1. Try to identify 3 separate habitats (environments) identify 5 plants in each. Think about how the vegetation in each habitat has adapted to climate, soil, moisture?
The three habitats I saw differed significantly from each other. A dominating environment was woods. The primary plant in this habitat are fig, cypress, spanish moss, air plants, and ferns. The second most prevalent habitat was flatwoods which contained slash pine, sabal pine, palmetto, yellow eyed grass, and wax myrtle. Last but not least was Wet Prairie which was filled with sand cordgrass, St. John's-wort, water dropwort, blue flag iris, and buttonbush.
2. Try to identify 10 animals, what habitats do they occupy?
2. Try to identify 10 animals, what habitats do they occupy?
1. Grey Squirrel
2. American Alligator
3. Brown Anole
4. Red-Shouldered Hawk
5. Wood Stork
6. White Ibis
7. Light Blue Heron
8. Raccoon
9. Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper
10. Ruddy Dagger Wing Butterfly
3. Water is a very important element, how does the landscape retain/detain water?
The Sanctuary has two main seasons of change. Fall to Spring the sanctuary is dried completely, with little to no water to be found. In summer the sanctuary is filled with water that floods the entire area. Summer becomes the primary season of life. The Northwest outskirts of the sanctuary is a massive marsh. Through heavy seasons of rain this marsh will fill and bleed into the swamp. I interviewed one of the specialist at the Auburn center and she was very insightful. She explained the water brings in the fish, the birds know this and during season come to Corkscrew Swamp to feed. Upon the end of season majority of the fish are eaten or are left behind to to suffocate once the water is removed.
4. What seems to be the relationship of people and this environment? Have people adversely affected this natural area? In what ways? Have people enhanced it? What would you change?
Humans and this environment share a deep bond. Corkscrew Sanctuary is a small sample of what Florida once was before it was settled in the industrial revolution. Visiting this sanctuary allows us to explore nature and Florida's old history in a way that can't compare. Clearly building of the walkways has taken away some of the plant life of the sanctuary but it's a small price to pay for educating us on our natural world. If I could change one thing it would be a capacity to how many guest could walk the site at a time. It seemed as if there was too much foot traffic when I attended. While majority of the attendees were respectful it took away from the experience to have someone walk by and scare away an animal your observing.
