To be quite honest I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy Bioblitz, I was actually dreading the day, but to my surprise Bioblitz turned out to be a very interesting and educational experience.
We started off the day by meeting our guide Rafael. From the very beginning Rafael showed great enthusiasm about mosses and very soon our entire group became quite interested in mosses, which I assumed would be a very boring taxa to observe. On the contrary, Rafael showed us how interesting mosses actually were. We saw several different types of mosses and each had a unique look and different habitat in which they grew. What was even more interesting was how different species of mosses could arise just by the slightest change in the environment. Some of the different species were growing in the same zone and only a few feet away from one another.
Unlike other groups who were given nets and binoculars to observe their taxa we were given microscopes to get a better view of the mosses. Rafael explained how many of us overlook and give little importance to mosses because we are just too big to appreciate its beauty. With the microscopes we were able to see how complex looking the mosses were. Under a microscope it looked as if there was an entire forest on the little patches of mosses we were holding.
It was amazing to see how in such an urban city such as New York so many different species of mosses can arise. This experience showed me how we can often overlook the biodiversity New York holds even in its smallest specimens. I really admired Rafael’s passion for what he does, seeing the way Rafael was able to identify each of the different types of mosses and knew where to look for each one, showed the vast amount of knowledge and dedication scientists put into their field of study even for something as seemingly simple as moss.
Opening the email about Bioblitz really put in a crummy mood that day; finding out that I would have to take 8 precious hours out of my Sunday just to travel to the New York Botanical Garden and go “survey wildlife” was not the best news I could get, especially since I already had so much coursework piling up. However, as it was a required common event, I reluctantly cleared my schedule for what I didn’t expect to be such a pleasant experience.
I had originally chosen to survey Fish, since they were creatures I could physically see move around and maybe get to touch. I am a big animal lover and I was extremely disappointed when I was placed in the Lichen group at the last minute. I didn’t even know what a lichen was! Luckily, the lichen scientists were super friendly and were open to answering all of our questions.
Jessica and Clay had to be the only people I had ever seen who were super excited about lichens. They were always enthusiastic about helping us learn about them and were really adamant when trying to find specimens. They explained what a lichen was in a really thorough way and so now, I can never forget it. Lichens are actually two organisms living together symbiotically: fungi and algae. The alga uses photosynthesis to make food for the fungus while the fungus provides a wet, damp environment for the alga to live on. That way, lichens can grow anywhere, from trees to rocks to fences and anywhere else the lichen may consider habitable. We found lichens throughout the forest in the NYBG, on trees, on large rocks, small rocks, on fences and beyond. Searching for the lichens was also a really fun experience. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt to find all the lichen species in the forest. Though we weren’t excited to be lichen searching in the beginning, by the end of the event, we were all dismayed that the experience was coming to an end. Our amazingly cheerful scientists really helped us to experience a whole new side to science that I didn’t think existed.
The stereotypical view of a scientist’s job is that they sit in a lab and mix chemicals or examine specimens. However, Clay and Jessica have a very different scientific job because they do field research. Their job is actually very exciting because they never know if they will ever find a new species or a variation of an existing species. It’s like a real life scavenger hunt and I was truly appreciative to be able to join them in their jobs for a few hours. Furthermore, learning that there was so much biodiversity in a small place was truly amazing. Besides our lichen findings, we found exotic species like a special mushroom, that some people use in other countries for medicinal purposes.
I feel like I am more appreciative of nature after this session studying the native species of New York City this past Sunday at Bioblitz. It makes me less fearful of the insects or nature around me because they, like us, are part of this Earth and we should appreciate. I am less hesitant to go into the park near the forest because of this experience. I would really like to thank Clay and Jessica for helping me appreciate their line of work and the nature around.
