Today I visited the brook in Centennial Woods once again. There had been a massive rainstorm yesterday and a lot of wind today. This caused the vegetation around the brook to be extremely flattened. Also, there were parts of the brook that were very deep due to the influx of water to the area. Another damage included that the trees in the area were bare and all the leaves have fallen from them from the wind passing through the area. The water in the brook was brown and opaque due to the lifting of nutrients from the bottom of the brook through the rapid moving water in the brook. The walkway that allows one to cross over the brook on the trail was completely wiped off and floating around the brook. A few of my friends and I put it back. This is very different than the other times I have been to the brook. This was my first time visiting after a major storm and I was able to see the effects it had on the area. Some organisms that I think characterize the brook right now are leaves, grasses, sediment, water, rocks, and branches. I think these organisms characterize the brook right now because of the abundance of all of these in the area. One organism included in the grasses was cattails. There have always been an abundance of rocks which I have identified as shale in the area and they cover the bottom of the brook. There were a lot of branches on the ground that were derived from birch trees, eastern white pine, and more due to the wind and the abundance of grasses around the brook was more apparent when they were all flattened. Leaves were also in abundance on the ground which included a lot of white oak leaves, as well as sediment due to the amount running through the water. I was not able to measure the sight depth, but I could not see the bottom of the brook because of the high amount of sediment picked up. I also think water is a characterizing factor in the brook right now due to the heightened amount in the area. I noticed the soil was very malleable and soft because of the high concentration of it. A lot of the soil had turned into mud, but I was able to notice the O horizon was about a centimeter or two thick. Mapping the brook was a bit difficult because before I went today I did not remember how the land was formed around it.
