Hammock Park

Hammock Park is located in Dunedin, Fl. We visited the park on november 18th, 2016. The weather was cool and dry. The main ecosystem that you can find at Hammock Park would be the hardwood hammock. The hammock area covers almost all light from touching the ground, so the plants their have to adapt by climbing up the trees (Vines) or reserving their nutrients so they can grow as soon as they are able to get some light. At Hammock Park there was first 336 species of plant life between 100 different plant families found , but since then they have identified 20 more. Some of these species are oaks, palm, saw grass, live oak, hickory, wax myrtle, ferns, and wild coffee. They also have a butterfly garden, where you can see many different types of butterflies. Another popular animal you would see is birds like, osprey, woodpecker, blue herons, and mockingbirds. here are some of the plants I saw:

Hardwood hammocks rarely burn, and is the fastest growing ecosystem in Florida. there are three different types of hardwood hammocks as well, mesic (moist), hydric (wet), and xeric (dry). Some threats to the park and this ecosystem would be development, air potato, rosery pea, and fire is not good so dry conditions would be a bad thing.  

Eagle Lake park

Eagle lake park

• For Our final project Ken and I decided to go to Eagle lake park. The day we went, It was really sunny and windy. I honestly never been to the park but it honestly was way bigger than i expected.We walked for over two hours and didn't got to go throughout the whole park.

• The park offers a play ground, about  6 picnic areas and 2 doggies parks which I found really cool.We also got to see different kind of animals like turtles and different fish.

 

Also after speaking to a park ranger, they explained us that the two main Ecosystems are the hardwood hammock and pine flatwoods. The biggest concern to this park are the visitor, this is because on many opportunities they leave trash on property and take away vegetation.

Overall it was a great experience and a great park to visit and have a nice walk with great views.  

Caladesi Island State Park

Caladesi Island State Park is located in Dunedin, FL. It is a large barrier Island connected to Clearwater Beach. The Island was formally known as Hog Island,until a hurricane came though and split the Island into two different parks (Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island).

There are many different ecosystems at Caladesi Island. The few main ecosystems are beach dune, maritime hammock, coastal strand, mangrove forests, and pine flat woods. The park seemed to be doing well with all three visits that I made. There was evidence of a prescribed fire the third time I had gone to the park, as you can see below.

There was a lot of different plant and animal species there, but the ones that I saw were a gopher tortoise, evidence of a raccoon, evidence of ghost crabs, butterflies, ants, and sponges that had washed up on shore. I also saw various types of birds, such as; seagull, ospreys, and great blue herons. 

Something that I thought was unique about this beautiful park would be that it is never groomed and it is preserved so that it can maintain its natural ecosystems. The park will also never be developed. This is a great place for kayaking, especially in the mangrove forest. Swimming is also recommended because the water is nice and clear, but beware of stingrays! 

Chassahowitzka River and Wild Life Refugee.

Chassahowitzka
Dylan Coderre

We chose Chassahowitzka for our term project due to our love of the untouched florida river spring habitats and experiencing it in a kayak or canoe. Chassahowitzka is a 30,000 acre nature and wildlife preserve and acts as a sanctuary for an incredible amount of birds fish and mammals.

Having been several times to this river we had no idea how much there was to learn about it after seeing it with new eyes from what we learned in this class. Seeing how the different ecosystems intertwine and change from what to the other and being able to actually identify why they change from freshwater coastline to hammocks to palm scrubs or pine flatwoods

Things that I learned from talking to the guy that checks in hunters in the wild life refuge is that they primarily hunt boar there and boar's uncontrolled can actually become a nuisance and destroy environments if they're over protected. Also the Eagles Nest cave in the very south of Chassahowitzka is one of the most dangerous caves in the world for cave diving and 10 people have died there since 1980.

