Microclimate-Team+3

media type="custom" key="4472735" Figure 1: This is the Google Earth image of our area.

**__SITE OVERVIEW__** The site (Fig. 2) is located near the back bus driveway. Coming into the school it is located to the left side of the drive. If you look for the first secluded tree to the left you will see our microcosm. The grass before the tree is where the majority of our studies took place (Fig. 2, 7). The school is to the north of the site where the back faculty parking lot is located (Fig. 3). To the south there the back driveway leading from Rt. 401 up to school (Fig. 4).To the east is where the tennis courts and that corporate business building are located (Fig. 5). Along the whole west border of our site there is a construction wasteland (Fig. 6). Our site has numerous leaves and sticks. You could basically walk in your backyard and study the same stuff we saw. The tree that is in our site is filled with life and it seems to be very healthy. Overall our site is very basic, but we found a good amount of interesting oraganism and findings.

Figure 2: This is the site we chose to study.

Figure 3: This is the view of what lies to the north of our site. Figure 4: This is the view of what lies to the south of our site Figure 5: This is the view of what lies east of our site. Figure 6: This is the view of what lies to the west of our site. Figure 7: This is what a typical sample area within our site looked like. __ **MICROCLIMATE DESCRIPTION ** __ In our area of study, there was only one microclimate present; there was little to no variation between our samples. A Pasco Xplorer GLX was used to collect all of the data ion the abiotic factors in the table below (fig. 8). Figure 7 above is a good image of what our microclimate consistently looked like. It was located at the base of a tree stretching out towards the back drive way by Rt. 401 leading to school. It was very standard and the data we collected (fig. 8) was very uniform. (%) || ABSOLUTE HUMIDITY (g/m3) || SOIL TEMP (˚C) || Figure 8: This table represents all of the data on the abiotic factors we took from the separate plots on our transect line. It also shows the averages. 
 * SAMPLE || TEMP (˚C) || LIGHT INTENSITY (LUX) || DEW POINT (˚C) || RELATIVE HUMIDITY
 * 1 || 20.6 || 164 || 15.9 || 76 || 13.8 || 19.7 ||
 * 2 || 20.6 || 166.3 || 15.8 || 78 || 13.9 || 18.6 ||
 * 3 || 20.6 || 180 || 16.6 || 75 || 14 || 18.1 ||
 * 4 || 23.9 || 150 || 16.4 || 68 || 14.7 || 18.6 ||
 * 5 || 24.3 || 175 || 17.1 || 65 || 15.3 || 19.1 ||
 * 6 || 22.2 || 155 || 16.1 || 71 || 15 || 19.1 ||
 * 7 || 21.9 || 130 || 15.3 || 70 || 13.8 || 18.8 ||
 * 8 || 21.7 || 132 || 15.8 || 70 || 13.9 || 18.7 ||
 * 9 || 23.2 || 160 || 16.2 || 68 || 14.2 || 18.7 ||
 * 10 || 23.3 || 128 || 16.6 || 68 || 14.4 || 18.7 ||
 * **Averages** || **22.2** || **154** || **16.8** || **70.1** || **14.3** || **18.8** ||

__ ** ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH OF ORGANISMS FOUND **__ Because only one microclimate was present, the types of abiotic and biotic factors was very consistent throughout the area. In our area we found male catkins, dandelions, white ash leaves, trembling aspen leaves, three leaf clovers, and regular grass. Grass was the most common thing in our site. There was also a good amount of twigs, ants, and seasoned leaves. Pine cones were scattered about the area and so were berries. There were also hercules clubs, and a mix of lyphocolea and saligeria. There were chunks of bark in our site, and rattlesnake ferns. There was a considerably large gypsy moth nest in our tree. Within the nest there was 2 spiders, ants, caterpillar larvae, an earwig, twigs, and leaves.  Most of these organisms are extremely common. There was a fairly consistent and moderate amount of shade and sunlight so standard organisms like common grass (fig. 14), dandelions (fig. 10), and three leaf clovers (fig. 12) prevailed and were the most abundant. Since there was only one tree in the direct vicinity of our site, all of the leaves (fig. 11, 13), pine cones (fig. 16), male catkins (fig. 9), and berries (fig.17) were at our site because of being blown there by the wind, tracked there on someone's shoe or by an animal, or brought there by a car or bus using the back driveway. The rattlesnake fern (fig.20) was laying at our site because it thrives in rich woodlands, and great valley does indeed have woodlands near our site ( Connecticut Botanical Society 2005 ). Moss such as lyphocolea (fig.19) and saligeria, thrive in shady, moist areas such as the base of our tree in our sight. The hercules club leaves (fig. 18) were found laying at our site because it thrives in deep moist soil. They typically grow in the forest, or at the edges of forests. The areas surrounding our site area are perfect climates for the hercules club especially since a hercules club is good at adjusting to soil conditions and sunlight. (Koch, not dated). Figure 9: male catkins Figure 10: dandelions  Figure 11: white ash leaves  Figure 12: Four leaf clover

Figure 13: Trembling aspen leaf Figure 14: Grass  Figure 15: Ant  Figure 16: Pine cone  Figure 17: Berries Figure 18: Hercules club  Figure 19: Lyphocolea  Figure 20: Rattlesnake fern  Figure 21: Gypsy moth nest  Figure 22: Spider  Figure 23: Spider Figure 24: Caterpillar larvae Figure 25: Earwig

__**Bibliography**__ 

Connecticut Botanical Society 2005, http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/ferns/botrychiumvirg.html Koch, K.(not dated) http://www.fs.fed.us/global/iitf/pdf/shrubs/Aralia%20spinosa.pdf Websites for the pictures: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/2008/images/white-ash-leaf-web.jpg http://greenmgpl.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/grass.jpg&imgrefurl=http://greenmgpl.wordpress.com/2009/04/&usg=__NGZWGdrFcTWihP8gd6_VJ9P44xM=&h=311&w=500&sz=177&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=ToCA5XPPFYapLM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgrass%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1 http://paintedbeautyjewelry.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/four-leaf-clover.jpg http://z.about.com/d/forestry/1/0/t/Qaspen.jpg http://dacorum-premier-pest-control.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/pests/common-black-ant.jpg http://www.lonestarchinchilla.com/store/images/pinecone.jpg http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/960/90002908.JPG http://www.butler-bremer.com/web/kladage/Orange%20Berries%20with%20Raindrop%20(41144).jpg http://www.andrewspink.nl/mosses/pictures/Lophocolea%20semitres%208561.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/3897657577_5bcf6c31ae.jpg http://www.utc.edu/Faculty/Hill-Craddock/Updates2005/TACF-ASA-SAMAB_files/Closeup_male_flowers.JPG http://i.pbase.com/g4/83/676683/2/62803825.w06mZ6Ue.jpg http://www.rittenhouse.ca/content/images/Big/bug_barrier.jpg http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/earwigs.jpg http://www.grianherbs.com/herbs/dandelion.jpg&imgrefurl=http:__//__www.grianherbs.com/herbs/dandelion.htm&usg=__aGw7aJQ6ZSxYyxcrG8QrcqX09H4=&h=400&w=288&sz=61&hl=en&start=14&tbnid=0IOLKrYk07o_NM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddandelion%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

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By: Katrina C, John M, Mike C, and Neema K **