Hello from Canada, eh? Before I forget, I wanted to let everyone know that while I was working in a wetland ecosystem called a fen today I caught several wood frogs! Yay for HERPS!!! I would like to answer a few questions that have been posted on the blog. Natalie wants to know how I am feeling. I feel great because I love science field work, working with other scientists/teachers, and laughing. She also wants to know how the switch to the arctic has affected my sleeping and breathing (I have asthma...) Sleeping here is a bit of a bummer, because the sun basically never sets. Its pretty much light out all the time. I took a blanket off the top bunk of my bed that no one is using and built a fort around the bottom of the bunk where I sleep to make a darker environment. The blanket also traps a little heat! I am breathing great. The the air is cold and clean. Canada is beautiful! Also, I am not in the higher altitudes like I was when I studied in Wyoming, so the air molecules are closer together.
For Drew's questions, I have a fellow researcher, Luann, helping me with the questions. In this video, we just returned from working in a fen ecosystem which is similar to a bog, so we are looking quite awful. I nearly lost one of my Muck boots in the hummocky fen! Basically we go to several different ecosystems each day and survey one by two meter random land plots. We are looking for three different tree species to monitor their germination in each of the different ecosystems. This will lead to conclusions about the movement of the tree line.
SCIENCE CONTEST!!! I will send the first blog follower a post card from the arctic who posts an answer to the following question. Be sure to include your mailing address with your answer! Here's the question. What are three differences between a FEN and a BOG?
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Well, I'll be honest and say, I have absolutely no idea what the answer to your question is. However, my question is easier! As of right now, is there any overpopulation going on with any animals or plant life?
ReplyDeleteA bog is mossy wetlands and their water usually comes from rain and snow. And a fen is alot like a bog but is from when a glaicer retreated. The plants from the fen makes it look like a meadow.That would be may best answer.
ReplyDeletemy mailing adress. 500 glennapple dr. new carlisle OH. 45344. all the details.
Fens, compared to bogs, have greater water exchange, are less acidic, and their soil and water are richer in nutrients.
ReplyDeleteScotty Snarr
1008 Steven Circle Drive New Carlisle, OH 45344
Oh okay, so Drew gets a video but your own flesh and blood doesn't? Cool.
ReplyDeleteTo scientists, I'm sure fens and bogs have many over-technical and frivolous differences. However, to us normal people, both places are probably mucky, brownish mosquito traps that hold no appeal whatsoever. From a literary perspective, though, the word 'fen' holds a much more pleasant connotation. The word is often used to describe an enchanting out doors area in which romantic scenes are held. A marvelous example of this is displayed by the novel "The Sweet Far Thing" by Libba Bray,in which the character Kartik sacrifices himself to a demonic tree in order to secure the heroine's safety. A fen has also been associated with the habitation of fairies and other supernatural creatures.
Bogs in literature could be called the opposite of a fen, at least in the sense of connotation, because the term holds a sort of foreboding, ominous feel. In adventure settings, such as those in the novel "Of Bees and Mist" by Erick Setiawan, bogs are a place of misfortune and setbacks, for example, in the aforementioned book, when the character of Daniel loses his sight in the bog after his wife discovers he has been unfaithful.
I know you miss me, mommy :)
1 Bog water is acidic; fen water is neutral or alkaline.
ReplyDelete2 Bogs are fed mostly by rainwater; fens are fed by surface water, groundwater, or both.
3 Because bogs are very acidic, competition from other plants is nearly non-existent and peat or sphagnum grows abundantly. Peat is also present in fens but is two to six times thinner than the peat layer in bogs.
4 Bogs have few nutrients to support plant material but fens are rich in nutrients that were brought in from ground water that has traveled above or below the surface.
Pat Chastain
9517 Lower Valley Pike
Medway, OH 45341
The only bog I have been to is the one on St Rt 68, however, they say it is only here because of the great glacier?
ReplyDeleteLiterally I agree, fen's are for fairies and the bogs are for werewolves.