Biotic and Abiotic Factors of My Plot

Abiotic

1. Water Temperature and Quality
2. Air Temperature and Quality
3. Rocks
4. Air Pressure
5. Sunlight and its Intensity
6. Soil (minus the biological, decomposed content)

Biotic

1. Rabbits
2. Squirrels
3. Deer
4. Frogs
5. Mosquitoes
6. Grass
7. Goldenrod
8. Woodchuck
9. Trees
10. Fungi
11. Algae
12. Flies
13. Purple Aster
14. Queen Anne's Lace
15. Snapping turtles
16. Hawk

Looking Closely: My Plot under a Microscope

At first, I wanted to look at a clod of soil I found in the stream bed by my plot. However, it was uninteresting and, to be honest, barely discernible as dirt with  both types of microscope available.

Mrs. Kitts suggested that I remove one of the small green plants beginning to grow in the soil with a tweezers and view that. So I did, and here's the result under 4x. It was much more interesting than textured brownish black blobs, although difficult to focus.

Using a higher power and increading clarity, I began to see the small walled plant cells that were a part of these tiny green strands growing in the sod. I was fascinated by the colors and structure. I hoped to see actual cells in more detail, but seeing the layers of the plant was interesting.

The structure of the fern was interesting to me because of the crystallized appearance of the cells. They looked like beautiful, tiny glass beads scattered across a perforated paper.

At a higher power, I didn't get a whole lot more detail, but the round, glassy look of the fern cells remained. This image is probably my favorite out of all those I captured and posted because of the diversity of color and the intricacy of the forms in it.

Here's another picture of the fern leaf at 10x on the microscope.

Overall, this wasn't exactly what I expected because only the 4x and 10x magnifications would focus for me (in other words 40x wasn't cooperating), but what I was able to see was astounding and made me appreciate the order of God's creation, down to the tiniest cells of the tiniest plants. He made things that may go unnoticed with the naked eye, but are truly unexpected, functional, and beautiful.

My Plot is an Ecosystem!

Level of Organization (Simplest to Most Complex)	Example 1	Example 2
Atom	Hydrogen	Oxygen
Molecule	Water (H20)	Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Cell	Pond Algae Animal Cell	Tree Leaf Plant Cell
Tissue	Tongue Tissue of a Frog	Cardiac muscle tissue in the heart of a deer
Organ	Moist skin of an amphibian (frog)	Lungs of a squirrel
Organ System	Integumentary system	Respiratory system of a squirrel
Organism	A Mosquito, a Frog, a Spider, a Butterfly, a Fern	A Deer, a Tree, a Rabbit, a Squirrel
Population	the huge concentration of Goldenrod along the pond edge	Deer
Community	The pond scum, rushes, frogs, butterflies, mosquitoes, and other insects and animals that live together in/near the body of water	The deer, squirrels, fungi, trees, shrubs, mosquitoes, birds, and other insects and animals that call the woods their home
Ecosystem	Pond--all the living things above plus the water, soil, mud, and other non-living things that are the home of living things	Forest--all the living things above plus the soil, nutrients in the soil, water, and other non-living things that exist side-by-side with the living things
Biosphere	All the ecosystems of Earth together	All the ecosystems of Earth together

Taking Action on the Plot: Trash Removal

Typically, Sunday is not trash day, but on this beautifully warm Sunday I grabbed a pair of gardening gloves, two large plastic trash bags, bugspray, thick boots, and my laptop, and headed off to my plot for an afternoon of trash pickup. I expected to find some pop bottles and cans, and maybe a discarded cigarette pack or two but what I found was much more diverse than that. From the pool of standing water I pulled a tarpaulin, plastic shopping bag, and styrofoam takeout box. From the forest floor, I picked up a receipt, several Gatorade and soda bottles, a Ziploc bag, a golf ball, a brick, a cinder block, a Big Gulp cup complete with its green straw, and various other soil and moss-covered items. The oddest object I removed from the plot, however, was a medium-sized iron and plastic chair. How it ended up on the plot, I don't claim to know, but it was quite the hassle to yank it from its position in the ground and heave it over fallen branches, down a small hill, over a shallow water-filled ditch, and across the field to the dumpster in my garage. My plot looks very clean though, and that's all that matters. It's all nature now, no unnecessary additions of plastic garbage. Below are a couple of pictures from the rendezvous.

