Blog Post #5: Fungi Field Trip Makeup

·         Photo, name, and description of location that you visited

         

I went to Martha Lake Park within the Lynnwood area. It is a lakefront park which has playgrounds, fishing docks, picnic areas and boardwalks through wetlands. As you get closer to the water the ground becomes muddier. The park contains many trees and bushes.

·         Description and identification (your best guess) of each of the 3 organisms

·         Figure 1: moss and lichen found on decaying tree stump. Possibly Flavoparmelia caperata, Flavopunctelia soredica, and Dicranella heteromalla

         

·         Figure 2: Moss found on tree trunk of living tree. Possibly Hair cap moss

Lichen thrive in sites where nothing else grows. They can grow on rocks, barren soil and the bark of dead or live trees. Lichen are not parasitic when they grow on trees. Lichen are able to do nitrogen fixation. Lichen are indicators of a trees age.

Moss are photoautotrophs that photosynthesizes and reduces CO­­­₂ in the environment. ­Moss is able to protect the surface of the ground by provide a cushion during sever weather which reduces soil erosion. The disappearance of mosses can be considered bioindicators for the level of pollution in the environment.

Figure 3: Heron

Herons live near sources of water, including rivers, lake edges, marshes, saltwater seacoasts, and swamps. They require tall trees near water to nest in. Herons eat a wide variety of small prey, mainly fish and insects. Herons control fish and insect populations in many different habitats. They are also an importance source of food for the animals that prey on them.

Figure 4: Ducks and water lilies

Ducks are normally found in places with water, like pons, streams, lakes, and rivers. Ducks are omnivores, they tend to feed on fruits, seeds, plants, insects and fish

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Water lilies are found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and other shallow-water habitats. It photosynthesizes by floating its leaves upon the waters surface and reduces CO₂ from the environment. However water lilies are less abundant than moss/lichen due to the specific conditions it must have to grow.

Questions: 

·         Did you learn something about fungi or plants that surprised you?

• Something I learned that interested me was that lichen are an indicator of

·         Reflection: What was something that you observed on the fungi field trip? What was something you learned?

•  I observed that moss can be specific about the species of tree they grow on. There were a lot of tree growing next to each other however even though they were in the same location and near water, some trees grew moss while some trees next to it didn't.

·         Write at least 3 scientific questions based on your observation.

• Why did some trees grow moss/lichen and others didn’t, even though they were near water?
• How accurate is it to use lichen to predict the age of a tree? Don’t individual lichen of the same species grow at different rates?
• Is the side of the stump in Figure 1 brown rot, from fungi chewing through the tree’s dead wood?

·         Write 1 hypothesis based on the questions above.

If the stump is decaying by brown rot fungi it will typically be brown in color and the decay will look crumbly, chipped and blocky.