The last time I was forced to go to the High Line was last year for my first Macaulay seminar class and I didn’t think too much of it. Now, a year later I return again to this place because of my Macaulay seminar class and I still don’t think too much of it.
However, I’d be lying if I said that I don’t appreciate it. I mean honestly it is a nice place to take a walk and admire the view. In fact, when I used to go to the Highline it was because of the view and how nice it looks. In all honesty, I have to thank the Rail banking program since because of their determination the highline wasn’t destroyed.
According to what I understood from the Stalter paper the primary succession (which according to his paper is initiated on sites where vegetation has not existed previously) that occurred here was different than in other places and for that reason the environment developed differently.
The main cause for the environment developing differently was human involvement (even though it was minimal).Some human involvement includes trash disposal (littering), the inadvertent invasion of species and pollution. By pollution I’m referring to the fact that there was an excess of sulfur dioxide in the environment, which then hindered the growth of lichens.
One thing I have to say which surprised me the most from this paper was how of all the parks they did research in the New York Highline was the park with the most diverse amount of species. Some of the parks where this research was conducted include, Ellis Island, Liberty Island, Hoffman Island (also known as Swinburn Island) and Bayswater State Park. In all honesty, I expected either Ellis Island or Liberty Island to have more species richness. So, even though Ellis Island and Bayswater State Park have more Species, The New York City Highline still has the most species richness with 38.8 species per ten thousand square meters (hectares).
Anyway, when I went to the Highline with Isadore and a few other classmates we happened to come across on the way there we were told to look around for pollinators. But, in all honesty most of what I was able to get on camera were bumblebees or honeybees (at least I think they were those type of bees I’m no zoologist and I’m not the greatest at differentiating bees.) Furthermore, there were also other types of insects like flies and other types of insects, which I couldn’t identify but they were insistent on not letting me get them on photo.
