Sophie's+Page

= Eco-plot Study =  Sophie's Page

====Over the corse of the year in our science class every tuesday (unless is was horrible weather conditions) we went pout to our eco-plot which was located behind the soccer net. below are some of the tools we used and types of life we saw. there are also the graphs of the different things we checked every time we went out.====

Tools we used.
When we were working with our eco-plot there were a lot of types of tools we used:

1) A thermometer which took the temp. in Celsius so we had to convert to fahrenheit (example below).

[[image:http://fragmentssynapses.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/thermometer.jpg height="88"]]
2) We estimated the percentage of clouds there were on that given day and what type of clouds they were (puffy, storm, foggy ect.).

3) Bubbles were the next tool we used one of us would shoot them strait into the sky and see which direction they were going then take out a compass and find out which direction the bubbles were.

4 ) We used a kestrel which we would hold up to the sky point it in the direction that the bubbles had been going and see what it was reading as the average wind speed.

The Charts:
Every time we went out to our eco-plot we took with us not only the tools but our field journals and in our field journals we recorded: The Temperature:

The Wind speed:

The Cloud Percent:

The Air Pressure:

Cloud Type & Wind direction: On excel you can't graph items that are in word form. So on the lines below it will tell you the cloud type and wind direction on each day with the date above.


 * Date || wind direction || cloud type ||
 * 11/3/09 || north || light ||
 * 11/10/09 || southwest || thick ||
 * 12/1/09 || north || misty ||
 * 12/15/09 || no recording || heavy ||
 * 1/5/10 || southwest || misty ||
 * 1/12/10 || south || thick & fogy ||
 * 1/27/10 || south || no clouds ||
 * 2/1/10 || southwest || thin ||
 * 2/23/10 || south || heavy ||
 * 3/2/10 || west || light ||
 * 3/9/10 || southwest || thick & fogy ||
 * 3/17/10 || southwest || no clouds ||
 * 3/23/10 || northeast || thin ||
 * 4/13/10 || no recording || thick & fogy ||
 * 4/20/10 || southwest || no clouds ||
 * 4/27/10 || no wind || thin ||
 * 5/4/10 || northeast || light ||

**Types of plants that were seen:** English Ivy (Hedrea helix) was one of the plants that stood by the eco-plot year round. It is an evergreen woody vine that is an invasive specie. Throughout the entire year it blanketed the ground. It was causing other plants to have trouble breaking through the thick layers of vines to the sky.

Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a vine that grows on trees. If touched by a human can cause the said person to get a rash that becomes very itchy. some people have worse reactions that can cause you to end up in the hospital when for others it has no affect what so ever.

Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolaius) is a plant that is native to parts of Asia but was brought over to England and North America. Even tho it is called "Wineberry" it is not a berry at all in fact it is a aggregate fruit.

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a flowering plant that in part of the mustard family. The garlic mustards native land is Europe but has been brought over to North America. this plant is commonly used for food by humans.

Asian bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculta) is called a destructive invasive species. Which (as you can guess) was brought over from Asia.

Types of animals and insects that were seen a lot:
We did not see that many animals but we certainly heard them. We also came upon some animal tracks during the winter.

Cat (Felis catus). We did not sight the cat but saw tracks. The cat was most likely a stray because owing to the weather no good cat owners would let any pets out in that weather.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius). They are a very common bird in north america and they tend to stay in the same nest all year long. We only saw this bird...or any birds at all for that matter a handful of times but during the spring and fall there was a lot of chirping going around.

Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis). Lives in Easten US and some parts of Canada. On a chart for the animals that need to be protected from extinction the Gray Squirrel is the least of there concerns.

Groundhog (Marmota Monax). The groundhog is, along with the gray squirrel not at all in threat of going extinct. They live all over North America as far as Maine to Alaska.

Honey Bees are one of the more popular bees in North America. They are mostly harmless and in the spring that is almost no chance they will sting you unless you bother them because the bees are trying to get the pollen to there nests.

Final analysis:
Starting in October 2009 our e-block science class started going out to visit our eco-plot that we had set up behind the soccer net. Now it’s June and we have just gone out to visit one last time. Over all the eco-plot is healthy, very green, and has morebugs then needed. The only problem is that over 50 percent of the plot is covered with invasive species. Those species include things like English ivy, garlic mustard, and Asian Bittersweet. There are hundreds upon hundreds of types of organisms in the plot some good, and some not so good. On some occations we would see arachnids but that was a rare site unlike the insects which we saw daily. A lot of time we could here the life but not see it. For example we were intrupted most days buy the chirping of birds (normally robins). I think that over all the eco-plot is thriving, the only thing that would make it better would be if some of the invasive species were removed along with the trash that is on the ground.