Hemlock- Northern Hardwood Forests of the Watershed Center

Identification:
The Red-Backed Salamander is one of the most common salamanders in Vermont. The Red-Backed Salamander is super easy to find; they are black with a red stripe down the middle, some don’t have the red stripe but most do. Their bellies have black and white speckles. The salamander grows to five inches long.

Niche:
Energy Role
The Red-Backed Salamander is a consumer, because it eats other organisms to get its energy to live. The Red-Backed Salamander is a carnivore. The salamander’s diet consists of mites, spiders,insects, centipedes, millipedes, beetles, snails, ants, earthworms, flies, and larvae. The Red-Backed salamander isn’t very high in the food chain. Its known predators are, snakes, blue jays, American robins, American crows, raccoons, striped skunks, Virginia opossums, and large frogs.

Other Roles in the Ecosystem
Although the Red-Backed Salamander is a source of food to many other animals, it also plays another role in the ecosystem. The Red-Backed Salamander is a predator to invertebrates. Having the salamander in the ecosystem keeps the invertebrate populations under control. Keeping the insect population down helps us humans to be able to enjoy the outdoors without having to deal with an overload of pesky insects.
Sources:
http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Plethodon_cinereus/
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/red-backed_salamander.htm

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Fagus grandifolia, commonly known as American Beech or North American beech, is a species of beech tree. This is Latin for: Fagus, Beech; grandi, great; folia, leaves. It is native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario in southeastern Canada, west to Wisconsin and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida in the United States. Trees in the southern half of the range are sometimes distinguished as a variety, F. grandifolia var.... less ↑

Identification:
The Eastern Hemlock needles are dark green then silver on the bottom. The hemlock’s trunk is 1-3 feet in diameter. The Hemlock’s cones are ovoid shaped.The needles are 5/16 to 9/16 of an inch. The needles are attached with slender stalks and are flat rather than appearing spiral on the branch.

Niche:
Energy Role
The Eastern Hemlock is a producer. It takes the sun's energy and turns that energy into food for other organisms. White-tailed deer eat the vegetation of the tree (the leaves). Mammals like mice, voles, and squirrels, eat the seeds.The Eastern Hemlock also provides food for the Eastern Cottontail Rabbits; they may eat the twigs.

Sources:
http://www.nps.gov/shen/naturescience/eastern_hemlock.htm
http://www.kentuckyawake.org/Eastern_Hemlock less ↑

Identification:
The Eastern Newt/ Red Eft is different from the other organisms because it has five orange spots on each side of its back and its belly is yellow. When they are young they are orange but when they are fully grown they live in the water and are a dark brown and green color.

Niche:
Energy Role
The Red Eft Newt is a consumer, because its eats other organisms to get its energy. The red spotted newts feed on pin-head crickets and flightless fruit flies. They also eat small earthworms and the adults can eat the bigger earthworms. They are good for them.

Sources:
http://www.grizzlyrun.com/Pets/Amphibians/Newts/Red_Spotted_Newt/Default.htmaquarium pets, being either... less ↑

Identification:
The color of the red fox is very distinctive because of it’s bright reddish and orangish color. You can also identify a fox by its tracks. Its tracks looks different in comparison to a dog: a domesticated dog has an x shape in its paw whereas any wild dog doesn't have the x shape.

Energy Role:
The red fox is a consumer because it eats food to get its energy. Technically they are omnivores because they eat plants and animals. The foods they eat are insects, berries, rabbits,frogs,fish. These animals are currently not prey because the animals that eat them (mountain lions and wolves) aren't in this area anymore. The only predator left is hunters.

Other Roles In The Ecosystem:
They help keep the population of different animals in check. Their homes help different animals have homes like groundhogs and other animals. They also feed vultures and decomposers once they are dead.

Sorcus:
http://Wikipedia/wiki/Red_fox
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/red-fox/ less ↑

Identification:
Blackberries live on the sides of hills, are very black in color and live on a bush. Another way to identify it, is it is kind of oval and it lives like a hedge. Also, just like a strawberry, at the top of the fruit it has some leaves on top, but they are smaller.