Weeki Wachee

Weeki Wachee
Diane Oganesova
Sunny

For our term project, Kristin and I chose to visit Weeki Wachee. This was my first time ever  going to the spring, after hearing so many great things about it.
In 2008, Weeki Wachee was bought by the state of Florida. Due to Florida purchasing the property, we were able to preserve such a beautiful spring. If it would not have been purchased, the spring would currently be replaced as a construction site.
Weeki Wachee is a small town located in Hernando County with a population of 12. It is greatly known for their mermaid shows. Celebrities traveled world-wide to Florida just to see the performances! Who would've known!
It is a fresh water ecosystem. 117 million gallons of 98.7% fresh water is pumped through the aquifer, daily at 74 degrees year-round. Weeki Wachee is self-sufficient, meaning it is able to support itself without humans. With too much environmental stress caused by humans, freshwater ecosystems tend to break down, food webs become distorted, and plant/animal species may disappear.
The water originates from the green swamp. The green swamp starts in Ocala and goes all the way towards Lakeland. Development is also a large threat to Weeki Wachee.
I had an amazing experience going to Weeki Wachee. It was absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to plan my next trip there!

 Mermaid show

 Mermaid Statue

 Pretty Flowers

 Views from the boat tour

 Kristin and I

 Buccaneer Bay

 Picture during the mermaid show

 Taro

Photo before the boat tour

Coopers Bayou

Diane Oganesova
09/30/16
Coopers Bayou
80 degrees (nice and sunny)

We tested the salinity in the bayou and it turned out to be 15.
Coopers Bayou is a mixture of fresh and salt water.

Mangroves deal with high salt concentrations by: excreting it from their glands. Mangroves store more carbon that terrestrial forest. They help fight coral bleaching, while also helping climate change.
Areas with shallow water, typically have more salinity.

There are four main mangrove species: red, white, black and buttonwood.

red-pointy, darker green, waxy. they float, give birth to live organisms. usually found closer to shores, considered "excluders."
black-underside is white/excretes salt. darkest color on the outside, and typically the tallest in size.
white-lime green in color and have black dots (pores). furthest from shore, and do not have many ways to deal with oxygen. they have glands to excrete salt from water.
buttonwood- excludes salt from salt water and has little white pop up flowers.

Mangroves are highly productive ecosystems.
-high dominance of organisms but very low species diversity
-high in nutrients, with producers being the main part of the food web.

Estuaries and mangroves are two main food webs: detrital and grazing.
Grazing means to eat live photosynthetic organisms.
Detrital means eating dead organisms. (Occurs when you have a location with no light to produce photosynthesis.)

Threats to estuaries and mangroves are: development, pollution, erosion and dredging.

Hammock Park

Hammock Park
11/16/16
Diane Oganesova
85 degrees (hot/humid)

Hardwood hammocks are the most abundant forest in FL! They are the only community that is expanding!

The biggest threats to Hammock park is litter, exotic plant species, floods, and a lot of sunlight.

Hammock parks are found on a more slightly elevated area. The difference between deciduous and evergreen is that: deciduous trees loses all of its leaves at once during season, and grow back during other seasons. While, evergreen has leaves year round, lose some, but new ones grow back right away.
Ex: Whitepine=evergreen, Oak tree=deciduous.

A few animals that can be spotted within a hammock community: barred owl, blue jay, osprey, ducks.

Hammock communities don't require too much sunlight. If that's the case, then how do plants deal with the low light conditions, you ask?
They learn to adapt to the atmosphere. All they need is water to grow, they can keep their leaves longer, and during parts of the year, different plants can be in season due to amount of sunlight being let in.

Hammocks are classified as dry (xeric), moist (mesic), or wet (hydric).
xeric contains little moisture.
mesic contains a moderate amount of moisture.
hydric contains very wet soil.

Hammocks tend to occur in locations where fire isn't as common, or where there's some sort of protection from fire within neighboring ecosystems.

Brooker Creek

11/04/16
Brooker Creek
Diane Oganesova
77 degrees (breezy/sunny)
High Pine and Pine Grasslands

Brooker Creek is greatly threatened by people, droubts, and not having prescribed fires. This park needs to receive 'prescribed' burns to thin out the pines.