Pećarević M., J. Danoff-Burg, R.R. Dunn. 2010. Biodiversity on Broadway – Enigmatic Diversity of the Societies of Ants (Formicidae) on the Streets of New York City. PLoS ONE 5(10): e13222. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013222 BiodivOnBroadway
Gilbert, G.S. A critical reader’s brief guide to statistics. http://ic.ucsc.edu/~ggilbert/envs122/StatsPrimer.pdf StatisticsGuide
I was part of the mammalian group at BioBlitz, which was much more of a “painstakingly observant to so little purpose” sort of affair than the more hands-on approach I noticed other groups taking, from collecting insect, moss and plant specimens to wading into the waters to observe fish—this, however, suited me pretty well, as I’m more of an observer than an active participator anyway, to the point of avoiding going off-trail for much of the time because I loath poison ivy (bad experience, hospital). And I really did enjoy observing the botanical garden; the entire area was beautiful, from forestry to waterfall, and I kept reciting pastoral lines to myself while walking around. Alas, my group didn’t get to see all too many mammals—as Allegra mentioned in her post, searching for mammals is frustrating (dare I say discouraging?) because they don’t much like people of any kind—but we did directly observe chipmunks (in fact, while the rest of the group was off-trail, I saw a few chipmunks playing and chasing on another, which was about as adorable as you’d imagine), a squirrel, and the evidence of a raccoon (vie scat and tracks). We also spent a large amount of time in search of the (evidently) extremely illusive muskrat—a mystical sort of being spoken of only in fairytales and environmental science classrooms—which still goes unfound.
A huge part of what the mammal group set out to do, however, was set traps for other mammals. We set two kinds of traps: IR Cameras and metal tunnel traps; the former I have absolutely no problem with; the latter, however, I worry about. I worry that those traps are traumatizing for the mice and chipmunks we were attempting to catch with them (a volunteer with our group shared this thought with me, which I appreciated because it gives me hope that I’m not just being ridiculous). Part of the beauty of nature, I think, is its inability to be truly captured (save for terrariums, but that’s another thing altogether, I suppose); attempting to do so for the sake of counting and examining animals makes us seem at least somewhat disingenuous about the cause of biodiversity, in my eyes. During the event, I observed more than my fair share of beautiful natural occurrences: a dragonfly sitting very docile on a leaf stem as our group took pictures and marveled at its size; a falcon sitting to roost atop a lamppost; a heron observing us observing it from across a lake and taking flight through the treetops with this enormous wingspan that I still can’t exactly place in a frame of reference with anything else. With all of these observations, I’m just not sure the metal cage traps were necessary—and possibly sending the wrong sort of message about biodiversity in New York.
I enjoy being outdoors. I like being surrounded by trees of all sizes and shades of green. One of the most stimulating experiences of my life was definitely smelling real pine for the first time while hiking in Montreal. Although our time at Bioblitz was brief, we learned a great deal about plant observation methods.
Our exploration took place in the Thain Family Forest. The ‘Plant’ group was fairly large, so we split into smaller groups to survey the place. My group decided on focusing on trees as there were many different species to look at and we enjoyed looking through the tree guides to identify them.
While a few of the trees we found were very familiar to us, such as the Norwegian Maples and the Red Oaks, others were like nothing we had seen before. Sassafras trees have leaves with three lobes that are very fragrant when crushed. These trees are especially important in the production of root beer, and its parts were often used as antiseptic treatments by Native American tribes.
The leaves of the Tuliptree were the most interesting to look at; they resemble tulips!
Tuliptree leaves
While some trees towered over us like skyscrapers, others where low and had different conformations. The American Hornbeam tree shown below, for example, grows in a “crown formation”, which means that it spreads radially from its trunk.
American Hornbeam
Plants seem to only contribute to the ambience around us, but they can be as complex as we are. Scientists specializing in this field have extensive knowledge about all kinds of traits of plants: what they look like, how they’re useful to humans, and how they interact with other organisms in their environment. I was honestly amazed at the number of idiosyncratic facts our scientist shared with us during our shift. Considering that he worked at the New York Botanical Gardens as a graduate student, he was very familiar with the environment. He showed us one type of plant was capable of stinging, and another that is used in birch beer and tastes like wintergreen when chewed. I honestly never thought I would pick a leaf off a tree and start chewing on its stem but he convinced me to do so.
