Environmental Gradients; Poinsett State Park ATBI

Friday couldn't have been a better day for a lab! The weather was perfect, and I suspected that we may get lucky and see a herp or two. I was not disappointed. Our first goal for the day was to measure some environmental gradients, but before I could do that I had to take my students to check the old mill ruins on the downstream side of the lake. It's usually pretty snakey down there and I wanted to try my luck early. This is what we found:

My students tried to ID this as a copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), but I told them that it is actually a close relative...the cottonmouth (A. piscivorus). Some people call this snake a water moccasin, but the correct common name is cottonmouth. While we we observing this individual another (probably a sibling of this one) snuck out from a crevice near my students. After the ensuing mayhem-students scattered in every direction- we managed to find two more cottonmouths in that same area. As much fun as I was having I knew we had work to do...so it was off to Coquina Trail. For some reason after the cottonmouth surprise my students were VERY focused on where they placed their feet. When we got to half way point I sent my students down into the gulley to start measuring their gradients

They started at the base of the gulley, which has a small stram running through the middle of it. I am not 100% certain as to the origin of this stream, but I suspect that it is an artesian well due to the unique terrain of Poinsett. Then they ran transects up the hill. For each square meter they determined the plant species present, the number of each species, and the diameter of any trees. Basic ecology states that abiotic factors (such as climate, soil type, moisture, and available minerals) will determine the flora types in an area. The flora types will determine fauna (of course this is a gross oversimplication, but I don't have enough space here for that lesson).

While my students busied themselves with their transects, I did a little survey for Poinsett's All Taxon Biodiversity Inventory. This is basically just a list of all species that have ever been found at Poinsett. It is a useful tool for writing management plans. I found sever species...but these were my favorite:

I found this little Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) near the peaks of one of the hills framing the half way point of Coquina Trail. She was very inquizitive.

This little cricket frog (Acris crepitans) was down in the drainage basin, happily hiding among the leaf litter.

This Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) is probably not the largest example of this species that I have ever seen, but with a 11.5 foot circumferece it was very impressive.

After a quick break for lunch we went back out to run a few more transects. At the shelter on Coquina Trail some of my truly devoted students found out the hard way that some environmental gradients are more sudden than others. This particular transect ran at better than a 45 degree slope from the lake

After all of our data was gathered we sat in the adirondack chairs at the ranger station and talked about the lab reports that I would, of course, expect from them. I hope that this was a genuine learning experience for my students. I have just one more picture that I want to leave you with. I found these to cottonmouths in the Beidler Impound during a brief exploratory journey that I took after lunch while I waited for my students return.