s Happening in BioCube (organisms found, anything changed, etc):
We placed the BioCube in the place that we did last week, and this time when we came back we did not see anything noticeable change. The BioCube still contains a variety of branches, plants, and leaves. However, there were no insects or amphibians as our research had led us to believe. However, it is possible that although there was nothing in the BioCube when we go there, organisms have been in the BioCube but have left. Some insects, as I have observed, move very quickly in the wetland vernal pool ecosystem. It is also possible that we have not seen anything because the temperature is still low and the weather is not ideal for these organisms to come out from their hiding places. Eventually, we will dig up the BioCube and take the sample of plants and mud back with us to the lab for further examination and analysis. Hopefully, this will tell us more about the real estimation of biodiversity in the vernal pool.

Description of What’s Happening in the Ecosystem/Nearby:
Nothing has changed much from when we came to the vernal pool last week. However, what was noticeable was that the weather was much more warmer, and this time we were able to capture a larger diversity of organisms. Also, we observed that the water level has risen by at least a centimeter, most likely due to the recent rainfall and the transition into spring. Some of the pools that had looked smaller last week look bigger now because more water has filled up the ponds. Instead of there being two small pools, there now seems to be several larger pools all connected by thin, narrow streams of water between them. Although the risen water level made navigating the pool more difficult, it gave us more places to explore and will hopefully reveal more biodiversity as well.

Organisms Found in Vernal Pool:
Unlike last time, when the weather was no ideal for field work in the wetland vernal pools (the ponds weren’t even really filled at the point), we found a lot more organisms. For instance, here are some organisms we found (generally speaking)

• We saw some of the same plants from last time, but for instance, the goat willows now sport yellow catkins rather than just white.

• We found the remains of dead plants, that were dried up, but we had not encountered them last time so we put some in our Tupperware to take back for more analysis.
  Saw several kinds of insects flying around, but a lot of time they did not land and they moved too quickly to take a close and detailed picture.

• We found several spiders, but we were unsure if they were the same species of spiders. One spider we caught in a Tupperware container was almost the size of a quarter, dark in color with white circle/dots on its back. We also found two smaller spider (not sure if they are the same species as the first big one), who had hairy legs and lighter coloring on its back (surrounded by darker colors).
• We found several bugs (both small and big) that were dark and possessed hard shells. They curled up (bringing in their legs) when we moved them too much. Perhaps this is a defense mechanism because by curling up they are protecting themselves using their hard shell.
• Beyond that, there seem to be even more plants and algae in the vernal pool. We had to dig deep and slice through the plants under the water to get to the mud. Sometimes it was hard to pull the plants because they seem to have adapted to living in the pool, and can therefore utilize the resources in the ecosystem to survive and advance. Their hard roots made them hard to remove, and many times we had to pull hard to get them out of the water.

15 Minutes of Silence:
Due to the lack of high wind, I was able to hear a lot more activity this time. There was the constant sound of birds in the back, a lot of which came from the deciduous forest and coniferous forest ecosystem area. A lot of times there were different bird sounds; sometimes they would all chirp at once and other times it sounded almost like they took turns. Therefore, I was exposed to a lot of different bird calls. I heard the wind rustling the grass, flapping of birds that flew overhead, the crunch of the grass as my group members walked around, the rippling of the water, the branches rustling, and other human activity in the direction of the swamp area.

Other Observations:
I noticed that while I was trying to find organisms in the water, there were not a lot on the surface of the water that you can see right away. I believe that the best way to catch specimen in this ecosystem is to stay still. Often times when I stayed still and didn’t move, flying insects would come near the pool and I could see them. They never landed (just continued to fly around), so I could not take detailed pictures. Other times I waded into the pool and situated myself in different areas and waited. Sometimes, insects like spiders and beetles would naturally be attracted to the color of my black rain boots and come towards me. This was how I manage to collect most of my insect specimen this time. Other times I had to dig around in the mud and push aside all the plants so that new organisms would either come to the surface or I would move something that would reveal their location. I also believe that a lot more biodiversity is present because often I would spot movement (such as insects flying) but they would disappear so quickly that I could not catch them/take pictures.

What to Do For Next Time:
I hope that next week the weather will be even warmer. I believe that rising water levels and better weather will make some of the organisms more willing to come out so we can either take pictures or collect them as samples. Although the second week yield more results compared to the first week, it was still lacking. Perhaps we can even see some tadpoles! Wetland vernal pools contain a lot of biodiversity, and we’ve barely scratched the surface because of constraints like weather, wind, the overgrowing plants, and the lack of tools for better digging.
One thing I definitely want to do is get better tools, perhaps a sharper knife/shovel, in order to cut through the thick foliage of plants at the bottom of the pool. The plants are strong and require sharp tools or more power in order to rip them out from the mud. By doing this, it makes it easier to access the mud at the bottom of the pool, which is where a lot of organisms are hiding. I was afraid to dig really deeply because I didn’t want to destroy any habitats or harm any organisms, but I believe that digging deeper will reveal more species.