Finally... Forest!
At last I have arrived in Maryland. It was quite early this morning, 1 am to be precise. I fell into bed trying not to disturb my roommate, Janice from New Orleans. I slept exhausted but comfortably until 7 am this morning. I’m pumped, though, and the adrenaline has kept me going all day.
I met my teammates at breakfast (we make our own, but the pantry is well stocked). They are all incredibly intelligent, articulate and sensitive people from all over: Hawaii, California, Oklahoma, New York, Louisiana, and New Jersey. We all teach, but the grade levels and subjects vary widely, from 3rd grade through middle school to high school. The little video I’ve included here is a short introduction of the team I worked with today.
We assembled at 8:45 to receive our instructions and equipment from the technicians Jess and Nancy, who are wonderfully knowledgeable about the temperate deciduous forest. Here follow some technical details, science buffs…
The area, a former farm, is sectioned into plots called hectares (10, 000 m2). Each hectare is divided into subplots of 100 m2 (10m x 10 m). Remember our quadrats, APES? Same thing, just larger. Each hectare’s subplots are assigned a row and column number, basically X-Y coordinates. We were split into 2 teams of 4 and given a column of subplots to work on. My team of four, Janice, Stacy, Kate and I, were assigned column 6, and we began with row 1, so the first subplot is called 6-1. In each subplot, we measured “diameter at breast height”, or DBH for every tree over 1 cm in diameter (no calculating here, APES: they have special tape measures that convert the circumference to diameter). We gave each tree a unique number, and recorded its position in the subplot using X and Y coordinates. In addition, we classified the tree crown as dominant(the highest), codominant(maybe not quite so high), intermediate (reaching for the sky but not there yet)or suppressed (understory). We made additional notes about whether the tree was living, dying or dead (but still rooted), about damage and pretty much anything else we observed.
So, here’s today’s challenge: what is a tree’s connection to climate change? In other words, how do trees make a difference (or do they?) in global warming. Hint: what do trees withdraw from the atmosphere that may be causing problems?
I met my teammates at breakfast (we make our own, but the pantry is well stocked). They are all incredibly intelligent, articulate and sensitive people from all over: Hawaii, California, Oklahoma, New York, Louisiana, and New Jersey. We all teach, but the grade levels and subjects vary widely, from 3rd grade through middle school to high school. The little video I’ve included here is a short introduction of the team I worked with today.
We assembled at 8:45 to receive our instructions and equipment from the technicians Jess and Nancy, who are wonderfully knowledgeable about the temperate deciduous forest. Here follow some technical details, science buffs…
The area, a former farm, is sectioned into plots called hectares (10, 000 m2). Each hectare is divided into subplots of 100 m2 (10m x 10 m). Remember our quadrats, APES? Same thing, just larger. Each hectare’s subplots are assigned a row and column number, basically X-Y coordinates. We were split into 2 teams of 4 and given a column of subplots to work on. My team of four, Janice, Stacy, Kate and I, were assigned column 6, and we began with row 1, so the first subplot is called 6-1. In each subplot, we measured “diameter at breast height”, or DBH for every tree over 1 cm in diameter (no calculating here, APES: they have special tape measures that convert the circumference to diameter). We gave each tree a unique number, and recorded its position in the subplot using X and Y coordinates. In addition, we classified the tree crown as dominant(the highest), codominant(maybe not quite so high), intermediate (reaching for the sky but not there yet)or suppressed (understory). We made additional notes about whether the tree was living, dying or dead (but still rooted), about damage and pretty much anything else we observed.
So, here’s today’s challenge: what is a tree’s connection to climate change? In other words, how do trees make a difference (or do they?) in global warming. Hint: what do trees withdraw from the atmosphere that may be causing problems?
The photo at the top, BTW, is a fungus growing on a stump. What trophic level do you think the fungus belongs on?
Labels: forest trees, measure
posted by Mrs. Scherer @ 7:56 PM
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