Diario de hernikaabo

I did this nature walk around the reservoir. It was lightly raining when I did it and it was also getting dark as I was finishing the walk. I tried to find all four types of plants but I could not find any ferns (Polypodiopsida). I was expecting to be able to find ferns but I looked my hardest and could not see any. I was able to get the three other groups, Bryophyta, Gymnosperms, and Angiosperms. I even saw the small pine cones that Professor Olins talked about that disperse the pollen in pine trees. I found some plants with fruits and flowers which definitely belonged to the Angiosperm group. I saw some pine trees, which were somewhat hard to capture because they were big, but those belonged to the gymnosperm group. I did not see a lot of mosses but I observed one patch of moss which is part of the Bryophyta group. I also ran into a group of geese that were standing on the path and I snapped a picture while walking by.

I was back in my hometown for a couple of days and I met up with one of my friends from high school who I haven't seen since the year started and we decided to do the nature walk behind our old middle school in a conservation wetland. We did it at night so we had head lamps and used our flashlights to find any interesting fungi or animals. It was also foggy so it gave a cool and sort of creepy atmosphere to the walk. I tried to make most of my observations fungus related but I couldn't help but catch a picture of the salamander because it was very cute and the frog because I like frogs. There were a lot of different fungi in the woods, and we didn't have much trouble finding them because some were bright colored. Most of them grew out of the ground but a couple of the ones we found were rooted in both dead and living trees. Something I found that relates to the class material is the variance we saw within species. Some mushrooms of the same species had varying size and color. This genetic diversity helps species be able to react to any chance events/selective pressures that may threaten the species. Diversity makes it likely that some individuals will have the ability to survive. We also came across a pond that had a small island in the middle and on that island were only one type of fungi (my phone couldn't get a picture of it so it is not in the observation) and we struggled to find similar looking fungi on the rest of our walk. This reminded me of allopatric speciation and how geographic barriers (the pond) allow a fungus that maybe would get outcompeted in other places to survive and form a population on the island. It is unlikely that the fungi species is actually only present on the small island but I just thought that it was a funny small scale example of geographic barriers.

On Saturday September 23 I went on a nature walk near my home. The area is a trail that loops around a conservation wetland. When I went on the walk it had rained the previous day, so the ground was wet and the air was humid but luckily it did not rain while I was walking. I saw a sign that said the beavers have caused some flooding to the trails so there was a device put in that safely allowed water to flow out of the pond without harming or even confusing the beavers. This allowed for easier conservation of the wetland without any effect on the beavers. I thought that was a little funny to see because it shows how humans can have a positive role on an ecosystem. I did not see any beavers on the walk but I came across one of the dams they had built. Overall I really enjoyed going on the nature walk. Not only was it nice to get out and breathe the fresh air and clear my mind, but I also found it really fun to explore off the paths looking for signs of life or cool looking plants.