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Q: A biology field trip of the applachian trail. ( No Answer,   2 Comments )
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Subject: A biology field trip of the applachian trail.
Category: Science > Biology
Asked by: jemas21-ga
List Price: $8.00
Posted: 03 Sep 2002 18:04 PDT
Expires: 03 Oct 2002 18:04 PDT
Question ID: 61443
1) In the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in southwest Virginia
tell why it is important to understand the distribution of salamanders
especially the lungless including Weller's, what hint does this
information give about climate changes in the past and how does this
imformation relate to global warming changes?  2) How does the study
of varves and tillite in Konnarock, Virginia relate to recent deposits
in Lake County, Illinois and what can we learn about the history of
the earth by studying layers of rocks?  3) Working with the climate
and history of area tell what rainfall, streams, and waterfalls have
to do with the distibution of plants and animals in the Mount Rogers
National Recreation Area in southwest Virginia?  4) Connect the three
questions in 500 words.  We are in a canyon that has a big canyon, a
waterfall in it.  What does that have to do with the distribution of
organisms in the Laurel Fork Gorge?

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 04 Sep 2002 12:42 PDT
I'd appreciate an answer within 24 hours.  Thank you.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 05 Sep 2002 13:50 PDT
This was an august3-17th field trip.

Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 05 Sep 2002 14:12 PDT
Dear James, 

Do you have any suggestions how someone who did not participate in
your class' field trip (all of the Google Researchers, as opposed to
you) can answer better than you?

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 05 Sep 2002 15:20 PDT
I read about salamanders and how it is important to find out why they
are able to regenerate any parts of their body, but this was not
brought up on our field trip. We captured and released mole, eurycea,
jordan, and weller's salamanders. I don't have the first name of Mr.
Weller, but I think what I'm looking for is why are weller's and the
lungless salamanders rare and unique to the summits of Mount Rogers,
Whitetop Mount, and Pine Mountain.  I know it has something to do with
a Canadian wildlife zone, and the shift in climate and organisms as a
person goes escalates the mountain.  We stopped in Lebanon, Indiana
and learned how the last glaciation period, the Wisconsinid flattened
the land of the midwest, left fresh water lakes, a bog in Volo,
Illinois, a moraine, and the Illinoisid glaciation about (?) 1 million
years ago.  We did not go into the Nebraskid, or even learn the names
of the other two glaciations.  We also stopped in Cumberland Gap in
Tennessee.  I don't understand about this special varve that is in
Konnarock, Virginia across from Weaver's gas station and restaurant. 
I haven't found any material on the Laurel Fork Gorge, but I realize
that North America was connected to Europe and Africa and that through
the glaciation that happened their millions of years ago, the shifting
of the earths platelets, that the Applachian Mountains and the water
systems were formed,etc.  I know that Mt. Rogers and Whitetop Mt. our
the remnants of an extinct volcano.  I have not taken any other
biology courses, these questions came as a total surprise.  I had been
taking notes on the spruce and fir trees at the top of the mountain,
about the flowers, fungi, plants, and we saw a doe, a fawn, a grey
squirrel, and a cottontail. I know the salamanders main predator is
another salamander. I learned that the mounains of Iron Mountain which
I also hiked, although we drove to the top of Whitetop, and the other
mountains change and our more conducive to certain organisms living
their as you go up, or down , and that you as you go to the north
their is less sun.  If I had biology I would possibly also know about
the absorbtion or evaporation of rain on a mountain.  Thank you for
helping me. We identified plants like Queen Anne's Lace, puff balls,
death angel mushrooms , poison ivy, and the square stem with opposite
leaves mint family.  We also identified the wild orchids.  I hope some
of this information helps,  because I don't know anything about
geolgy, glacial periods, platelets, varves,etc.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 05 Sep 2002 15:21 PDT
I read about salamanders and how it is important to find out why they
are able to regenerate any parts of their body, but this was not
brought up on our field trip. We captured and released mole, eurycea,
jordan, and weller's salamanders. I don't have the first name of Mr.
Weller, but I think what I'm looking for is why are weller's and the
lungless salamanders rare and unique to the summits of Mount Rogers,
Whitetop Mount, and Pine Mountain.  I know it has something to do with
a Canadian wildlife zone, and the shift in climate and organisms as a
person goes escalates the mountain.  We stopped in Lebanon, Indiana
and learned how the last glaciation period, the Wisconsinid flattened
the land of the midwest, left fresh water lakes, a bog in Volo,
Illinois, a moraine, and the Illinoisid glaciation about (?) 1 million
years ago.  We did not go into the Nebraskid, or even learn the names
of the other two glaciations.  We also stopped in Cumberland Gap in
Tennessee.  I don't understand about this special varve that is in
Konnarock, Virginia across from Weaver's gas station and restaurant. 
I haven't found any material on the Laurel Fork Gorge, but I realize
that North America was connected to Europe and Africa and that through
the glaciation that happened their millions of years ago, the shifting
of the earths platelets, that the Applachian Mountains and the water
systems were formed,etc.  I know that Mt. Rogers and Whitetop Mt. our
the remnants of an extinct volcano.  I have not taken any other
biology courses, these questions came as a total surprise.  I had been
taking notes on the spruce and fir trees at the top of the mountain,
about the flowers, fungi, plants, and we saw a doe, a fawn, a grey
squirrel, and a cottontail. I know the salamanders main predator is
another salamander. I learned that the mounains of Iron Mountain which
I also hiked, although we drove to the top of Whitetop, and the other
mountains change and our more conducive to certain organisms living
their as you go up, or down , and that you as you go to the north
their is less sun.  If I had biology I would possibly also know about
the absorbtion or evaporation of rain on a mountain.  Thank you for
helping me. We identified plants like Queen Anne's Lace, puff balls,
death angel mushrooms , poison ivy, and the square stem with opposite
leaves mint family.  We also identified the wild orchids.  I hope some
of this information helps,  because I don't know anything about
geolgy, glacial periods, platelets, varves,etc.  Please email me.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 05 Sep 2002 15:45 PDT
We also identified the ferns fragile, wood, and Christmas.  We
identified mosses like club and pine, and trees like the mountain ash
or elm.  We ate blueberries, saw all the native rhododendron, and
walked through
Rhodendron Gap.  We walked along the abandoned railroad used many
years ago for logging and identified second growth trees and plants.
Their was tillite inside tillite, but where did come from?  We hiked
Dickey Gap Trail down to Comer's Creek.  Where do the waterfalls in
that area come from?  This was a pretty basic biology course I wasn't
given anything in depth other that what I'm mentioning in my notes, we
also looked at different sets of rocks in the area and what they told
us about the history of the earth and sometimes how the earth
sometimes had water running through it and how the layers of the
former earth had been shifted, but why?

