Kevin Tran - Natural Site Observations

The natural site I chose is a shaded riparian corridor, with a meandering vernal creek bed sandwiched in between two oppositely facing slopes of gravelly loam. I base most of my observations on the north-facing slope, as that slope is easier to climb and less covered by dense poison oak. The north faced slope is well shaded, with large trees providing dense overhead cover, a perfect spot for birds. I have encountered black eyed juncos, bluebirds, sparrows, chickadees, and a couple stellar's jays. Large trees are sparse, but are old enough to have large cover, which is supported by intermixed shrubs and a dense groundcover consisting of multiple species. large trees mainly consist of coast live oak and a few eucalyptus trees, with small California buckeye trees. California laurel and figs make up the shrub portion, and the groundcover is dominated by catchweed bedstraw, petty spurge, and bur parsley. In more shaded areas, poison oak and miner's lettuce will appear. From a slope gradient, I noticed that as one moves up the slope there are more patches of sunlight, and using a line transect to observe 17m^2 of the field area, I found that in area with more sun, there is dense groundcover, taller growth, and an increased count of bur parsley and petty spurge. In the line surveyed, there was a diversity of 6 species, but if I surveyed further, there would be more species included, not to mention that different species clump together in different microhabitats. Near the creek bed is where one would find a large patch of ivy and some poison oak, along with a few individuals of catchweed, bur parsley, and petty spurge, this is zone 1. Zone 2 consists of laurel shrubbery and some buckeyes, with patches of spurge and parsley ground cover, with intermixing of poison oak and trailing blackberry, as well as catchweed. Zone 3 is similar to zone 2, except with taller spurge and parsley due to more sunlight streaming in. Zone 4 has similar composition to zone 3, with some oaks, nettles, manroot and miner's lettuce also appearing. Zone 5 is nearing the top of the slope, with dense laurel and tall, flowering hemlock. Zone 6 is where annual grasses and mustard, along with sparse hemlock appear, with some vetch as well. I focused on an area that was between 27.5m in length by 16.1m in width.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42638411
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42141048
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42141392
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42141878
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42142239
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42142855
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42143784
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42638409

Posted on May 5, 2020 08:28 PM by kevint1206