 

2 Full Trash Bags+1 Chair=A Lot of Heavy Trash!

The Trash-Free Clearing and Woods

A Poetic Expression of My Perspective on the Plot

The forest is my classroom:                        Learn

A fallen branch my desk,                              Settle

Animal prints my textbook,                        Read

The wind my whispering classmate.         Listen

The pond is my classroom:                          Seek

Mired edge my notebook,                           Open

A thick reed my pen,                                      Write

Clear sky the blackboard,                             Watch

And God is my Teacher.                                Heed

Meet The Plot: Location, Features, and My First Impressions

September 3, 2011

Selecting my plot for this study was a no-brainer. Almost exactly a year ago, my family moved from the west side of Grand Rapids to Ada. We built our new home across the street from a soccer field and church which was bordered by a thick weed field, woods, and a pond. This seemed to perfectly fit the criteria for a plot, and it was very conveniently located, so I went for it. When I first ventured over to my chosen plot, I faced the first of many predicaments: crossing a relatively thin band of standing water. However, it was not quite thin enough to jump over at the place where I had come upon it. So I bumbled along its muddy edge, looking for a safe place to leap across. During this little mission, it quickly became evident to me that this water feature, and therefore my plot, is home to a number of very vicious, very hungry insects. Apparently sophomore biology students are very appetizing to Ada mosquitoes, because I became very well acquainted with them while fumblingly attempting to access my web cam feature (which decided not to cooperate at the time, though it operated perfectly fine once I returned to my nice bug-free bedroom). Along the way, I also encountered animal tracks in the mud (which may have been a raccoon’s) and a number of skittish frogs leaping in and out of the water. Finally I reached a section thin enough to jump over, which I did without incident. Once I had traversed the water, I scrambled up a small hill to a large forest area where recent storms had felled many small trees and limbs. Completely alone—barring the insect and animal populations—I began to explore what would be my project site for the next few weeks. One of the things I immediately noticed was the perpetual sound of bugs: a raucous symphony of clicks, hums, rasps, and buzzes. Another noticeable factor was the feel of the air: it was a humid, hot day but beneath the trees the air had a fresher, cooler, crisper quality that I really appreciated after sweating in the field adjacent to the forest. Very close to my entrance point to the woods, I became intrigued by a tall, thick tree that had white, plate-looking fungus on it. Since my webcam was still not operating at the time, I snapped a quick picture of it with my phone camera, then moved on. As I crunched deeper into the trees, the growth of thin weeds and grasses on the floor turned into a thicker mass of shrubbery, and then into a barely navigable tangle of greenery as I came upon a gorgeous, algae-dotted pond. I circled the rim of the pond, briefly scoping it out. I say briefly because by that time I was still being attacked by the relentless bugs and was ready to run back through the field of weeds, a short ways down the residential street, and up my driveway. It was a short but successful first visit to my plot, I reflected. The area was ideal for soil and water samples, weed and fungus collecting, observation of insect and animal interactions, and even trash pickup. Apparently we had very poor golfers in the neighborhood, because a few of their balls were lodged in the forest floor. Overall, I was excited to return and discover more, provided that I brought bug spray along.

The links below show where my plot is located in relation to main roads and then the plot itself in greater detail.
Location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Keystone+Community+Church,+Spaulding+Avenue+Southeast,+Forest+Hills,+MI&aq=1&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.729049,86.572266&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=Keystone+Community+Church,&hnear=Spaulding+Ave+SE,+Forest+Hills,+Kent,+Michigan&ll=42.950957,-85.542383&spn=0.035935,0.084543&z=14
Plot: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ada,+MI&aq=3&g=Ada,+Forest+Hills,+MI&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Ada,+Forest+Hills,+Kent,+Michigan&ll=42.949748,-85.541868&spn=0.002246,0.005284&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6