BioCube Week 2 Observations
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.
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