Hitchiti Ginger =D

We went hiking through the Hitchiti Forest and got to take in the great nature. There are controlled burns in the forest to observe  and study the ecosystem and how it works. Me and a couple of others took a crazy route to go up the river. I wish we could've taken pictures and a video but a couple of people fell into the river. There were two plants in particular that we emphasized and it was sassafras and wild ginger. The wild ginger is low growing and they prefer the shady areas under the giant oak and pines in the area.

The other plant we emphasized was sassafras. It was very interesting because it had multiple different types of leaves growing from the same stem. Sassafras can also grow to be a medium sized tree. I'm still waiting on Dr. Rood's answer on how sassafras and genetically grow 3 different leaves at once.

Dr. Rood also found this nice hole that seemed to be a rotting trunk but we could stick our arms in there and explore. I definitely didn't want to be bitten by anything so I decided not to. But here is a great picture of me hugging a tree at Hitchiti =)

Jackson Springs!

     Jackson Springs Park is located within the three oldest suburbs in the city of Macon. The park used to be apart of Baconsfield park and had an in tact zoo. The park was split up for commercial development. We had rock hammers and picks. We also used a magnifying glass to examine the quartz and different elements of rocks we found. There were a lot of granite and quartz. We found some feldspar and other rocks that had mica and hornblende crystals as well. Some people decided to go through the tunnel and come around back to the group. I couldn't do this due to unsuitable footwear, but I still had a fun time bashing rocks and examining them =) We found a nice salamander to play with as well.

Lake Mayer in Savannah, Ga.

Lake Mayer is one of my favorite places to go and relax. It's basically a huge lake with a giant piece of land in the middle. There is a bridge you can go over to reach the middle and that's where the tennis courts and basketball courts are located. There is also a common building people would use for barbecues, but can be also used for festivals, such as the Lunar Moon festival that the Vietnamese community likes to celebrate. It's awesome. I have many childhood memories. There is also a 2 mile path that can be traveled to exercise and there are different exercising stations around the path. There are a lot of ducks that you can interact with but apparently there are some alligators in the lake as well. People often sail in the lake and kayak. It's a beautiful place to be and I always go there to relax and have a moment to myself.

Ocmulgee National PAAARRRRRKKKK.

It was quite fun. We listened to one of the workers at the park tell us the story and timeline behind the people that were native to the region of the park. We learned about the different reasons Native Americans settled in Macon. Great environment and weather were perfect reasons to settle in Macon. They lived by a Fall Line, which both had rolling hills and good coastal land in order to farm. The Fall Line gave the people different areas to live in but can navigate through a central river and have great land that they could grow crops and flourish in. We went as a class on a trail and Dr. Rood took us through the woods. At first we saw a snake about 4 ft. in length, it was pretty interesting. Then we saw this decaying tree and talked about the different levels of decomposition in the floor of the forest. The leaf litter piles on top of each other and the bottom most level would start to decay and be taken over by some fungi and continue to break down to create a rich soil. We also passed by a creek bed and Dr. Rood explained that flash floods would roll through and erode the walls of the creek bed. The erosion helped us see the different layers and types of dirt and soil that characterized the creek. We also saw holes and pockets by at the bottom of the creek and Dr. Rood explained that those were the week points which where dirt would be washed away by the floods and creek water.

This was the entrance to the structure that the native americans would meet and congregate on topics, such as laws, or have meetings. It was rather large 

Negative Feedback Loops...Bad for us?

Simply the negative feedback loop is an occurrence, wether positive or negative, that will change the current stable levels but will ultimately end right back at homeostasis. For example, blood sugar will increase with the amount of sweets eaten, but after a certain period of time the blood sugar will return to its stable level that it has always been at.

The reason for the return to homeostasis is due to insulin and glucagon. If there is a spike in glucose in the blood then the pancreas receptors will release more insulin and targets the liver. The liver will then store the glucose as glycogen for later use. If there is a decrease in glucose the pancreas receptors release glucagon and tells the liver to use the glycogen stored, and turn it into glucose.  The chart above shows Dr. Rood's blood glucose level rising as he ate the snickers and drank the can of sprite. His blood glucose spiked but his body's natural response was to release insulin to control the extra glucose and store it in the liver for later use and returned his blood glucose level back to normal which was 104 mg/dL. It was an interesting experiment watching him prick himself and continuously check his blood levels haha.

12 Soil Types Of The WORLD! Plus Lab!

Easy Acronym to remember...

I.H.A.S.M.O.V.E.G.A.U.A

Inceptisol- soils with weakly developed subsurface horizons


Histosol- organic soils


Andisol- soils formed in volcanic ash


Spodosol- acid forest soils with a subsurface accumulation of metal-humus complexes


Mollisol- grassland soils with high base status


Oxisol- intensely weathered soils of tropical and subtropical environments


Vertisol-  clayey soils with high shrink/swell capacity


Entisol-  soils with little or no morphological development


Gelisol-  soils with permafrost within 2 m of the surface


Aridisol-  CaCO₃-containing soils of arid environments with subsurface horizon development


Ultisol- strongly leached soils with a subsurface zone of clay accumulation and <35% base saturation


Alfisol-  moderately leached soils with a subsurface zone of clay accumulation and >35% base saturation


All descriptions were taken from this website. All credit is given the University of Idaho. =)


http://soils.cals.uidaho.edu/soilorders/orders.htm


GELISOLS!
I found gelisols interesting because there are only about 9% of it on the Earth. They show very little morphological change. Most gelisols store large quantities of organic carbon. The frozen condition of some gelisol landscapes make it hard for human interactions.


LAB!

We had a pretty fun time with Dr. Rood. He destroyed a lot of ant colonies but we dug into the land and found a new adjective to describe some levels of soil as Clayey. We used a sieve, which had several levels of fine mesh in order to separate the dirt. But since the dirt was so moist it was hard to get past the 2nd or 3rd level. In some picture you could see Joshua and Leslie using the tools we would use in order to get solid samples. We also went to the public garden and observed all the plants including certain bugs that were in the vicinity, such as spiders, ants, and grubs. We all had a fun time playing in the mud as well and had a mud fight with Dr. Rood. It was pretty Awesome.

Shrub, Plants, and TREEESSSS!!!!!!!

Plants

Species: Chrysanthemum indicum

Genus: Chrysanthemum

Species: Green Onion

Genus: Allium

Species: Mexican Petunia

Genus: Petunia

Species: Tradescantia pallida

Genus: Tradescantia

Species: Zinnia elegans

Genus: Zinnia

Shrubs

Species: Aloe vera

Genus: Aloe

Species: Brugmansia arborea

Genus: Brugmansia

Species: Japonica

Genus: Camellia

Species: Ilex aquifolium

Genus: Ilex

Species: Ligustrum japonicum

Genus: Ligustrum

Trees

Species: Birch

Genus: Betula papyrifera

Species: Crape Myrtle

Genus: Lagerstroemia Indica

Species: Dogwood

Genus: Cornus sanguinea

Species: Gingko Biloba 

Genus: Gingko

 

Species: Magnolia grandiflora

Genus: Magnolia


Plant of Choice:
I chose to describe the Angel's Trumpet. It contains a high level of toxicity, contact with eyes could cause pupil dilation.The name Angel's Trumpet refers to the large, very dramatic, pendulous trumpet-shaped flowers, 14–50 cm to 20 inches long and 10–35 cm across at the wide end. They are white, yellow, pink, orange or red, and have a delicate, attractive scent with light, lemony overtones, most noticeable in early evening. Very attractive... but very dangerous! DO NOT INGEST!