More Adventures at the Pond Lab

Allie has already posted about our adventures at the Pond Lab, so I'll try to add in some of the other interesting things we learned there as well.
Project Summary: We each went to a different pond at the lab and noted the birds that flew into them as well as any nests that were around the pond. Here's an aerial photo of the Pond Lab, so you can kind of get an idea of where we were.

We watched the birds at our ponds for about an hour (30 minutes for males, 30 minutes for females). We tried to determine the territories of the males by watching their flight patterns and how they interacted with other birds that visited their pond.
At the pond I was at, there was very little bird activity. Only 5 birds flew onto my pond the entire time I was there and they only stayed for maybe 15 minutes total. However, i did find that the males seemed to have territories and would quickly chase others away if they overstepped their boundaries.
Here are diagrams I made that shows the flight pattern of two of the male birds I saw, and how I used that to make a territory diagram:

Several class members also made other observations about the blackbird behavior:

• Kate and Brittany found that the birds spent much of their time perching, but also spent a large amount of time flicking their tail, "check-calling", and songspread, which can be signs of courtship or territorial display. 
• Here's the pie chart they made for how males spend their time: 
• Females spent time foraging or simply flying over the ponds, but not actually landing or interacting with other birds like the males did.
• Here's the pie chart they made for how males spend their time: 
• Al found that the birds seemed to prefer a large wooden post to his pond. They seemed to think the post was a bathroom too...
• Karen and Cristy noticed that the males with larger epaulets (the red part on their wings) were all located in the middle ponds, which are more protected from outside predators as well as have larger amounts of vegetation around of the ponds. 

We saw lots of other wildlife and plants, too! My pond had many, many bull frogs! When you got near them, they seemed to scream as they jumped into the water.

Can you find the bullfrog? He's hiding!

Who knew chives had pretty purple flowers on top?!

There were lots of flowers around the ponds.

Red-winged Blackbirds love cattails!

Red-winged blackbird!

After a fun, sunny morning, we headed back to KBS and our adventures at the Pond Lab were over.

Snails at Lux Arbor Reserve

Warning:  As you may see, Lindsay has already done a wonderful job summing up our adventure to Lux Arbor, so I'm sorry if this sounds redundant.  I will try my best to be original. :)

Here it goes!

What is Lux Arbor Reserve? 

It is a long-term ecological research site utilized by Michigan State University.  The site is filled with diverse land and aquatic environments, making it a perfect area for research.

http://lter.kbs.msu.edu/maps/thematic_maps.php

What did we do there?

Using the various bodies of water Lux Arbor had to offer, we studied how predators, such as Pumpkinseed Sunfish, can influence snail size and distribution.  In order to do so, we took snail samples from the various ponds and lakes in order to collect more data on them back in the classroom.  To determine the affects of predators on the snails, we took samples from smaller bodies of water without fish as well as larger bodies of water with fish.

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/fpumpkinseed.html

What did we find?

The figures below highlight our results:

Figure 1

Figure 2

As seen in the figures, species and size of snails varied between the various types of lakes.  We were surprised to see that the snails were smaller in the larger lake, but once we measured the thickness of their shells, it made more sense.  Although we may not know if their inability to break under pressure was due to their shell thickness or lack of surface area, the data suggests that they may be smaller and "stronger" for many possible reasons.   In the larger lake many of the snails were found under rocks, hence the smaller they are the easier it will be to hide beneath them from predators.  Also, the stronger the snail, the harder it will be for the fish to break it's shell in his mouth.  So, even though the snail may be small enough to attempt to eat, it won't be able to if it can't break through the shell.

Valerie looking under rocks for snails in Lower Crooked Lake.

As for the smaller lakes, their larger size may be due to the fact that the predators are smaller, so they need to be bigger so they cannot be eaten by the small predators.  Also, the smaller lakes were much more dark and mucky compared to the rocky larger lakes, therefore lacking the need to fit under rocks to hide.  Instead, they most likely utilize their dark coloring in order to blend into the muck.

Small snail found in the muck of a smaller lake.

All in all, the fact that the results didn't turn out as one would originally expect made the experiment that much more interesting and educational.  

The End!

- Natalie McHale

Predation Experiment

Augusta Creek

Journeying on to Augusta Creek where you will find all sorts of tasty aquatic organisms, northern green  frogs, dragonflies,  B.E.A. Utiful damselflies (Shout outs to our wonderful Professor, Idelle)  crayfish, and plenty more.

 Crayfish are crustaceans related to lobsters and usually eat anything they can catch with their claws but are usually scavengers of dead plants and animals.

Isn't he adorable! Try touching his claws! 

In class, small groups created different predation experiments but only one will be discussed. In our experiment we collected six predators, crayfish, stone flies, dragonflies and one unknown larva and placed them in beakers in a freshwater habitat with possible prey wondering if they coexist or would the predators enjoy a good meal. 

Turns out 4/6 predators were alive, 2/6 predators were dead,  3/6 prey were dead, and 3/6 of the prey were gone.

Some of the predators may be selective of their prey and some may have eaten the prey for survival reasons.  

The adventure of catching these predators were quite easy except for putting the crayfish in the beakers. They're very jumpy! Overall, there were more experiments on predation and hopefully you will read more! 

-Ebony Rodgers

Red-winged Blackbird Experiment

Red Winged Blackbird Behavior

So last Monday, our lovely Ecology class decided to go on a field trip to the Pond lab! No, we did not go to observe pond creatures, we went to stalk the red-winged blackbird and their behavior.

just sittin'

We each took one pond out of 18 and studied a male and a female for a half an hour each. We focused on interactions between males and females and marked where each bird went throughout the half hour.

