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Naturalist Perspectives Assignment 6


SITE ALPHA TO SITE ALPHA:

Location:Site Alpha
Date: 4/21/17
Time: 1:52 pm
Weather Conditions: Raining and gross. Cloudy and gray. 45℉.
Things perked up a little. Was less brown, and more light green. There was no snow and a greater variety of plant growth. There were fewer leaves. I suspect this was because they disintegrated and not due to human intervention. There were a couple very small pieces of trash in the corner (plastic bottle caps), which leads me to believe that the area is only moderately maintained.





SITE ALPHA TO SITE BETA
Location: Site Beta
Date: 4/21/17
Time: 12:40 AM
Weather Conditions: Raining and gross. Night time. Cloudy (no visible moon). 45℉.

In theory, I probably could create a chart that identifies the number of species of vegetation at each site. I could also include a column to indicate any additional living organisms, although to be honest I did not actually see any animals, including bugs. This is likely due to my poor eyesight and the fact that I did not know what exactly what I was looking for. I doubt there are actually no bugs at all. If there were, that would be concerning. I say I could do this in theory because in reality, I do not know how to create a chart or table on this blog.

The key difference is the diversity of plant species at each location and perhaps the frequency of human intervention in the process of plant growth. Site Alpha has at least 20 of different plants and shrubs growing right next to each other.  I can't be 100% certain about the number, since I am not especially good at identifying plant species and may have lumped some things together that should be considered different species. Site Beta had only one type of flower, two different trees, and some of those narrow weed looking things, which I think might actually just be part of the flower.  There were also some larger bunches of flat leaves and that one short green plant in the center bottom of the picture below, which has big, upturned leaves that grow out of a stem. Unlike the plant in the bottom left corner, the leaves on the centered plant have raggedy looking edges.
Both sites are definitely intentional, though the degree to which they are intentionally maintained seems to be different. Most of the large plants and flowers at Site Alpha seemed like they were probably intentionally placed, but others did not. I am making this assumption based on the spacing of the plants, since people don't usually plant things right on top of each other. At Site Beta, everything was spaced out. There was also a nearly perfect circle at the foot of each of the two trees within which nothing was growing. Even when a tree blocks the plants beneath it from getting light, the absence of growth is usually more asymetrical, so this suggests a high level of human intervention and maintenance.




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