viernes, 21 de agosto de 2020

Neighborhood Weeds

From the perspective of wildlife human civilization can best be described as disturbance. Civilization creates disturbances everywhere, and thus cities and suburbs are perfect environments for R strategists species. Therefore, the weeds in one’s neighborhood are perfect for understanding the early stages of plant succession.
I have observed 96 species of neighborhood weeds in my area. Through observation and reading I have noticed that these plants seem to fall into different levels of succession and tolerances to different stresses and that these plants can and do fall into multiple levels of different categories. Multiplying these different levels together gives you the number of permutations of possible successional plants in the area, and thus the minimal potential species richness of successional plants in the area. I have observed 5 levels of succession, 2 levels of tolerances to compacted soils, 3 levels of tolerances to shade, 4 levels of pH tolerances, 4 levels of tolerances to different of water conditions, 3 levels of tolerances to lack of nitrogen, 2 levels of tolerances to lack of phosphorus, and 2 levels of tolerances to lack of potassium. This gives us 1,920 permutations of succession plant species for this area.

Publicado el viernes, 21 de agosto de 2020 a las 02:45 AM por jhb1212 jhb1212 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

sábado, 22 de febrero de 2020

Seeing lots of Deadnettles

I have been observing how common deadnettles (Lamium) particularly henbit deadnettle (Lamium amplexicaulo) but also red deadnettle (Lamiu purpureum). What I have not been observing are nettles (Utrica). This is significant because deadnettles are nettle mimics. Now mimicry only works when the species being mimicked are plentiful which makes me wounder, why deadnettles don't seem to suffer from a lot of herbivory. If any has any answers please let me know.

Publicado el sábado, 22 de febrero de 2020 a las 08:28 PM por jhb1212 jhb1212 | 5 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

sábado, 07 de diciembre de 2019

Initial Comparison between Iroquois Park and Creason Park

Now it's late autumn and effectively winter so spring and summer observations have a significant chance of changing my mind. Iroquois Park seems have more species richness but that is mostly because it is larger than Creason Park and has a higher diversity of habitats. However, the diversity of Creason Park's forest habitat is does seem to be greater when the area that is compared to the area compared to Iroquois Park.

Publicado el sábado, 07 de diciembre de 2019 a las 09:24 PM por jhb1212 jhb1212 | 61 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

lunes, 02 de diciembre de 2019

Gravestone Lichens and Mosses at Cave Hill Cemetery

Lichens and Mosses are so unrelated to each other that they are not in the same kingdom. However, they do have somewhat similar ecological niches. Both can be found growing on rocks and bark. However mosses grow faster, reproduce faster, need less light, and need more water and nutrients. Both lichens and mosses can be found growing on gravestones in Cave Hill Cemetery. Mosses are found in wetter shadier areas of gravestones than lichens. I've only been able to identify one species of moss growing on gravestones, however mosses are hard to identify. I've identified two genera of lichen (I can't be sure of species). Those genera are Candelaria and Physcia. Candelaria is more common and seems to grow in wetter shadier areas than Physcia, but does not need nearly as water and shade as mosses. This is the pattern that I've associated with the gravestones at Cave Hill Cemetery so are. Please let me know if you have other insights or if there is something I got wrong.

Publicado el lunes, 02 de diciembre de 2019 a las 12:25 AM por jhb1212 jhb1212 | 3 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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