Energy Role:
The energy role it has is that of a producer. It takes carbon dioxide, water and sun to make its food. This plant feeds a lot of animals like foxes, bears and other animals. The seeds are in the fruit the animals eat and when they poop they spread the seeds.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackberry less ↑

Identification:
The Spotted Salamander is different from other organisms because it has bright yellow spots that distinguish this secretive amphibian. Spotted Salamanders spend most of their lives hidden in dark, damp places.

Energy Role:
The spotted salamander is a consumer because it eats living things and that’s what gives it energy. Spotted salamanders eat mainly small insects when they first hatch. Adult salamanders use their sticky tongue to catch food. Their diet consists mainly of forest floor invertebrates, including earthworms, snails and slugs, millipedes, centipedes,spiders, and a wide variety of insects. They sometimes also eat smaller salamanders, such as the red-backed salamander.

Sources:
http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Ambystoma_maculatum/ less ↑

Identification:
The hobblebush is different from other organisms because it has round to heart-shaped leaves, and the flowers are white with five petals that grow in clusters. Their habitat is cool moist rocky woods and stream banks.

Niche
The hobblebush is a producer. Hobblebush is commonly present in the understory of northern hardwoods.

Sources:
https://www.google.com/search?q=is+a+hobble+bush+a+decomposer&oq=is+a+hobble+bush+a+decomposer&aqs=chrome..69i57.23875j0j8&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=what+does+a+decomposer+do+in+an+ecosystem
https://www.umaine.edu/mafes/elec_pubs/miscpubs/mp753.pdf less ↑

Identification:
The white pine's cones are long and narrow. The needles are in clusters of five. White pines are different from other pines because the needles are in clusters of five and the red and pitch pine needles are in clusters of three. The white pine's bark is dark with deep cracks in it.

Energy Role:
The white pine is a producer. Young White pines are eaten by white-tailed deer and eastern cottontails. Squirrels, eastern chipmunks, voles, and mice eat the pine needles. The black-capped chickadee, pine warbler, yellow-bellied sapsucker, and the white-breasted nuthatch all eat the seeds from the pine cones.

Sources:
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/eastern_white_pine.htm
http://www.google.com less ↑

Identification:
Wolf's milks is also commonly known as bubblegum fungus. It is a type of slime mold.

Energy Role:
Wolf's milk/ bubblegum fungus is a decomposer because it grows on rotting and dead logs.

http://www.easttennesseewildflowers.com/gallery/index.php/fungi less ↑

Identification:
Common species have between 36 to 400 legs. A rare species named illacme plenipes has up to 750 legs. There are approximately 12,000 named species. The longest species is the giant African millipede. Millipedes are circular and centipedes are flat.

Energy Role:
Millipedes are decomposers because they eat dead plant matter and decaying leaves. The millipede only eats decaying plant matter. less ↑

Identification:
The stock of the poison ivy is 2-5 feet tall. The leaves are about 4 cm. long and come in a set of 3. It is really similar to poison oak but the stock of poison oak is a little bigger than the poison ivy plant.

Energy Role:
The poison ivy plant is a producer. A lot of animals eat the plant like insects chew on the leaves and white-tailed deer and muskrat eat the plant. less ↑

Identification:
You can identify a gray treefrog by its size and color. It’s 1.6 - 2 inches (4-5cm) and the body is green and under the chin is gray. Cope’s gray treefrog is a species found in the U.S. The gray treefrog is most commonly found in northern America. It is smaller than other frogs like the bullfrog, which is a lot bigger than the gray treefrog. The american toad is also much bigger than gray treefrog. This show’s how you can identify the gray treefrog.

Energy Role:
The gray treefrog eats vegetation, small insects and spiders, mites, and snails. What eats the gray treefrog are skunks,opossums, raccoons and snakes. less ↑