Diario de gepetrick

For my second nature walk, I explored the pine tree preserve on campus. This area was filled with various wildlife, including pine trees, ferns, and chipmunks. However, it was a bit more difficult to find different fungi in this area. I explored the area for about thirty minutes on Wednesday so the weather was dreary and rainy making the experience less pleasant. Something that surprised me as I explored was the variety of fungi. As we learned in class, fungi emerged around 440 Ma and since then they have evolved to adopt various forms. An example of this is how the Marasmus capillaries I observed are not visually similar to the Rock green shield lichen. Just like in my last nature walk, I continue to be surprised by what vast diversity exists in such small spaces.

For this week's nature walk, I explored the Chestnut Hill Reservoir by myself. I walked around the res this past Sunday. It was a beautiful morning and abnormally warm for mid-October. I got to observe the vibrant, diverse colors of the leaves. I also noted how some of the trees were completely transformed, with all their leaves displaying a variation of red, orange, and yellow colors. While the leaves of other trees had not begun or had just begun to change color. As discussed in class, although many trees may look similar in terms of shape, size, and color they likely evolved from two different ancestors. These similarities may be due to convergent evolution meaning that the different species adapted similar traits due to the ecological benefits that they provide. It is also interesting to notice that some of these plants look very different - some are short with needles while others are tall with more traditional leaves, despite existing in the same environment - the reservoir.