Week 4

This journal entry will be from my observation experiences last weekend on the Olympic Peninsula. My class traveled to Lake Crescent for a field trip and stayed at the environmental education institute Nature Bridge on Barnes Point. 

The Vashon ice sheet created the extremely deep lake: 1000 feet deep! We witnessed the epitome of ecosystem function-- biotic interactions with non-living organisms and the flows/fluxes of energy and material. Structure, function, and composition are the foundations of these forests. Below is an incomplete list of the organisms I was able to witness (or learn about) while on the trip:

Roosevelt Elk

Barrow's Goldeneye

Red-breasted Sap Sucker

Raven

Douglas Squirrel

Trillium

Vanilla leaf

Stair step moss

Manzanita

Bleeding heart

Twin flower

Prince's pine

Native blackberry

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)

Grand fir (Abies grandis)

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)

Western red cedar (Thuja plicata)

Deer Fern

Lady Fern

Sword Fern

Bracken Fern

Licorice Fern

Red Alder (Alnus rubra)

Salal

Snowberry

Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)

Big-leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum with epiphytic mosses)

Oregon grape 

Madrone (Arbutus meziesii)

Vine maple

False lily of the valley

Devil's club

Elderberry

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)

Indian Plum

I did some observation while sitting on a downed log (and a journal entry) down by the river on Saturday afternoon:

Date: April 27, 2013

Weather: Partly sunny with occasional drizzle

Temperature: ~ 50 degrees F

Time: 5:00 pm

Location: Barnes Point, Olympic Peninsula

I can observe about a dozen plants species all around me-- plant identification is much easier with practice! I find myself excited at the prospect of identifying the vegetation around me because it adds layers to my connection with nature. Appreciation is the most superficial level, and delving deeper into identification helps me feel an even stronger sense of stewardship and 'belonging.' There is a rushing stream straight ahead, and I listen to its flow while pondering the role of facilitation, competition, disturbance, and predation in this small subset of the ecosystem.

Facilitation:

Nitrogen fixation and symbiotic relationships (mosses and trees, myccorizae, fungi)

Downed nurse logs and course woody debris

Nutrient cycling and sharing

Riparian interactions with plants

Pollination

Competition:

Trees/plants for sunlight, canopy space, resources, water, nutrients

Seedlings with brushy shrubs

Ferns being shaded nearby, are they dead?

Do different species compete for the same resources?

Disturbance:

Fire, Wind

Tourists

Course woody debris falling on understory (tree death)

Erosion

Climate Change

Predation:

Herbivores (elk, squirrel, others?)

Do symbiotic relationships count? (Ex. mosses feeding on photosynthetic material of a tree)

Insects, Bacteria, Fungi

Douglas Fir

Grand Fir

Vanilla Leaf

Trillium

Indian Plum

False lily of the valley

Sword Fern

Salmonberry