Second Foxcroft Farm Adventure (4/11/19)
The Swamp team had a somewhat less successful trip this week. Let's dive in:
The weather was a little bit colder than the previous week. The sun was out, however, and there was still a lot of wind that felt really nice and refreshing. It's always great to get outside of UMass and head into nature for a few hours. Upon arrival to the swamp, we noticed that the area we had placed our biocube was covered with a thin layer of ice. This was saddening because we thought it meant that we wouldn't see many organisms in the water. As we go to find our biocube, we were surprised to find that it had been completely destructed. We had secured our biocube on a branch last week so we were shocked that not only was the biocube no longer secured, it was broken apart. There were bend marks in the biocube metal poles with marks that could look like teeth indents. Also, some of the green paint had fallen off. These signs point to the idea that something had attacked the biocube. Margaret Riley, our professor and owner of Foxcroft Farm, suggested that it could have been in a snapping turtle. During my research of the swamp food chain, I did read that snapping turtles can be found in swamps so this may be a likely explanation. We will build another cube and place it in the same location. Perhaps we will be able to set up a camera to see if the same organism comes to destroy our biocube again.
Our group took another 15 minutes of silence in our swamp this week. It was very nice to be still and listen to the surroundings. I find that being in nature really clears my head and diminishes most of my problems. I heard so many different bird calls. I felt like I was eavesdropping on conversations between a few different species. The calls were so distinct and loud. I remember myself thinking about how it makes sense for them to have such powerful calls which can be heard by other birds over large distances. I heard the wind moving the branches of the trees which made a hollow cracking sound. I heard the straw-like grass flowing in the wind and brushing up against other grass. I did not hear any water splashing from organisms coming to the surface. I heard a duck fly into the water on the other side of the swamp, quacking as it swam around probably in search of food.
Our ecosystem looked pretty similar to last week. The skunk cabbage that grows around the swamp turned a more green color rather than the purple color we had seen the previous week. We also saw many different types of mosses which we had not noticed earlier. There was still a strong, earthy smell of mud around our ecosystem. It smelled like nature-- it was great. I noticed some spiders crawling around in the grass. There were small, white insects flying that would occasionally land on the surface of the water. As I pulled the straw-like yellow grass apart, I saw new green blades growing in. This makes me think that the yellow color of the grass means the plant is dead. As we were unable to find any organisms swimming in the color water, we started using our nets to collect samples from the bottom of the water. This method was very effective. We were able to find a lot of different types of bugs that we hope to catalog and identify later after they die in the container we put them in. Sadly, we did not find any frogs or crayfish this week.
The swamp team had a great time out in the field this week. Only one person fell in this time. Hopefully as the weather continues to get warmer, more organisms will come out and start to swim in the swamp water rather than hiding in the mud at the bottom. Looking forward to our next adventure!
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