bwyre3's Journal

A grashopper eating on something.

During my hike the habitat of the moist evergreen forests
I noticed that a lot of the species in this habitat adapt to its surrounding
Banana Slugs were present on my hike and they thrive in moist habitats aas the moist ever green.

The banana slugs are found around where they can blend in with other leaves.

There was also a big amount of fungi at this location which also adapted to the moist habitat.

Lastly, redwood trees were prominent in this habitat.

During my Spring Break, I traveled to southern California in Lancaster to the Lancaster Desert Preserve. At the preserve I came across a limited amount of plant and animal species. This area was not as diverse as species in the bay area. Species that are native to the area and that could be found in the preserve: joshua trees, creosote, California Juniper, desert shrubs rabbits/hares,coyotes, morning doves, squirrels quails, and crows. Unfortunately I was not able to get a snapshot of every specie at the preserve, but the ones that were available are pictured in the Journal.

Change in environment over time.
During my hike through parts of the Chaparral/ Mixed Evergreen Forest I noticed a change in the environment on the path. Unlike the climate during winter, the ground was not as hard/ frozen during the winter. There was much more green plants that have grown and many different flowers have grown. The trees and smaller plants had green leaves and there were blooming buds on plants.

A list of plants with 10 different characteristics.

One interesting thing that I did notice with my observations with comparing the environment I observed during winter is that many of the plants did not begin to sprout or bloom. A lot of the flowering plants that I observed for this assignment had bloomed their flowers.

Species interacting,

Squirrel eating a nut.

Bumble bee pollinating a flower

Bird eating an insect.

The plants that I came across had small leaves and many were not large plants, this could be due to them having to adapt to a cold and dry environment where their supply of water is not high.

My observations represent five different iconic taxa that connect to the tree of life. He higher I hiked up the fire trail, I came across a yellow banana slug (Mollusca) where the trail was more in a wet, moist and shaded area. At the beginning of the trail I came across wild turkey (Bird). I also observed a flowering tree (Plant) with yellow flowers. Under a log in a muddy puddle I came across an earthworm (Animal). In a much greener area in the grass, I came across several mushrooms (Fungi).

Towards the end of a my fire trail journey I came across a flowering plant that on one side of the plant magenta flowers grew and on the other side of the plant it was dormant with no flowers sprouting. My observations exemplify flowering and leaf phenology because with the flowering plant I observed there was a clear contrast between the dormant and flowered plants.