The preserve itself is 8,000 acres. 55% uplands, and 45% wetlands.
High pine grasslands formerly, were the most common ecosystem in the state (covering almost 3/4's of FL). During the 19th century, because of logging, that changed which resulted into, now they are only found as a secondary growth forest.
A few ecosystem functions within a pine community are: protection, enjoyment, food, shelter, source of fire.
Within communities, you may encounter an indicator species or a keystone species.
Findings of indicator species symbolizes that the ecosystem is more "in-tact."

Within a pine community, the indicator species would be a gopher tortoise because it burrows up to 40ft long, providing a hiding place.

Within a flatland community, worms are considered to be indicator species because they "air out" the soil.

Again, the preserve is dependent on prescribed fires to thin out and get rid of extra pines.

Brooker Creek

11/4/16

Kaelyn Jenkins

Brooker Creek

     We visited Brooker Creek to learn about High Pine Grasslands and Pine Flat-woods. These communities were the most common ecosystem found in Florida but that all changed because of logging in the 1900s. These pine communities are fire dependent, so the park needs to have prescribed burns every now and again. Prescribed burns is when the park lights a section on fire purposely. This controlled burning can stimulate the germination of trees and reveal soil mineral layers which increases seedling vitality, therefore giving life back into the forest. Prescribed burns also help with opening up space and controlling diseases. These pine communities are actually very functional. They are perfect for protection, shelter, lumber, carbon storage, and source of fire. 

     A change in elevation in a ecosystem can make a huge difference. High pine grasslands can be found in high elevation. The grasslands have two forest layers where the ground layer and canopy is. Pine flat-woods are can be found, in the opposite areas of high pine grasslands, in low elevation areas. The pine flat-wood's canopy, shrub layer, and ground cover are the three forest layers.

     You can tell if a community is thriving or not based on indicator and keystone species. You can't have a community intact without an indicator species. They are essential to an ecosystem. To survive species depend on keystone. An example of a keystone species is the golfer tortoise because the tunnels, abandoned or occupied, they build can be used as a dwelling for other creatures.

     This ecosystem is greatly  threatened by fires, people, droughts, and development

Sawgrass Lake Park

10/14/16

Kaelyn Jenkins

Sawgrass Lake Park

     The temperature was around 80 degrees at Sawgrass Lake. While at the park we learned the differences and similarities between the ecosystems of lakes and ponds. Doodles you know a lot of sinkhole lakes are found in Florida? Sawgrass lake is a seepage lake which means it gets its water from the ground and the rain. The water is trapped the only way out is through evaporation. Sediment has a long-residence period due to this. 

     The acidity in the freshwater of the lake, created by fallen dead leaves, has a pH of 6. But the shoreline had an abundance of vegetation. In  the lake some submerged plants could be hiding. We learned there is a restriction of photosynthesis due to light not being able to reach the lower depths of the lake. Vegetation that was not on shore and not hidden below in the depths of the murky water, was floating on the surface. These floating plants thrive because they can get direct sunlight at the surface and aren't weighed down by foundation. 

     The biggest threats to this ecosystem are: humans, climate change and lead, from the nearby gun range. The gun range contaminated the lake with lead. They fixed the contamination back in 2015 and periodically check the lake for new contamination.

Hammock Park

11/18/16
Kaelyn Jenkins
Hammock Park

     On a bright and sunny day we headed out to Hammock park to learn about hardwood hammocks. We learned about how plants deal with low light, the three types of hammocks, and the difference between deciduous and evergreen.

     Plants in hardwood hammocks have to deal with low light conditions. But lucky for the plants, they have found a few solutions for their low light problem by either growing fast to reach the light, having broader leaves, holding onto their leaves longer, growing slow while biding their time, or the use of allelopathy. Allelopathy is chemical warfare for plants, plants use this technique to take out the competition.

