A UVM blog Rocco Salomone’s Phenology Blog

Today I made my first visit to my blog spot. My area is centered around a stream which comes from two drainage basins behind the WDW complex on Redstone Campus. I chose this spot because I loved the Potash Brook lab. I thought it would be cool to see how where I live directly affects a stream and how the stream would change throughout the seasons. As I walked off the trail I took note of the most common species surrounding me.

I saw lots of tall sugar maples turning bright yellow and orange. I also realised that the farther from the trail I walked, the more Eastern White Pine saplings I observed. This was odd because I struggled to find any full grown Eastern White Pines.

Once I arrived at the stream I tried to measure it’s deepest and shallowest parts, I estimated the depths at 10cm and 1cm. I think today the water was deeper than usual since it was actively raining while I was taking observations.

The stream was flowing quicker than the last time I visited my area and I saw some bubbles starting to form on top of the water. At first I though this was just the water being oxidated by turbulance but as I looked closer I saw how the bubbles were more of a scum.

I also saw some of the Duckweed that completely covers the larger of the two drainage basins accumulating in certain parts of the stream. I think that the scum is likely caused by oil runnoff from one of the many nearby parking lots. I think this because in certain small puddles next to the stream I saw a thin shiny film over the water. I am not sure what causes the overgrowth of Duckweed but it may be related to over fertilization which could be explained by the nearby golf course. I cant wait to see how the forest around the stream and the stream itself change throughout the season. Hopefully by the end of our phenology project I will have some ideas on how to fix the issues I observed today.