Second Day in the Field

Another fun and exhausting day here in the woods!

Check out that conk above (it's that flaky wavy organism growing out of the tree)--it's called "Turkey Tail," and I bet you can see why!

We measured over 130 trees today! We took turns recording the data, tagging the tree, measuring the tree’s diameter, figuring out the tree’s precise location based on its position in the hectare plot, and finally identifying the tree’s species and current state of health.

While in the forest doing our climate change study, we encountered another experiment a different scientist here at the Smithsonian is performing. Jeff, a Forest Ecologist assisting us in the field, explains in the video below. It’s involves earthworms—you can probably predict how excited I was…






I LOVE all the comments I am receiving! I am trying to respond to each one through my blog! If I don’t get to your specific inquiry while I am away in the field, I promise I will when I return. But, please don’t let me stop you from being inspired to do your own research on some of these curiosities, folks!

Tomorrow I'm going to show you an amazing fallen giant and its story--can you guess what this will be a story about?