Biology Lab 4/18 Journal
Biology Lab 3 Journal
Scott Huang
-Today, we dug out all the materials that were inside our BioCube, which was still at the same location as before (half submerged in water, half in air, covered with branches). While pulling out the water, soil, and mud, we didn’t seem to see any new organisms. It just looked like the same detritus as we had seen before. However, we hope to see some more biodiversity in our next lab, where we look more in depth on what we captured.
-While looking through the BioCube during this lab period, we still didn’t see any organisms move through it.
-Today, the weather forecast was showers, with a light rain followed by a more heavier rain and ending the day with a lighter rain.
-During this lab period, I heard even more bird calls around the area. I could hear many types of bird calls. Some were short and repeated a lot while others lingered for a while.
-I remember hearing one duck/geese call that sounded very annoying and was repeating a lot.
-More birds were seen flying and landing on the trees near the vernal pool, but they were still too far away from where I was and thus too hard to take any clear photos.
-Saw a vulture fly above the vernal pool area.
-Saw and heard and plane fly by.
-While not as windy as before, there were still times of hearing wind blowing
-Saw 2 deers running along the outskirts of the vernal pool and nearish the forest area. One was following the other as they ran from the left to right of the field (left to right as in going from where the cars were parked to where the house is on the farm)
-Still heard a mechanical roar in the distance.
-Heard the crunch of the hay below my feet as I walked / other people walked.
-Heard the sound of rain hitting onto the vernal pool water.
-This time, when jumping over to the other side of the vernal pool, I was able to go to the other side without getting my boots wet. I did this by jumping the vernal pool at the area more near the forest. However, when jumping back, I got all of my right boot wet, as I tried to jump too wide of a vernal pool area. The boots I’m wearing are a pair of a pair of Timberlands that reach to the top of my ankles.
-This time, I was able to notice the bell rings at 9 and 10 o’clock.
-While walking, I found a deep little tunnel within the hay-covered ground. I tried to poke a stick into it but all I felt was the soil. I wonder what animal could have made that hole. The hole was about as wide as my leg.
-The water was still cold enough that the ice seen from last lab was still there with the algae on top of it.
-While we thought that the rain might encourage more amphibians to pop their heads out and let us see them, we still couldn’t find those animals.
-There were still an abundant number of spiders that traveled across the hay-covered ground,
-This time we were able to find many more water spiders, with one of our group members finding a big clump of spiders all balled up together. We had no idea why they were in this formation.
-Meanwhile, towards the end of the lab, we also found a land spider that was bigger and looked different from the regular spiders that crossed the ground. It was big enough that the phone could actually capture how furry it was and the different coloration patterns of brown and black on the spider.
-When one of our group members picked up their jacket from the ground, they were able to find a snail attached onto the backside of their jacket. The snail was about the size of my fingertip or a bit smaller.
-While walking along the vernal pool, I still constantly pricked by the thorns that grew from some of the plants. These thorns also caused some trouble when I tried to move into new areas new the vernal pool, as the thorns acted like a barrier to prevent me from entering deeper into some parts of the environment. Each thorn was about on average 1 cm long.
-This time, I paid much more attention to the quality of the images taken and tried to make sure most of the images were crisp.
-Again, using the white cardboard paper as a backdrop helped with making clearer pictures. When I was away from the white cardboard paper, I simply placed my hand or jacket near the specimen I wanted to take a photo and it still helped with the camera not focusing on the background. Though if I was too uncareful and placed my hand too far away from the specimen, the camera would focus on the jacket and not on the plant.
-Near the vernal pool are two big mounds of hay and sticks stacked up on each other. This mound is sturdy enough to stand on and not break apart. Both mounds were taller than me. While Peg told us that animals usually inhabit these mounds, we tried to peek inside but couldn’t find anything. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time / temperature for those animals to come out yet.
-Like the last lab, we really only saw the most biodiversity while examining the plants that grew around the pool. While we won’t expect to see any amphibians within our BioCube withdrawal, I hope that we get a pleasant surprise and not just nothing when examining it in our next lab.
-It was also not too cold during this lab, allowing us to better navigate through the vernal pool and try to find new organisms.
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