June 5, 2012

Journal Entry 19

5/12/12 and 5/15/12

Location(s): UW campus and home (about 25 miles north)

It’s both interesting and sad to see what I miss everyday walking by some of the places and never notice. For example, there are a variety of beautiful trees, especially a particular madrone, that I pass by and never really appreciate. These plants help build the campus environment, but with so much focused on classes, one misses the little things. The English Ivy, which I found a lot of, I probably would not miss as much because it is everywhere. However, I notice that the Ivy can be found crawling up the sides of many buildings! This adds to the buildings’ beauty, but Ivy is still invasive. There were also a few duck wandering around the grass by Drumheller fountain eating and enjoying the sunny day. They were mostly male mallards, with a few females. Cedar, Douglas Fir, and Elm trees were also in the areas underneath and on either side of the fountain, (the areas surrounding the grass field south of the fountain).

Home: One day while in my back yard, my family noticed something caught in the netting of one of our ponds. This turned out to be a rather large garter snake! It was rather calm as I handled it to free it, and even stuck around awhile in the sun on a rock after it’s release. It was mostly black, but had some pale cyan-like markings. This snake was either very health or older because it was about 2 feet long (possible longer) which is on the large scale of the garter snakes I have seen in the area. Also found, in the other pond, was a frog. He had reddish brown skin and little black and dark brown splotches all over. Underneath was a pale yellowish green and red around the legs. I have never seen tadpoles in either of my ponds so I can only figure he comes from the stream in the nature preserve. A long hope for such a small creature, it’s amazing the distances they can travel, and the metamorphosis they go through.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:29 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 1 comment | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 18

Location: Union Bay Natural Area

Weather: Cloudy, probably about 80% cloud cover, but fairy warm. About 60 degrees or low 60s. It had rained early in the morning, but by the time I was out their around mid afternoon, most of the area had dried out.

I had recently researched and learned about the Union bay Natural Area. Although I already knew that the area used to be used for as a waste dump, it is still remarkable to see the transformation and how many animals make it their home.

I noticed a tall purple flowered plant along the side of the gravel road that I did not recognize, but does not look domestic. It was fairy tall, about 2 feet tall. I also saw a small pea like plant, all of which I did not know on the spot. However, there were many familiar plants including birch, dandelion, and cattails. I made note that most of the taller trees were in clusters around the area instead of consistent throughout the area. Most of the area is wetland and grassy. A perfect area for swallows! Which is exactly what I saw. They have amazing agility and will often feed on flying insects in the air. I saw barn swallows, which were quite visible due to their orange bellies and dark blue backs. I was doing some work for my tour my group was suppose to lead. I also saw Violet-green swallow, which I did not realize until looking through photos and identifying the different birds later. The have white bellies and a fairy green back, though the color is fairly dark.

Among some of my favorite birds I saw and heard that day were the red-winged blackbirds. The males were clearly a deep black with red patch on their wings and a yellow stripe underneath each red patch. The have a very fluty call, though they have multiple calls which can differ greatly. I didn’t realize it until the end of my excursion, but the darker, slightly smaller birds flying around the red-winged blackbirds were the females. This is an example of sexual dimorphism. There were many crows in the area and both the crows and red-winged blackbirds were aggressive with each other, which was not surprising as both species are aggressive over their territories.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:09 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 17

5/15/12

Location: Classroom

Weather: Not applicable as we were inside the entire time.

Mammals! I found this lecture interesting because the only mammals found on campus are squirrels. However, much was learned. Curators of museums are in charge of the things at the museums.

Mammals and birds showed up later than most of the other life organisms. About half of all vertebrate on earth are fish! Something that distinguishes mammals from other vertebrate organisms are the three middle ear bones that they have and teeth can be a good way to tell them apart as well. There are 29 different orders of mammals with about 15,400 species in North America. However, in Washington there are only 9 of the 29 orders. There are many taxa that were here, but are now extinct due to human influence or natural occurrences in time. There are 146 species in Washington, 137 of which are native species (32 are marine and 15 are flying). 90 species are native land mammals. I am curious as to which mammal species are non-native here. One time, during summer in the morning, I was on campus and saw a raccoon, and I would be curious to know if raccoons have been found around campus or if that was unusual.

If there had been the time and money for it, would have been fun to go to Northwest trek and actually see the mammals that can be found in the Pacific Northwest and learn more detail about them.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:08 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 16

Location: Southern Beach in Edmonds. Along the coast and also around the jetties and grassy fields surrounding the beach.

Weather: They weather was sunny and warm with only about 10% cloud cover, however, by the beach it was cooler and fairly windy as expected around beaches.