Wrong! Not a child's self expression! It is Natalie's beautiful illustration of observations
of where the male ( blue) and female (red)  went. 

We discovered that the males tend to be much more active than the females. When they're not competing for territories, they tend to sit on high perches, watching over their areas. Females, on the other hand, keep to themselves. They seem to like to hop around the ponds, foraging and checking on nests. In addition, males are much more vocal than females, chattering, singing, and making interesting noises in general. The female, however, only seems to chatter, especially when something approaches her nest.


We also looked at how males with different types of territories compared to each other in terms of color. We found that males with brighter epaulets (i.e. more attractive) had better territories than those who didn't. "Better territories" included tall, dense reeds, clearer water, and protection from potential predators, which tended to be in the middle of the collection of ponds, away from the forest. Many of the males that were found around poor territories with little foliage were found to have weak colors on their wings. 

Karen and Cristy's diagram of ponds 1-18 and  their male quality,
with red hearts being the most attractive and broken hearts the least. So sad.

So that's what we learned about red wing black birds! Yay! 

The Colpoda Saga

This is the tale of the elusive, carnivorous purple pitcher plants, or Sarracenia purpurea, who claim strange domain upon the floating peat islands of the Brook Lodge fen. Pitcher plants are, as one may assume, pitcher shaped, and suitably so, as they purvey rain water to provide for populations of peculiar prey within their perilous bowels.

Observe the perilous pitcher plant in its natural habitat!
Aren't the flowers pretty? Pretty misleading, if you ask me...

Of course, these voracious, violet creatures are absolutely harmless... That is unless one is senseless enough to slip into one for a quick swim or to rest, like an insect looking for somewhere shady and discrete. Even then, it's truly the plethora of microbes who digest any hapless intruders, not the purple pitcher plant. Among the bold souls actually attempting to live therein are small, hairy protozoans who call themselves Colpoda. Well, really, we call them colpoda, as they don't talk, and they aren't so much hairy as they are ciliated... but they are small–microscopic even!

Here are some now, right under a microscope!

Here begins the story of our ecology class, and how we learned of these heroic colpoda... 

One sunny afternoon, we embarked out on a journey through the fens, fending off misquitoes as we navigated our boats carefully to the fabled floating peat moss islands. Pulling up alongside, we found the pitcher plants in numbers so great, we were too afraid to go ashore the islands. I was just the helmsman of my canoe, but remember it all well– our daring crew using only a pipette and a steady hand pulled the rain water vile with microbes and detritus out and locked it in the most secure vials aboard the vessel.

The valiant crew of our canoe. Thankfully, we all survived, and never once capsized.

Once back at port, we Grand Caravanned back to the lab to set up an experiment. Our scheme was simple, we were to see how well these colpoda would survive when pitted against the their arch nemesis, the dreaded mosquito larvae. We then intended to contrast this grim treatment by giving others a surplus of decidedly delicious fish food. Naturally, we kept a sample as natural as possible, giving them nothing but an environment and our control.

Though our data were slightly biased by sampling techniques and starting populations, we were filled with fascination as we finished the experiments. The control group grew steadily, but were altogether not particularly remarkable. Those populations living in lush excess were found growing at accelerated rates, rising to levels more impressive than any of the other groups. However, both of these pale in comparison to the excitement experienced by the hardy colpoda engaged with the villainous mosquito larvae. These valiant individuals held strong against constant predation for four long days, eventually giving way on the fifth and losing most, if not all, of their numbers.

Every tale deserves a fine ending, and this is certainly the finest.

The end.

Thank you for reading.

–Al Manner–

Invasives and Antioxidants

So on May 14 for our first experiment at KBS we went to the KBS Bird Sanctuary to investigate two extremely common invasive plants in Michigan:

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)       

                                   

         

    and Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis).                  

                                                     

We wanted to see how flower color and anti-oxidants played a role in the type of plant in each habitat.  Both of these plants can live in three environments: sunny, shady, or partly sunny and shady.  We roped off plots in each area, counted the number of plants, their flower colors, heights, number of leaves, and even timed to see how many pollinators visit a plant.  Even with all the bird and the bees, my flowers got little to no action.  But that’s okay, after snapping off some petals and leaves, we dashed off to the lab to measure antioxidant concentrations.

So what are antioxidants?  They protect us (or plants in this case) against harmful rays from the sun.  Garlic mustard or Dame´s rocket may have adapted higher antioxidant concentrations allowing them to grow in sunnier locations.

The verdict: the shadier the location, the more antioxidants the plant has, probably because the plant doesn’t have to use antioxidants as much in the shade.  My group noticed a lot of purple flowers in sunny and shady habitats but not so many white flowers in partly sunny and shady habitats.

Lux Arbor Adventure

On May 20^th our class ventured to the beautiful Lux Arbor in order to study how Pumpkinseed sunfish can influence community composition and snail size distributions as well as snail behavior.  We were focused on 5 ponds in particular, two of which are known to have fish predators and the other three contained no fish. Our instructors, Idelle and Jorge, had recently placed pvc pipes in each of these ponds/lakes with the hope that the snails would colonize the pvc pipes and we would be able to collect data on their genus, size, habitat, thickness and behavior.

Unfortunately, the pvc pipes didn’t really work out. Watch this video to see us discovering our misfortune.

Idelle couldn’t have said it better, “BUMMER!”  But these things happen in field work and Idelle was quick to come up with a solution to our dilemma. Instead of collecting snails directly from the pipes she suggested we use nets to dig up muck and sort through it to find the snails by hand. So that's what we did. Some of us had more fun with it than others, but I think Casey was particularly enthused in her waders ;)