What's a little drizzle?
So we didn't have much rain. We managed to get out into the field to take data, with only a few unpleasant showers and a few opportunities to gripe and moan. After just two days, we are 78% of the way through our task. ...But there's always more to do.
Today we had a bunch of interesting discoveries. One was a dead gray squirrel--I'll spare you the photographs, which of course I took. This squirrel apparently lost its footing--common on rainy days out here--and fell to the pavement and died. It was a new kind of roadkill. Next we followed a bald eagle to its nesting area. We tried to have it take the squirrel while it was still fresh, but to no avail. At right you can see the nest. Not really too interesting for Coloradans, but people out here were quite excited about it.
Next to a water flow-rate testing station on Muddy Creek, I saw this log that had been cut down. I was interested to see the pattern of its increasing "hollowness." Evidently something had been eating away at it inside for years, but we couldn't tell so well from the outside. Perhaps there is a lesson in there somewhere.
In the field we found more interesting things. One of the smallish trees in our area had grown through a fence and exhibited a fascinating Frankensteinesque pattern. Still it continues to grow, and the fence doesn't seem to be slowing it down at all. 
The lichens and mosses are far more impressive here than ours in Colorado. Here, on the base of a small tree, both are clearly visible. Also visible is an impressive amount of leaf litter from a wide variety of trees. Among the many trees that I've had to learn to identify are tulip poplar (which is a magnolia, really), sweet gum, sycamore, cedar, dogwood, ironwood, hickory (mackernut and pig nut), oak (white, red, and black), various maples, and various ashes.
It gets tough when there are no leaves or when the tree is dead. Still, for the carbon-sequestration study to be valid, dead plants must also be taken into account.
This survey is not a biodiversity survey, which is too bad since we're finding all kinds of insects. The treehopper and the cicada are two nifty examples. If you like bugs, click on the images and enlarge them. The treehopper (at left) is particularly photogenic. Today was warm, though, and one price of warmth is the presence of small ticks. My colleague Lindsay found one, and that poor little diseased insect is sorry now.As you are WELL aware, we've just finished studying population dynamics and we're heading into soil. I have a short video, featuring Jeff, that links my experiences here to our studies. Can you spare 2 minutes?
If so, watch this clip. The sound is amateur, to say the least, so turn it up and get ready to tolerate some wild swings in volume.
posted by Dr D @ 2:52 PM
17 Comments:
That decaying log makes me wonder if it is possible to quantify the effect of insects on the health of the forest. It seems that there is a lot of biological activity that is hidden or immeasurable, but surely still significant.
-Alan Bromwell
I've had the same experience in seeing a tree grow over a fence except I saw this in California. A maple tree's trunk had completely grown over the barbed wire of a fence to the point it was only visible where the wire enters and exists the tree. Also I have always thought ticks were mostly killed off in the winter due to the cold. So are temperature changes enabling the tick to live through the winters? (similarly to the pine beetle in Colorado)
When I saw the picture of the inside of the log, it made me wonder that since you said there wasn't any eveidence of decay from the outside, are there ways of testing a tree to see if insects are doing harm to it on the inside? Is there a way to see if a tree is decaying on the inside without harming the tree in the process of testing it? Just curious!
That treehopper was indeed very interesting looking. I have a personal fascination with all kinds of bugs, but I haven't seen one of these before... It sounds like you have been encountering many types of insects (well at least ones have torn up the trees). Seeing as though the weather is very different than it is here, how do the insect populations and diversity of trees compare to ours in our dry climate?
I am curious to know what was actually causing this “hollowness” within the tree. If it is a beetle like some people have suggested. Is this a major problem in the forest. Also, with regards to the ticks is it possible that they still carry diseases such as the Lyme disease given the harsh winter conditions. I wonder if it could have been a Dermacentor albipictus otherwise known as the winter tick?
Were the hollow logs eaten away by bugs common, or was that the only example you found? Was there evidence of what kind of bug it was, or if it was a common problem in that forest?