Immediately I thought that plants near or on the beach must be able to survive storm surges and harsh winds in order to continue to survive. As I walked up to the beach, I recognized the scotch broom right away that was in various cluster of a few other plants near the grass fields by the beach. It was not directly on the beach. A few other plants I found however, that were more directly located on the beach were the Beach pea, and dunegrass. The dunegrass was found around the numerous logs on the beach. Sand does not provide a lot of nutrients, at least not that I’ve ever known or heard, so these must be fairly sturdy plants to grow here.

The sea plants and marine life are also important to the natural history of the Puget Sound and I thought it would be different to look at some of those species and what I could find. I did not know what the species were but now know that I found rock weed, red spaghetti, and bull kelp. The red Spaghetti was the most interesting as it was thin and long. I also found thatched barnacles and white I think were green anemones, but because I found them hanging out in the tide pools, were more clear colored. They were all small, ranging from the size of a dime to the size of a silver dollar. When I moved rocks around or touched them many closed up, which was entertaining to watch. By moving rocks around I found many shore crabs (only one of which let me get a picture of it), and zebra mussels. After researching more on the mussels, I found that zebra mussels are actually invasive.

The fun thing, and interesting about marine and sea life is that it all looks like it’s from a completely different world, and there is a lot we still do not know about the underwater world. I wonder if anyone has started a naturalist journal or species log for all the aquatic species that exist. Do people go diving and when they return to land and record species they saw? Also, when looking around the beach and across the water to other islands, it is interesting to think about the large glacier that once covered the area giving it it’s shape. So much has developed since then that now so many species thrive of this area. Food for thought.

Some animals (besides the mussels, crabs, and sea anemone were found as well including the western gull, the rock pigeon, and the Canadian goose! They must all hang around the beach for picnic left over’s, or shellfish and fish to snack on. However, while I was there, most seemed content to float or walk around on the beach. The geese may have been around waiting for nestlings or taking a break on a migratory path.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:08 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 15

5/10/12

Fungi Day 2!

Location: Inside for lecture part, but then moved outside to the UW farms and greenhouse to look at some examples of other fungi.

Weather: Very sunny and moderately warm. There is about 50% cloud cover, and relatively dry.

Fungi are consumers and rely on producers for carbon sources. Decomposition fungi consist of soft rot, brown rot, and white rot, as we learned about on Tuesday. White and brown rot is the decomposition of wood. As it gets warmer, it will be easier to find many more decomposers. We learned about biotrophs and armillaria as well as fusarium. These completely kill that cells of the host and absorbs all the nutrition. These are aggressive fungi or parasites. However, there are mutualistic fungal relationships where both the host and the fungus of the host are at a balance. There could be a change to a negative affect where the fungi becomes parasitic, but doing so would destroy food source. Most common relationships are mutual ones. Fungi do not fix nitrogen, however the roots for plants do and so plants provide the fungi with carbon and other important mineral nutrients. Lichens and fungi form a mutual relationship and green algae or cynobacteria. Cynobacteria can fix nitrogen and both can perform photosynthesis. For a picture of lichen structure,: see physical journal. Most lichens that would live here are dead due to high air pollution. The farther you go from air pollution towards better air quality, the more lichen you will see. There are powdery mildews that can be plant parasites because they go into the cells and take the nutrients of the living cells. This has a detrimental affect of the host plant.

Outside at UW farms we found the white powdery mildew. The white patches we see on the plants are hyphae and will ultimately kill the plant. The white will really show and become more prevalent at the end of the summer. It is energy cheap to produce a lot of spores to reproduce. They are asexual spores over winter and produce a more sexual structure toward the end of winter. The orchid we saw acts like a fungi and attracts gnats and aphids to help with pollination and has little gills that produce pollen that fool the flies and aphids. We also saw rust fungus that has little black dots as well as orange spots that are a structure to produce spores. Birch trees need mycorrhizal fungi and have a mutual relationship with it. They grow outside of the birch root and are short. However, if a birch tree is given a lot of fertilizer, the tree can “kick” the mycorrhizae out.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:08 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 14

5/08/12

Fungi!

Location: We were inside at the beginning of class for a brief lecture and then walked around outside to see the fungi around campus.

Weather: Warm. It was a sunny day with very few clouds, probably only 10% cloud cover. This, however was not ideal given that we were looking for fungi which favors wetter conditions.

Puget Sound and the Cascades are probably good places for fungi considering how wet it usually is and fairly cool.

The commitment for fungi is to make lots of spores and most fungi are single celled. Some breed asexually while other breed sexually. They are very important in nature and ecosystems and have an important function. They are decomposers because they break down dead organic materials. The decomposition in natural systems is difficult, however, bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects can decompose. Fungi in particular can decompose woody materials such as dead trees, logs, and any type of wood. Some of the important parts of wood are lignin, cellulose, hemulose, and pectin. The latter is soft and can be broken down. These are soft rots. The previous list is a big part of the cell walls of plants. White rot fungi have the ability to strip away the lignin and get to the carbon. They are also good at breaking down all the components and are the main organisms that break down wood ecosystems. Most fungi grow at the apex and they have hyphae and mycillean. While humans digest things, fungi digest them by ejecting enzymes that break down the wood.

