Grant L. Wednesday, October 8, 2009 3/3

What We Did Today:

• We went to Snake Hill to work on field study
• Perfromed basic tests (temperature, weather)
• Measured tree height using trigometry
• Calculated percentage of shade, grass and shrub coverage of the quadrant

My Thoughts:

• "Wow, it is way to cold for this."
• Calculating tree height was kind of interesting because it showed a real application of math. Plus I've always wondered how high the trees on Snake Hill and all around Sundre are.
• This field study is an interesting way to get a first hand perspective on what Biology really is, which is hard to see in a classroom reading a textbook.

Above And Beyond:

• I noticed that on Snake Hill, and in much of the Sundre area, trembling poplar are the dominant species. This is because trembling aspen are one of the few trees that spread by suckers from each other. This means that much of a forest (or growth to use proper terminology) is connected. This lets the trees live in areas other trees cannot due to poor soil or water because they can share nutrients and water. Also, trembling aspen are well adapted to short growing seasons as they can perform photosynthesis from their trunk, not just the leaves.
• I would suggest at least thinking about why plants and trees are where they are, you would be surprised at how well adapted they can be.
• You should know the difference between the circumferance of a tree and the diameter. How to make a triangle to calculate height of trees and what percent means.