I’m happy that I finally got the chance to visit the New York Botanical Gardens. It’s amazing how much variety there is in the environment of NYC due to green spaces like parks and gardens. I’ve heard of Central Park being referred to as the “lungs of Manhattan”, and I’ve always liked that comparison because the dramatic change in scenery is refreshing for us and beneficial for other organisms that can now thrive in an environment that may otherwise be unsuitable. I appreciate getting the chance to finally smell Sassafras without having to leave the city; it’s not the kind of tree you’d see in Flatbush.
Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the BioBlitz with the rest of the Macaulay gang, but I was able to do a sort of “Mini-BioBlitz” on my own at the Lily Pond located on our very own Brooklyn College campus. During my time at the Lily Pond, I observed the various plants (as well as a turtle!) that were there. I am not very good at identifying various types of plants, but I did take pictures and record some notes regarding the appearance of each plant. My findings were as followed:
As shown above, I came across a short sort of leafy bush with spear-shaped leaves that were dark green in color with some white along the edges. I have no idea what this plant is called (for the purposes of this reflection I will call it Plant #1), but it smelled kind of nice!
Next to Plant #1, there was another squat leafy bush (Plant #2). This one was significantly smaller in size compared to the other plant, but it had roughly the same shaped leaves, but these leaves lacked the white colored edging the others had. The veins in Plant #2 were also more prominent thank that of Plant #1 (or at least they appeared to be). Again, I have no idea what the scientific name of this plant is.
The plant shown above (Plant #3) posses significantly differing characteristics than that of the previous two. This plant’s leaves had more of a jagged edge and unlike the other two, this plant had some lavender flowering on it. The flowers faintly resemble bells when closed, but when opened, they look like most flower petals. I forgot to smell this plant, and I’m annoyed I didn’t. It seems like it might smell nice.
My favorite part of the Lily Pond is the mass assortment of colorful flower bushes and plants they have encircled within a small wall of hedges. The wall and some sort of sundial statue keep you from entering the circle and getting an up and personal look at the flowers (and maybe thats why they’re all still so pretty) but even from a distance you can easily make out all the beautiful reds and pinks and organs. I wish I knew what these were called so I could plant some at home!
That’s about it. I didn’t have as thrilling of a BioBlitz as I’m sure the rest of Macaulay did, but I can’t say I’m unhappy with my Mini-BioBlitz. I was able to see some beautiful plants, some cute turtles, and escape from the sheer “urbanness” of Brooklyn for a little bit. All in all, a successful visit.
I walked into Bioblitz and was put into the lichen group. When our lichen specialist asked the group what our favorite part about lichens was, we all kind of shrugged our shoulders. None of us really began Bioblitz knowing what a lichen was.
Our specialist began by informing us about lichens. We learned that some believe lichens are not organisms. Instead, some scientists consider lichens their own ecosystems. Lichens are made up of the symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. There are split up into three basic categories: fructicose (which looks more elevated and shrubby), foliose (which looks more leafy and flowery) and crustose (which more flat against the tree or rock it’s growing on).
So we began our Bioblitz journey by getting up close and personal with lichen, using a set of magnifying glasses.
This is a picture of the first lichen we discovered. The strangest thing was that none of us really knew what a lichen was, but we pass by them every day. They live on trees and moss and we just mistake them for things like moss or some other type of greenery. But in reality, there are whole ecosystems, or what some scientists consider whole ecosystems, on something as miniscule as a small section of a red oak tree.
We identified it by looking through guidebooks. When the group found a picture in the guidebook that looked like the lichen in question, we would use chemical tests to see if our predictions were correct. We first put potassium followed by chloride and waited for the colors to change.