Thinking about the environment fungi generally like to grow in and knowing that they are important for breaking down wood in the ecosystem, I wonder how trees and wood in dry places (such as beaches in California and palm tree, or deserts with bushes) is broken down. I wonder if there are fungi that can survive those conditions to break down those woody materials.

Outside by UW farms: There was a tree that was almost completely hollow and dying because of the fungi was eating away at it. The artist conk was eating a hole in the tree! The problem with fungal disease are that they can effect nectar which affects bees and flowers negatively. We found some oyster mushrooms which are white rot mushrooms that favor angiosperm trees. They can grow on just about anything that had carbon including woodchips. We also found some turkey tail (white rot) that likes conifer trees. Also found were many inky cap mushrooms among many others.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:06 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 13

5/05/12

Location: Backyard of my house which back along a nature preserve which is very forest and filled with conifers and deciduous trees.

Weather: It was cool, probably low 50s (in Fahrenheit). It was about mid afternoon and cloudy and moist, but not raining. The whole forest was damp though.

I was originally hoping to find bugs, so I turned over many logs and old dead plants. The area has a lot of ground cover consisting of mostly ferns and salal. Also covering the ground are lots of fallen branches and leaves from the winter and old stumps of trees and logs on the ground. Growing on the edge of m backyard, however I found right away. There are many vine maples, however, most of the ones I have seen in the area grow on the side of streets and developed neighborhoods. They were clearly planted. A city council member a few years ago stated (and is very adamant about it still) that plants planted around the city, town center, neighborhoods, and road medians be native plants. I find this interesting because some of the area looks slightly unkempt compared to other places, but perhaps that is better for ecosystems and healthier as well. My whole community is concerned with the well being of the environment.

I also found some dull Oregon grape and braken fern. All common and can be found in many places. I have seen them around for years, but until this class never actually knew about the different species. Among some of the more interesting species I found were some mushrooms and some lichen. I found Forking Bone lichen and Ragbag lichen. At least, that is what I had identified them to be. There is a lot of lichen around the trees here. There was a lot of Licorice fern growing on what seemed like a Douglas fir covered in moss. All of which I have seen around for years. I wonder whether or not this nature preserve is original growth or has been replanted and is now being preserved. My though is that they were replanted, however, when I moved they had to cut the edge in order to build the house. I can imagine the trees must be at least 50 years old, given their height and width. If I had the tools, it would be fun to a tree core sample to see just how old the area is.

I also found some trailing blackberry and stinging nettle, which I had to look up in order to identify. There were many slugs, all of which I believe are the same species, but just different sizes. My most fun and interesting find after turning over and old moist log, was a salamander! I identified it to be a type of lungless salamander. It was about 3 inches long and a light orange-dark red. Given the atmosphere of the day, it was perfect conditions for the little guy and fairly close to a stream. While there is a picture here on iNaturalist, I also tried to draw a picture. See physical journal for picture.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:06 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 12

5/03/12

Location: Johnson Hall, Room 113 – Entomology lab. We were inside for a brief lecture, then I was outside for about half an hour, then back inside to look at specific species archived inside the lab.

Weather: It was mostly cloudy and very rainy. It was cool, but not unbearable, probably around the mid 50’s. It was definitely raining while I was outside though.

Entomology deals with other bugs besides just insects, such as arachnids

Earth, planet of the insects!
Without insects, many ecological systems would collapse. Insects are important for foodwebs (they are often a source of food for bigger animals), as well as waste recycling. Soil formation, vegetation control, and plant productivity are also ecosystem services done by insects. All the things listed above are things that occur in the natural world. They have done these things for millions of years, and will continue to do so in the future. In the human world, they are competition for food and fiber. They often attack crops for food. They are also disease vectors, because most do not cause disease but they can spread disease quickly and vastly. Insects can be used purposefully to fight off other problem or pest insects. They are not all bad, because they are often used as a part of the diet for some cultures and can supple medicinal purposes. For example, maggots are can be used for cleaning wounds because they eat the dead skin and only the dead skin.

Diversity
There are about 10 million species of insects, however that is just an estimate as only a fraction of those species have actually been discovered. Beetles are one of the most diverse of the insects and insects are the most diverse of the world. Beetles rule the world! Beetles may east other insects or eat plants. They have a wide variety of talents. They often start out in their immature state as larvae or grubs. Beetles are also very inconspicuous and hard to catch. Personally, I feel like most insects are hard to catch due to their speed and size.

