Hammock Park

Date: 11/20/14
Weather: 61 degrees Fahrenheit, 95% cloud coverage
Area: Managed

Hammock Park is a 90 acre hardwood forest. It has higher nutrients because it is a lower elevation hammock, which is why I'm surprised I didn't see more water.

Dr. G found a Pineapple! Or at least an epiphyte that looks very similar to one!

This is a picture of the shrub layer. Most of the park consisted of a shrub, understory, and canopy layer.

This is a tree that was most likely harmed in some way and the black scab on the tree is a way of recovering itself.

This area was probably burned down which is why there is large open space. This will allow for sunlight to come through and new plants to start growing.

Coca-Cola

This plant is called Indian paintbrush or also known as prarie-fire.

This tree was about 2.5 students round. Although I don't know which exact tree this is, I do know that  Sweetbay trees are the oldest trees in Florida. On certain trees I saw Spanish moss and resurrection fern which are both epiphytes.

Victoria Millman

Hammock Park

For our very last field trip, we explored Hammock Park in Dunedin. It was around 47 degrees out and there was about a 95% cloud coverage. Hammock Park is a manged environment that got its name because the map of the park looked like a hammock. 

The park had numerous different trails that you could walk, jog, or take your puppies on a stroll down.

The park also had trash cans that where made to put air potatoes in, so they can try to keep the species from spreading.

Imani pretending to be an air potatoe.

 

 

The park also had a large diversity of plants. We saw mangroves, Oaks, potato vine, beauty berry, Spanish moss, beach lavender, Indians paintbrush, and many more.

We also saw a variety of animals. They ranged from bunnys to snakes, and lizards to turtles.

The park had a stream that outlined the back and side of the park. The stream had a wier in it. (a type of water gage.)

Picture of the stream on the backside of the park.

We also saw a tree that had a tree scab. A tree scab is when a tree tries to heal itself.

 

 

The black line is the tree scab.

Hammock Park

11/20/2014
Temp: 58 degrees
Cloud Cover: 95%

On November 20th, the class ventured out to Dunedin to explore Hammock Park to look at the hardwood hammock. The class saw several species of plants and wildlife, along with the three canopy layers, the canopy, understory and shrub layer. The park was once used as an area to grow citrus trees, some of which still remain.

Hammock Park

November 20, 2014 at 2:00 PM
63 degrees Fahrenheit; winds less than 15 mph; mostly cloudy with 90% cloud cover
Location:  Hammock Park

View of mostly closed canopy along the path.

     Hammock Park has three forest layers:  shrub, understory, and canopy.  Being a hammock ecosystem, the canopy was mostly closed with the exception of fallen trees creating opening for light to reach the forest floor.  This is the main source of disturbance in this ecosystem.  There were many vine and epiphyte species here, which makes sense because light is a limiting resource.  Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), air potato (Dioscorea bulbiflora), Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), and resurrection fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides) to name a few.  Hardwood species, such as live oak (Quercus virginiana) and sweet bay (Laurus nobilis) are typical in hammocks, but softwood trees like the cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto) can also be present.

Species List:
Plants:  
turk's cap
cabbage palm
live oak
sweet bay
air potato
virginia creeper
resurrection fern
red mangrove
black mangrove
white mangrove
beautyberry
wild coffee
spanish moss
pignut hickory
Citrus sp.
firebrush
shelf fungus
pokeweed
saw palmetto
wiregrass
slash pine
grape vine
Acer sp.
castor
hackberry?
cedar
buttonwood
rosemary sp.
bald cypress

Animals:
anhinga
monk parakeet
eastern grey squirrel

Hammock Park, Dunedin, FL

Hammock Park, Dunedin

November 20, 2014

System: managed
Environmental conditions: ~61 degrees Fahrenheit; wind NNE @ 6mph; 27% humidity with ~90% cloud cover. The day was chilly, so I was glad to have dressed appropriately :)

Hammock Park encompasses approximately 90 acres and is a mixed forest that was first surveyed in 1845. It has a low hammock with citrus trees scattered throughout.

