Brooker Creek Preserve
November 4, 2016

Brooker Creek Preserve is about 8700 acres large and is located in Tarpon Springs, FL. When we visited the preserve, it was a perfect day. The weather was dry and cooler than what it had been in the last few weeks. There was not a single cloud in the sky. The first part of the trail included the swamp area. Something that was lacking in this area was the forest floor because it was filled with water. Some problems in this type of ecosystem would be drought and potential fires that would burn the canopy layer. Some functions that play a role in the wetlands would be temperature control, flood control, water filtration, and carbon storage.
The next area we looked at was the pine grasslands and the pine flatwoods. This was the area where we could see the palmetto and the pine trees at the broom and adult stage. Somethings that is important to this ecosystem if fire, so that it can have more nutrients to survive. Something I thought was interesting on this trip was that the gopher tortoise is a keystone species and can help other animals survive a fire. They are able to provide shelter for more than 360 species. The main threat to this ecosystem would be not having fires because of development in the areas. I saw many birds, but very few other animals were spotted. In the park you can find gopher tortoise, rattlesnakes, birds, frogs, worms, and wild turkey.