I think the most exciting part of the whole BioBlitz experience was to be able to look at the lichen under a microscope. In some of them, you could actually see the algae wrapped around the fungi. You could actually see the ecosystem that these scientists were talking about in this tiny space.
This trip truly opened my eyes to the nature that actually exists within the city. When you think of the city in general, you think of buildings, not a lot of green space. Yet, we were able to experience acres and acres of green space in an urban atmosphere. If there are tiny ecosystems on one tree, imagine how many ecosystems the whole NYBG could contain!
I have an increasing respect for the scientists that study these organisms.They get up close and personal with all different types of organisms in order to identify them. Their interest in their work is so inspiring. Humans tend to only see the whole world as something that solely serves us, but there are so many other animals and so much more plant life that contributes to this world that these scientists bring to light. They open up new worlds to us.
There is a chipmunk sitting on the log in the center left of the photo if you look closely. It’s there, I swear! Mammal tracking is hard 🙁
BioBlitz was a really wonderful experience for me. From the minute I got to Macaulay and my friend Emaad offered me donuts, to the minute I got back, tired and sweaty, I was having a great time. I was fortunately placed in the mammals group, which meant seeking chipmunks, squirrels, and raccoons. Basically, if it nursed its young, we were looking for it. As an animal lover and environmentalist, I was so excited to get BioBlitz 2014 underway.
Our guides, Jason Munshi-South and Mary Pearl, were awesome. They led us to the mammalian hot spots, and knew so much about everything we found along the way. First we went down by the Twin Lakes. We found many things, though most were non-mammalian. We came across hornets, dragonflies, a heron, and even a red-tailed hawk! Seeing these things was really interesting, as our guides knew a lot about all the residents of NYBG. In terms of mammals, we saw two chipmunks, one alive and one dead (RIP), a squirrel, and some raccoon tracks down by the water’s edge. On our way out of the Twin Lakes area, Professor Pearl informed me that looking for mammals can be frustrating, because unless they’re especially outgoing, they hide when humans come close. Because of this, we used traps to record the presence of other mammals in the gardens.
Photo Credit: Jason Munshi-South
We set up metal tunnel traps for white-footed mice and possibly chipmunks, and then set up camera traps to see if any raccoons, coyotes, or skunks were milling about. Apparently these were a success! According to the tweets of one of our guides, we trapped a few mice and got some pictures of a little raccoon visitor. Professor Pearl also pointed out tiny disruptions in the forest floor, and informed us that they were evidence of a skunk looking for food. What a night, huh?
Photo Credit: Jason Munshi South
Being outside interacting with the environment and studying wildlife really resonated with me. For a long time I’ve considered switching my major from political science to something that involves the environment, because I love animals and I love learning about the world around me. After talking to Professor Pearl, who is a primatologist and a professor of biology at Brooklyn College, I am sure that I want to switch majors. I’d really like to go into conservation, and perhaps become a primatologist myself. Or a marine biologist! In short, BioBlitz was a success – I learned a tremendous not just about mammals, but about myself.
Typically, nature and I can’t stand each other. Plants make me itchy, pollen makes me sneeze, and bugs me jump around like a crazy person! I imagined that this experience would be terrible, however, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined.
I arrived at the Macaulay building at 9:05 AM thinking I was late, but the bus hadn’t come yet, and the bus wouldn’t come until 10! Waiting for the bus was a little frustrating, it seemed like we woke up early for no reason. Finally when we boarded the bus we hit an incredible amount of traffic, so we didn’t arrive to the New York Botanical Garden until around 11:30. Nevertheless, we arrived, and we were off to explore some plants! Each of us received a magnifying glasses, and one of us was asked to record the data – I volunteered hoping I wouldn’t have to touch any of the plants. Another one of us was asked to hold clippers to cut plants we would be observing, and another, asked to hold the book of the species to identify each plant we observed.