     Then we learned about the three types of hammocks, xeric, mesic, and hydric. Xeric which are dry with low nutrients and high up in elevation. Mesic which is more diverse and moist with vegetation, like evergreens, pines and cabbage palms. Hydric hammock is wet and has may have standing water.

     There is a difference between deciduous and evergreen. Deciduous trees lose all of their leaves at once during one season and grow new ones in a later season. Evergreen trees have leaves all year long, they will lose some leaves but new ones will grow right back. Not all hardwoods are evergreens, maple trees are deciduous while alms and pines are evergreens. At the least the hardwood hammocks have two main layers. One of the layers is the diverse canopy. Another layer is  the understory or shrub layer.

     Without fire, the way for new trees to spring up is through gaps created from fallen trees. This is called succession. Some major threats to this ecosysytem are development, invasive species like the air potato, and fire.

Hammock Park

Hammock park is located in Dunedin and was owned by a church.  It was a nice day, dry and in the 80's

The park is very shaded due to the canopy coverage. 
The  hardwoods the grow in that park (any hardwood) are angiosperms. We also learned the difference between deciduous and evergreens. Evergreens are green all year round and don't drop their leaves, whereas deciduous trees change color and drop their leaves in the cold months. Most plants thrive in the cooler months because the canopy layer has opened up and sunlight is shining though. Hammock park had Mesic(wet) and Xetric (dry) areas. 

The hardwood hammocks help moderate temperature , water filtration, and carbon storage. The biggest threats are dry weather and humans

Honeymoon Island

Madison and I ended up visiting Honeymoon Island 3 times. We talked to a park ranger who said that all plants here are drought tolerant. The animals here have to withstand drought as well. There is no fresh water on the island. Honeymoon does prescribed burns that used to be called controlled burns. The reason they do this is to reduce catastrophic fires, to help restore the ecosystem, kill non native species, and help plants who need fire to reproduce. They burn different zones at a time to try and mimic the natural cycle of fire in the ecosystem. This can be anywhere from 3 to 5 years depending on the plant. They factor in wind conditions, dryness, and KBDI, which is a drought index determining the amount of rain and the absorption of rain. One of the many ecosystems here is the beach dune ecosystem. Honeymoon is a barrier island that takes the bulk of storms and helps protect against erosion. A clear example was on our first trip here during that big hurricane on the east coast. The line of mangroves by the water helped protect us from the majority of the wind. Once we stepped past a break in the mangroves all the wind was back at us. Beach dune ecosystems also help stop flooding from occurring inland. The island also provides people a relaxing and peaceful destination. Honeymoon used to be one island called hog island because they had hogs. In 1921 a hurricane broke the island apart into two. That created what is now Caladesi and Honeymoon Island. The spot the hurricane ripped through to separate the islands is called hurricane pass that is about 300 yards long. Some of the threats to the ecosystem are people, erosion, raccoons that eat sea turtle eggs, invasive species, development and hurricanes. Some of the plants we observed were sea grasses, sea oats, railroad vine, mangroves, sea grapes, cabbage palm, saw palmetto, etc. Some of the animals we saw were armadillo, jellyfish, coquina, fiddler crab, sponges, evidence of gopher tortoises from their holes, dogs, lizards, fish and a spiney orb weaver. The other ecosystems beside the beach dune were tidal flats, coastal salt marshes, mangroves, coastal strands, sea grass beds, and mesic pine flatwoods.  We really ended up learning and experiencing a lot Honeymoon Island had to offer.