I too have had two similar experiences that are exemplified in your blog post. While on a fishing trip in Northern Canada, I spotted many Bald Eagles nests and several Bald Eagles. I had never seen a wild Bald Eagle before so we tried to stay near the nests as much as possible in an effort to observe the bird. As one flew by our boat, we threw a dead fish we had recently caught into the lake hoping to intice the bird. It ended up swooping down and taking the fish, and it was extremely entertaining to watch the eagle in action. A day or so later, while eating a shore lunch, our native guide explained why the land had so many mounds and was so uneven. He told us almost the exact same thing that the man in your video explained. I would have had no idea and most likely just assumed it was common for the land in the region. It was interesting to see the same situation with a much larger tree from the video.
Joey Cicerelli
I've noticed the forest you are working in seems very thin with large gaps between the trees, and you say that it is an older forest. I find it interesting that this forest is very spaced out while other forests like Yellowstone have very cramped trees. I know it is more beneficial and natural for a forest to have room like that, but I am curious why this one has more room than most others. I'll ask you in class. -Chris Joondeph Pd. 8
Seems like there are plenty of insects and animals considering how cold it is! Are there any diseases there that effect the forests like the pine beetle affects ours? What kind of insect could hollow out a tree like that? Katie Keller p3
Like someone noted before, the forest you are working in appears kind of thin in that there are large spaces between the trees. Is the entire area that open? And is it spaced out so much because it is an older forest and more trees have fallen, etc like the one that you found? All the forests I've been in here in Colorado are not nearly as spacious, though when I was in New Zealand and Australia this summer, the rain forests we walked through there seemed to be more open like the one you are in (though it was sometimes hard to tell since there were so many ferns and other plants everywhere).
-Caitlyn Metzer
"Evidently something had been eating away at it inside for years, but we couldn't tell so well from the outside. Perhaps there is a lesson in there somewhere." Presently, is there a way to tell at all from the outside if a tree is being eaten away?
Also, regarding the tree that grew around the fence - that's happened in my back yard. We had a hammock hanging on a rope around the trunk of the tree, and after taking it down, we left the rope apparently. The pieces of rope and at least one of the metal spring-loaded claw hooks is still embedded in the tree and it's none the worse for wear.
-Robyn Collins, Per. 6
In the video, the man said that young forests don't have much age diversity because all of the trees are around the same age. But he also said that older forests, like the one you're in, have a lot of age diversity because there are old trees, young trees, and medium aged trees. I understand this, but I thought that the main problem with the Colorado mountain forests is that all of the trees too old and that there is little age diversity, so they are very suseptible to diseases and pests (which led to the pine beetle infestation). If the CO forests are old, wouldn't they also have enough age diversity to resist problems like this?
How many of these tree species do we have in Colorado, if any?
Shannon Pratt Period 6
Was the squirrel death a form of natural selection? (chuckle chuckle, then sad whimper of empathy for the death of the squirrel)
Is there a need for controlled fires in the spacious forest as well as in the coniferous forest? Or are the controlled fires only necessary to solve the problem of a far-too-crampted forest like in Colrado? (fire also for fertility, etc., so do they allow fires in the Northeast because they are less dry and likely to burn too hot or out of control?).
Is the hollowing unique to trees? If it could occur in other plants, wouldn't that change the results of biomass and biodiversity studies drastically? I understand much smaller plants are not as likely to hollow as larger ones, but isn't it still likely that many biodiversity and biomass studies have a large margin of error since they can't account for hollowing and the creatures that do the hollowing?
-Daniel Palmer Per 6
Dr. D-I am surprised by the story of the unfortunate squirrel, and that a tiny slip from one of nature's nimblest animals could result in its death. I guess it's another negative consequence of man's interference in nature. The hollow tree was especially interesting. I've seen trees like that here in Colorado, and always assumed it was the result of termites or some insect of sorts. It would be interesting to determine if climate change has any effect on these small insects and their behavior, i.e. hollowing out dead trees.
--Kerry Noel per. 6
You said you're seeing cicadas. Aren't they supposed to be in the ground right now? And would the (for lack of a better term) squirrel falling out of tree death rate be lowered without the development of roads?
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