Posts

Post #8: Reflections

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I loved this assignment. It was so much fun exploring and going more in depth into one of my favorite places to be outdoors.     I felt that I learned a lot about the history of the mountain as well as how the park service that maintains the mountain was formed. I am a lot more confident about identifying the various animals and plants local to the area as well as being able to find resources to help me identify them when I am not sure. Going outside to learn and being up close and personal with what you are learning about is the best way to learn and I am excited to see where my career will take me (hope it is outdoors as well). 

Post #7: The Invasive Garlic Mustard

 

Post #6

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     Today I went through and used the soil analysis tool. I found it very useful to find the makeup of the soil of the area. The soil was mostly made up of Musella and Pacolet stony soils, 10 to 45 percent slopes at 37.3% and Wateree-Rock outcrop-Louisburg complex, 15 to 45 percent slopes, bouldery at 20.5%. These are both soils found on hills and uplands, which makes sense since I looked at a vegetation report earlier and found that Kennesaw Mountain was made up of Piedmont Open Uplands and Woodlands as well as Piedmont Upland Forests and Shrublands. They are also acidic, which makes it the perfect soil for the pine trees that grow one the mountain.     I found the tool very easy to use. I did not feel that it helped much at my knowledge level to help me learn about the biodiversity of the area, but it did bolster the knowledge I did end up gaining later about the vegetation. It was a lot of help figuring out about the water and soil components of an area...

Post #5

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When I look for climate information about Kennesaw Mountain, I do not generally get the most specific information. Kennesaw is not one of the big named cities in Georgia like Atlanta, Ellijay, Savannah, etc. I generally had to look at cities around Kennesaw or look at maps of the entirety of Georgia and pinpoint the Kennesaw area.  From https://weatherandclimate.com/united-states/georgia/kennesaw, I was able to find that Kennesaw was a humid subtropical climate, meaning mildly cold winters and very muggy summers which I can corroborate. Our hottest month is July and coldest is January. Our wettest month is July and driest is November.  I used https://sercc.oasis.unc.edu/Map.php? to find the Average High Temperature (75 degrees) and Average Low Temperature (56 degrees) and Total Rainfall (45.63 inches) over the past year.  The National Weather Service https://www.weather.gov/ffc/Spring2024ClimateSummary was able to provide me with information about the last seaso...
 I found this to be incredibly easy to use. The 15 minute video was luckily more than enough to teach me how to use it. I was lucky enough to pick Kennesaw Mountain as my choice in area. There are vegetation reports that help me locate certain habitats and there are many pictures. Thank you! https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1X3LOivQyGf25oAXxEFeUE6uLEYYvH8g&usp=sharing

Basics of Ecology

 
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 Blog Post #2 Biodiversity and Its Importance     My definition of biodiversity:  Biodiversity is the interlocking web of life from the smallest bacteria to the largest of blue wales. It encompasses every animal, plant, fungi and microorganism.      When we think of biodiversity in the local sense, we think of the unique ecosystems that we all might walk through. We see the bees pollinating flowers, who in turn give pollen that will make the honey for the bees. We see the fungi break down fallen trees so that they may be used by other critters. There are unique systems that the fauna and flora all participate to make each local eco system thrive. Each place both environmentally and culturally important. We walk, play, and learn in these areas.      Then we think of biodiversity in the regional sense. No ecosystem has hard borders that the plants and animals cannot pass through. The ecosystems interact, making the local borders very flexi...