Hammock Park

On our trip at Hammock Park we did a lot of walking on the many different trails. Hardwood hammocks are a dense growth of broad-leaved trees (hardwoods) on a slightly elevated area. Some non-hardwoods can still be there.The difference between deciduous and evergreen is that evergreen keeps their leaves while deciduous drops all their leaves. Not all hardwoods are deciduous. Palms and pines are evergreens while maples are deciduous. Hardwood hammocks always have 2 main layers at the minimum. The canopy is always present and often diverse and either the understory or shrub layer is also always present. The ground cover is often absent or sparse. Hardwood hammocks are characterized by hydrology and fire. They rarely flood or burn and the soil is very rich in nutrients. The hardwood hammocks contain high species diversity but limited new species because of limited space and light. The lack of light is a very big adaption that many organisms have to deal with. The ways they can deal with low light is chemical warfare, broader leaves, viny plants, and plants holding onto their leaves longer than other plants. The way for new trees to spring out with the absence of fire is from tree fall that creates gaps allowing succession to occur. Hardwood hammocks can be classified as xerix, mesic, or hydric. Xeric are most likely to burn, are dry, have good drainage, lower in nutrients, and higher in elevation. Mesic has lots of vegetation, is moist, has organic (humus) material, has evergreens, pines, cabbage palms, and is more diverse and denser. Hydric is wet and has standing water for a period of time. There is low infiltration and high saturation.  Hammocks produces large amounts of oxygen. Threats to the ecosystem are the air potato which is an invasive species, rosary peas that can kill you, development, fire, and reduced precipitation.

Hammock Park

Hammock park is in Dunedin and was owned by the church at one point in time. The park is very peaceful and shady due to the canopy coverage. We learned about hardwoods which are angiosperms and the difference between deciduous and evergreens, which is deciduous change color and shed their leaves during the season change, evergreens are green. Hardwood hammock canopy that we saw was diverse with a thick canopy and the under story shrub layer and sparse ground cover. there was a lot of liter on the floor. We also learned about the difference between xetric which is dry and mesic which is moist and hydric which is wet. These are all hardwood hammock types. We did taste a leaf it kind of had a cherry taste. The threats are people and carbon storage and water and nutrient cycle and reduce heat. The high diversity provide habitat to numerous species and the increase soil infiltration and aquifer recharge. I really liked this part.

Taylor Park - Chosen park

Taylor Park
Largo, Fl

     Taylor park is a park located in Largo, Fl that has a nice trail all the way around a large lake along with a couple shelters to be used for group parties. This park could be characterized as a lake ecosystem due to the large lake in the center of the park. The most productive part of the lake is the shoreline as there is a lot of activity there. There are many plants and animals that spend the majority of their time on the shoreline. Many fish will spend their time there to feed and hide from other predators. While no fish were observed on this trip, there were signs posted to inform fisherman about what type of fish are living in the lake. There were also a lot of types of insects along the shoreline that interacted with the plants. Some of these insects included butterflies that are important for fertilizing plants and dragonflies were also present.
     There were many types of birds along the shoreline of the lake. These birds are known to feed on grubs in the soil of the lake shoreline. They would wade around and poke at the ground searching for food. Some birds include: white ibises, wood stork, ducks, and anhingas. Turtles and alligators could also be seen in the lake. This is a typical environment for all of these animals as the freshwater lake provides many food options and shelter for all of these animals.

This is a wood stork which is an endangered bird. They are native to Florida and can be seen in similar environments. 

All around the park were Slash Pines. The Slash Pines drop their needles and this allows for a more acidic soil allowing the pines to grow better in that soil. 

Part of the shoreline along a more shallow part of the lake. These trees are Bald Cypress and they are typical tress for this environment. They need a lot of water in order to maintain their health. The 'knees' act as pneumatophores which allow for oxygen exchange when the water levels get too high. 

A turtle sunning in the shallow water. 

White ibises can be seen grazing along the shoreline eating various grubs in the soil. 

White Peacock butterflies spend time on the plants along the lake shoreline, pollinating the plants.

Little blue heron spending time in the shallow water. 

An unknown plant that was found along the shoreline of the lake. 

Great blue heron along the lake shoreline. They spend time looking for food along the shoreline and in the shallow parts of the lake. 