We arrived at zone 2 and began exploring various plants. The first plant we looked at was the Norway Maple – Acer Platanoides, we learned that this plant was a non-native plant, being that it was native to areas in Europe and southwest Asia. The next plant observed was the Hawthorn – Crataegus sp. (figure 1) this plant is a native plant and on the plant there are some berries, which didn’t seem edible.
Figure 1 – Hawthorn
The next plant we observer was Phragmites Australis (figure 1.1) – we were told that this plant is an invasive species and typically is grown near wetlands. Moving to the next plant, Bitternut Hickory – Carya Cordiformis (figure 1.2). This plant is native and grows in moist areas; there is place on the plant where if you smell it, it smells like gin.
Figure 1.1 – Phragmites Australis
Figure 1.2 – Bitternut Hickery
The next plant we observed was the Eastern white oak – Quercus Alba (figure 1.3), this species is a native plant. This tree provides us and our fellow squirrels with acorns.
Figure 1.3 – Eastern White Oak
We went on to a very pretty flower commonly called the Hibiscus – Hibiscus sp. (Figure 1.4). With this flower and our previous knowledge from biology, we were able to identify the parts of an angiosperm (pistil, stamen, petal, sepal, stigma…).
Figure 1.4 – Hibiscus
The next flowering plant we observed was the bell flower – Lobelia Siphilitica (Figure 1.5). This flower is pretty tiny, you can see that by comparing it to the size of my fingers in the picture below. This species is native and they grow better at cooler temperatures.
Figure 1.5 – Bell Flower
The next flower we observed was the Mullein – Verbasum Blattaria (Figure 1.6), this plant is an invasive species native Eurasia and North Africa. We were told that this is used to repel or kill mosquito or malaria larvae.
We observed many more plants in zone 2 and then we were told we had to get back onto the bus.
The experience was great, I didn’t feel itchy the whole time, because it was enjoyable to learn about the various species of plants. More importantly it was so interesting to learn about the biodiversity within this garden; we were exposed to so many different types of plants, which strengthened the idea of biodiversity. Before this experience I may have just looked at trees as all the same greenery, but now, it is obvious to me that each tree is different in its own way, whether it be the smell, or look of it.
It was amazing to learn about how in a city so focused on urbanization, there is a “city” within, dedicated to accommodate the non-urban aspect of New York City. This changed my outlook of how NYC feels about nature, clearly they do set aside space and time for the sake of nature. The experience is one I will not forget, because living in a city so focused on urbanization I don’t always have an opportunity to connect with nature, this experience allowed me to open up to the beauties and wonders of nature and now I appreciate nature much more. Thank you Macaulay for an enjoyable Sunday!
On Sunday, I got to join the mosses group along with some other Brooklynites and explore the variety of species of bryophytes in the New York Botanical Garden. My group was given a guidebook and some small magnifying lenses to help identify different species. The magnifying lens was about a quarter in circumference and we were able to use it to look closely at the distinguishing details of the mosses.
Even though our guide informed us that the NYBG has one of the largest–if not the largest–collections of plants in New York, it was still quite fascinating to learn that there could exist more than three species of mosses in a single square inch of land. The moss specialist for our group explained that there are slight differences in temperature, substrate, and even moisture over a given square foot of land; because of this, the species of mosses that live on one side of that square foot can be entirely different from those on the other side.
To the untrained eye, the mosses will look almost identical; however, with the help of the guidebook and our moss specialist, we were able to identify over eight different species.
My favorite moss of the day was the Marchantia polymorpha. This moss looks just like a little forest! The guide informed us that the palm-like structures aid this organism in reproducing. The base is where new plants sprout. There were many other varieties of mosses, (all of which have their own methods of reproducing and maintaining the species diversity in New York) but there was just not enough time to fully study all of. Even if the biodiversity in the larger community is still declining, it is at least being preserved in this area of New York; and I am glad that I was able to participate in examining the biodiversity–or at least for that of mosses–at this year’s Bioblitz.
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