This was our last field trip so the atmosphere was relaxed! We took a nice stroll through the park, which is beautiful. We observed Pine flat grasslands which consisted of sandy soil and two forest layers; the canopy and the forest floor which was sparsely vegetated with wire grass in the slightly higher elevations. We also observed a hammock hardwood forest which was my favorite. The intertwining vines provided an interesting visual effect, and there were many. We sighted several gap successions created by tree fall; consequently ferns and vines abounded. Also seen were various detrital organisms that consisted of weirdly shaped fungi upon the fallen trees.

At the beginning of the walk, we saw beautiful Turk's Cap plants with lush red flowers in bloom. Sorry, phone cam not functional at this time!

At the end of the walk through the forest we saw weirs that were constructed in succession across the creek to measure the flow of water. Also seen was mesh and broken asphalt along the creek banks to minimize erosion.

I enjoyed our field trips, and am happy to have shared the experiences with so many nice people! Thanks for a great semester and good luck in all your future endeavors :)

~Ivy

Upper Tampa Bay Park

On Monday November 24th I took an adventure out to my park that I am doing my project on. It was like 75 degrees out with almost no cloud coverage. I just looked at the saltwater ecosystems. I saw a bunch of different plants and all the different types of mangroves. Here is some pictures!

Red Mangrove

Oysters

Hammock Park-Dunedin Florida

Hammock Park

Weather: 60 Degrees F, 85% cloud coverage
Time: 1400-1510
Date: 11/20/2014


      Sadly this was our last field trip for our field biology class, no more will we trudge through the wilderness together.....

     Hammock Park is located in Dunedin, Florida. It is a maintained park that has wide trails with crushed oyster shells on top, Frisbee golf course, baseball fields, and a playground. Hammock park is also home to an oak hammock, hence the name. There were citrus trees throughout the park, remnants of seeds from fruit eating humans. The soil here is sandy, and the dominant trees are oaks and palms.

Here is the class in action mode, for the last time

 

 

 

    

The meandering trail at Hammock Park

There were lots of piles of feces all along the trail, and if you were not careful it would become squished into your shoe tread. I could not identify the species of creature that deposited these.


                             

A hole in the canopy of trees

A creek runs through the park. It operates as a storm drainage ditch

This native hut was located along the trail. I am not sure if a Hobbit lives in it, or some very talented wild animal

     Hammock Park does have some very impressive older mature trees in it. Overall its environment is in good shape for how much use it gets from the residents of the surrounding area.

Hammock Park. And the many entrances.

Location: Hammock Park  11-20-14  95% cloudy.  It was a nice 60F so a little cool out so almost everyone was covered up.  Once you got into the sun it felt like it was in the 70F but we were in the shadows. It is a maintained park, they even have a play ground area for the kids.  We came here to see a Hammock Eco'.

                                             Just because how they did the sign was funny.

                                               Turk’s Cap. To me they look like bells.

                                                   Wild Coffee, they have nice shiny leaves.

                                                        What I want to say...I won't...
                                                    I will call them tree huggers though

                                                                        Citrus trees

                                       

                                             We thought it could have been a puffball sadly
                                                                         it was not

                                               We can see the different layers clearly now
                                                                with the sun light

                                      Looking for a momma and baby turtle.  Not successful.

                                               Everybody looking at the turtles.  Or fish.

                                 Black Racer. We also got to final see Buttonwood mangroves.
                                            We got to see another Bat house NOT Bat box...
                                             They sleep there so it therefore must be a house.
                               The teacher & I got to see a Cactus Opuntia that looked like Micky.
                                                                 Brittany P.

Moccasin Lake Park

Date: Nov 6th, 2014
Temperature: 77 degrees
Cloud Cover: 25%
Area: Managed

On November 6th, our class took a trip to Moccasin Lake Park in Clearwater to see the oak hammock, canopy layers and the lake. The first thing I observed at the park was a Black Vulture named Elvis. Elvis is the oldest black vulture in captivity in the world. Next to Elvis was a Bald Eagle who had to have a wing partially amputated after hitting a power line. The class saw several animals species in the park, such as peacocks, alligator turtles, another bald eagle and we also saw a large alligator on the opposite side of the lake. We also saw several plant species such as slash pines, laurel oaks, live oaks, wax myrtles and some bald cypress.