Tuesday, January 19, 2010

first day of 'work'

Monday I started my second job. Well... it's more like a weekend adventure time where I get paid. Oh, gee. Life is SOOOO terrible (sarcasm, incase you didn't catch it). Thanks to Dan the Man, I landed this amazing gig with AWash's research for her Master's project. Every weekend or so, I help her measure the depth and density of cypress domes in logged sites. I'm learning more and more about the process and regeneration of the ecosystems every day. I'm also brushing up on some rather rusty botany skills. My job is to help with collect data and identify plants in the area. I'll be going out with AWash as often as she needs, and my 'day job' permits. Stay tuned.

The site we went to Monday had been logged last year (2009). It is our most recently disturbed habitat and proved quite the difficult walk. Also, boots (galoshes) are not the most fun/comfortable things to walk miles in. Definitely noted.

Logged site, the entry point.





Cypress dome aka the Laboratory





Moss of sorts.


Possibly Selaginella apoda (Spike moss). It might be difficult to see, but there is representation of the sporophyte stage in this specimen. Uber cute!









The dominant tree species we were surveying were: Ilex cassine (Dahoon Holly), Gordonia lasianthus (Loblolly Bay), Magnolia virginiana ("Swamp Magnolia" or Sweet Bay), and Persea borbonia (Red Bay)

The logged pines were mostly Pinus elliottii (Slash pine).

2 comments:

ethan1066 said...

i can just imagine how tough was it..i had felt the same thing when i did the bird counting for the bird control project..

Erin Curry said...

Yay for Miss Liz and tromping around in the woods. By the way, that last shot is really beautiful.