Moths and Butterflies
Butterflies are my favorite type of insects and one of my favorite types of animals ever. Learning about these creatures was very interesting to me. It was fascinating to learn that butterflies are moths! Butterflies are a specialized group that are adapted for flying during the day. This is why they are so colorful because colors only have meaning during the day. Most butterflies are not pests, however, those that are include the cabbage white butterfly. The small white butterfly I often see around the backyard or gardens on campus. They are often part of a pest problem in large farming crops. There are only about 100 species of butterfly in Washington. New information to me is that monarch butterflies are not in the area, but we often mistaken the yellow swallowtail for the monarch. They are actually very different.

Bees
Bees actually evolved from wasps. Wasps feed on other insects, but bees do not. Bees evolved to feed on pollen, so through time flowers and bees changed each other together. Nectar’s sole purpose in flowers is to attract bees for pollination. The bees use it as a type of “fuel.” They need to collect nectar whilst getting pollen for the hive. Most bees are fuzzy because they attract pollen. Many bees are very small and inconspicuous. Bumble bees are local! They live in the ground and are very susceptible to disease and are a threatened species. There are about a dozen species of bee in Washington. Honey bees are dying out mostly due to exotic disease and pesticides. They are not native and come from western Asia and northern Africa. However, they are now part of the ecology because they are the most efficient way of pollinating crops. Swarming can occur with bees when a hive becomes too big and splits so that they form a new hive elsewhere and raise a new queen. All females sting, however, the stingers are part of their body and internal organs so when they lose their stinger from defending themselves they die because they need the stinger to survive. Males do not have stingers. Bumble bees have multiple stingers and do not die when they sting people. The bees we looked at outside where by the green house and UW farms.

Inside we looked closely at various species and drew a few details by looking through microscopes. For picture: see physical journal.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:05 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 2, 2012

Journal Entry 6

4/15/12

Location: Nature Preserve in Mill Creek, WA. Forest like area with a main stream flowing through.

Weather: Partly clouds, partly sun. It varied between the two during my observation. There was no rain.

The entire forest preserve area webs its way between neighborhoods, streets, and parks. While walking on a trail, the backyards (and bird feeders) of a few homes in the distance are visible. The area used to have a larger variety of wildlife than it does now. History: The stream also used to have a higher water level and more frogs and fish living there. Salmon and other fish used to use the stream for spawning and a recently refurbished fish ladder has been around for years. Animals I have heard or seen in the past which are no longer found are: Deer, coyote, fox, fish, and possibly a black bear (my family claims to have seen). A few creatures still around: raccoon, owls (not sure what species, I can only hear them at night), blue heron, garter snake, frogs, and hawks (Amongst others).

There is a lot of lichen and moss in the preserve. Many low level growing plants with some water plants growing along the side of he stream, such as cattail. Ferns cover most of the steeper areas of the preserve farther away from the stream. Amongst the larger trees are Cedar, Alder, Maple, and Fir.

Species scene during this observation:
Sword fern
Salmonberry
False Lily-od-the-Valley
Douglas Fir
Salal
Yellow-Green Peat Moss
Skunk Cabbage
Common Dandelion
Giant Horsetail

Posted on May 2, 2012 12:41 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 12 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Journal Entry 5

4/6/12
Location: Boardwalk near Mill Creek and Bothell. Located on a wetland/grassland like area. Mostly water.
Weather: 80% Clouds, about mid 50s, but it was very dry.

Species List:
There was a plant I did not recognize that was very tall, probably over 6ft. and most of it was growing out of the shallow water. Most of the water in the area seemed rather shallow, at least around the boardwalk, but location father away looked like deeper waters. Most of the tall grasses and plants growing out of the water, such as the cattail were somewhat flattened due to winds, and probably nesting animals. There is a very slow current in the water and is a good area for resting waterfowl. There are a variety of small green plants, of which I could not identify growing out of the water. Most of the grass like plants are cattail and there are some bare trees scattered around the entire location. The entire walk is about a mile long, not including the little side trails. I have in the past, seen garter snakes, eagles, and hawks in this area. Also, due to the excessive amounts of rain that has recently occurred (at least I am assuming), The water level is high enough to flood small portions of the boardwalk. The water level was higher than normal. I am curious to know if this is a recent thing or if it floods around this time of year annually. I am also curious about the water level's effect on the species that live there.

Species List:
Blood-Spattered Beard
Cattail
Buttercup
Indian-Plum
Oregon Grape
Red Winged Black Bird
Chickadee
Robins
Mallard
Canadian Geese

Posted on May 2, 2012 12:27 AM by lmiyamoto lmiyamoto | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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