Anhinga. This bird spends time fishing. They do not have oils on their wings which allow for the waterproofing and after diving or spending time in the water they need to dry their wings before they can fly. 

American alligator. These animals are characteristic of Florida freshwater environments. They eat birds and fish in the lake. 

An Anhinga drying its wings after spending time in the water. 

Hammock Park

Dunedin, FL

     Hardwood hammocks usually consist of hardwood trees and usually at a higher elevation. Of course, some other trees that are not considered hardwoods can be present. At Hammock Park, there were a lot of Live Oaks that made up the majority of the canopy. The understory consisted of ferns and vines. The vines are there due to the lack of light. Since there is little light that gets through the canopy, the vines are able to use the teller trees as support and thus can use less of their energy for structural support and more for growing taller.

     There are three types of hammocks: hydric, mesic, and xeric. Hydric hammocks have a more wet environment, but the water doesn’t usually last all year. The amount of water in hydric hammocks depends of rainfall for the year along with the type of soil present. If there is more clay in the soil, then the water will take longer to percolate through; which is the case with hydric hammocks. Mesic hammocks are slightly more dry than hydric hammocks but still have water for some part of the year. The soil has slightly more sand in the soil which allows for greater drainage of the water making the mesic hammock more dry. Xeric hammocks are the last type of hammock and they are the driest of the three. They have the highest amount of sand in their soil which allows for quick drainage. Xeric hammocks are also more likely to burn compared to the other two. This is because of the dry environment and because of the lack of fire in high pine grassland environments which are prone to fire. If a high pine grassland has not had fire in a long time, a hammock will eventually develop.

     One way that hammocks can change is when a tree falls. This is called gap succession and allows for more light to enter the understory allowing other plants to grow. Some plants are adapted to grow very quickly when gap succession occurs. The plant will grow more broad at the bottom and store energy when it is ready to grow taller and shoot up when there is an opportunity. Another way that the hammocks change is through mechanical thinning since fires do not usually come through. The thinning allows for new things to grow along with providing dead material to be decomposed by fungus or worms. 

American beauty berry a native plant to Florida and is currently fruiting. The berries can be picked and made into a jelly. 

Castor plant. The seeds of this plant are poisonous. 

Cherry laurel. This plant was found as part of the understory of the hammock. A cherry scent can be smelled if the leaves are rubbed to release the smell. 

This is a hydric hammock. Hydric hammocks are wet for part of the year and can have different plants than the other types of hammocks due to the water. 

Monarch caterpillar.

Hammock Park

Madison Bommelaere
11/18
Hammock Park                              
                                                                Hammock Park
                    Hammock Park in Dunedin off of alt 19 is a large park with many walking trails through the thick hammock forest. The whole park is pretty shady due to the coverage the hammock's canopy creates. Today we have learned that the hammock hardwoods are all angiosperms along with the difference between evergreens and deciduous. Evergreen trees are trees that are always green like oak and deciduous trees are trees that change color and shed their leaves during the change of seasons like maple trees. During class we also learned how the smaller plants under the canopy have adapted to the low light conditions. The plants deal with low light conditions by growing vines to climb up to the sunlight, bigger leaves to catch light ans water, and they hold on to leaves longer after the canopy thins out. We learned that hammocks almost never burn because they are green and moist, so they grow due to allelopathy which is a chemical secretion of germination and growth to the other plants. Though plant use allelopathy to expand they also grow because of succession from not being cut or burnt down. The hammocks consist of Xeric which is dry and usually have lots of moss and other epiphytes growing on them, Mesic hammock which is moist and higher in nutrients, and the Hydric hammpck which is a swampy hammock that his high in nutrients. I noticed the Xeric was very sandy which has a high drainage rate which is why its dry because water cannot collect and pool. Because hammocks rarely burn, fire is a major threat to this ecosystem for it would wipe it all out. Other threats to the ecosystem also consist of invasive plants like the air potato and human development.
Overall this is a great park but be prepared for your shoes to fill up with sand!