August 27, 2019
Ecology Blog 3: A live ecology class at Hoh temperate rain forest
In the third blog by ecology group, we will introduce something we have learned in the Hoh temperate rain forest. We had a great ecology class there, given by Joseph Murray from JMurray Forestry and Precision Forestry Cooperative (PFC) Board Member.
In our last blog, we wrote about winds and the fallen trees. We explored abiotic factors in the ecology system. Today we will focus on the biotic factors.
First of all, here is a brief introduction about the Hoh temperate rain forest. The Hoh Rainforest including the Hoh river is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S.. The precipitation is mainly concentrated in the winter. We found the canopy is pretty dense here. The branches of many big trees are covered with mosses and hanging lichens.
Mosses and lichens
Photo by Xueying Zong
We observed that many of the tree branches have other plants attached at the Hoh Temperate Rain Forest. Dr. Monica said that the longer are lichens and the shorter are mosses. The mosses obtain all their nutrients from the air and require nothing more than shade, acidic soil, and adequate moisture to flourish. The fibrous lichen on the branches is a symbiosis of algae and fungi, which means they live together, depend on each other, and benefit each other. If they are separated from each other, neither party or one of them can survive. The symbiotic algae are mainly cyanobacteria and green algae. Algae contain chlorophyll, which can be used for photosynthesis and provide organic matter. Fungi absorb external water and inorganic salts as raw materials for photosynthesis of algae. Lichens can be used as an indicator of environmental pollution. When the environment is seriously polluted, the algae in the lichens will die quickly and the fungus will die.
Photo by Minlan Chen (left)
Fungi (right): https://cn.dreamstime.com/
At the visitor center, we were given a porch talk about fungi by a ranger. The rangers talk was extremely fascinating and impressed all of us. He discussed mycelium, a type of fungus, and hyphae which comprises it. We knew that there were about 1.6-5.3 million different species of fungi globally including the largest organism in the world.
He introduced us to the function of fungi:
1) Fungus connects all of the plants in an area, even the different species.
2) It allows a transfer of nutrients to make sure that all the plants are getting the right and equal amount of what they need to survive.
3) Fungus is a resource of medicine such as antibiotics.
4) Fungus is also an important food.
Finally,he told us that you can’t identify a mushroom just by its color!
Made by Yuancong Gou
List of the credits : at the end of this blog
Standing by the Hoh river, Dr. Monica talked about the food webs in the forest. Fish depend on nutrients in the water. Some of the fish are caught by predators like birds and bears. Birds may bring their dinner(fish) into the forest where the carcass gets left. Similarly, bears feed on fish. When fish are plentiful, bears may only eat some special parts of the fish, and the other parts of the fish are discarded on the ground. Their excrement of the predictors also decomposed back into the ground. Finally, the fish and excrement on the ground are decomposed by fungi in the soil. The energy flows through forests to animals and goes through the food web and goes back to the forest and water in the end. This is the nutrient cycle.
It is such a wonderful place to have a live ecology class. We will continue to observe the interesting things during the trip and think about their relationships to the whole ecosystem.
List of the credits for the picture:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salmon.svg
http://search.coolclips.com/m/vector/anim0269/Grizzly-bear-eating-a-salmon/
https://www.goodfreephotos.com/vector-images/soaring-bald-eagle-vector-clipart.png.php
https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vectors/salmon-bones-vectors
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/water-stream-river-creek-flow-wet-908813/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/search/river/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/terrain-grass-green-field-nature-575538/