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 05 Sep 2002 17:13 PDT
Not only did we find Weller's salamander on the top of Whitetop
Mountain,  But we found the four legged insect, the flying grasshopper
with no hind legs which is only found on Mount Rogers and I don't know
his ancestry or why he is the unique insect with four legs only found
on Mount Rogers.  There rocks everywhere, but it is a preserved land
and I understand why.  We also hiked a part of the Virginia Creeper
Trail.  We identified the two different kinds of mushrooms of which
there were many kinds, and even found a death angel.  Our grasshoppers
only have four legs instead of six, and Weller's and the other
salamanders our lungless and live in this Canadian wildlife zone
although they aren't found in Canada.  We saw different streams with
boulders in them and wondered how they arrived there, both the rock
debris and the stream.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 05 Sep 2002 17:44 PDT
The  grasshopper is not as important as the salamanders.  Thank you.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 07 Sep 2002 11:51 PDT
Dear --k-,  We learned that there was a Continental Glacial about
1,000,000 years ago, but I'm not sure that it answers my question
about the varve or about the rainfall, streams, or waterfalls.  Maybe
the ice from one of the glaciations melted that far south and left the
varve, I'm not sure.  I know the land in the midwest where I'm from is
flat, because of glacial activity, and that there was no Atlantic
Ocean,or organisms, and we didn't know about the continental divide
until 1959.  I know that White River is the old preglacial Ohio River,
and that prior to the Illinois glaciation the Ohio river wasn't where
it is today, and that glaciers reshape the moraines which are big
piles of gravel.  I learned about Chestnut blight, and that Oak trees
distribute their acorns differently and we haven't figured out yet if
they can do this by communicating with each other.  The Applachian
Mountains are NE to SW and are left by the continental rocks which are
sitting on magna that collided.  Five times  North America, Europe,
and Africa collided and eroded.  The ripples of the rock happened deep
in the earth when the earth pushed up and the folds were rippled by
rivers that ran east and west.  600,000,000 million years ago Mount
Rogers and Whitetop Mountain were a volcano.  The rooftop of Virginia
is known as little Alaska, because it's colder up there, and in the
morning it is wet even if it hasn't rained in a month.  Alot of the
trees are tall and skinny to make it to the sky as fast as possible
and stand up in the woods.  Tulip trees are disturbance trees, because
they grow after you cut things down.  This is the lungless salamander
capitol of the earth.  The Jordan is the most common he absorbs oxygen
through his skin and pumps mainly through his mouth.  There is a point
in the mountain or woods where the leaf litter is one leaf thick.  A
millipede is a good mezic forest indicator.  Many plants make
themselves taste bad or toxic to survive, for instance Oak leaves have
lots of tanic acid and taste terrible and there is a certain
relationship between that and what deer eat, as they are browsers that
like buds bark and new trees and are more numerous in new or cut over
growth.  Mushrooms have either gills or spores and mosses compete. 
Pine Mountain is a ridge that comes down from Mount Rogers.  Water and
ice move rock, and if land is above sea level it does erode.  There is
such a thing as a classtic wedge, it's thick then gets thinner as it
goes west. The St. Lawrence River is geologically identical with
Finland and Norway.  Some of the biggest mountains were volcanos.  Co2
is increasing on the earth, but water is the biggest depletion of
ozone, because it hold heat.  The last five ice ages have been within
10 to 15 million years and glacial deposits are called till.  Vocanic
rocks don't erode fast.  Water in a valley needs a place to go moving
rocks and mud.  A glacier melts  and pushes sludge and rock back.  It
layers the lake and the edge with sediment, and the varve is the
layers of this sediment. The varve we looked at was in between Laurel
Creek and Laurel Valley Rd.  During the Wisconsinid the northern 2/3
of the U.S. was in ice 2 miles high. We hiked part of the Virginia
Creeper Trail starting at Laurel Creek, Green Cove Creek, and Whitetop
Creek also known as Creek Junction, and hiked about 6 or 7 miles to
Taylor's Valley. Climate is temperature and water, and I learned about
cutaneos or skin respiration.  Ther are less molecules of air to hold
heat as you get higher up the mountain, and the salmander as has to
have the right temperature and rainfall.  So even if there is the same
amount of rain you get a different humidity.  They clip the
salamanders toes and use a cotton ball of formeldahyde alcohol and
those salamanders who have had this done do not return to where they
are from like the ones who didn't have the cotton ball on there nose. 
We don't know why?  There was no significant change in the climate
down in southwest Virginia during the Wisconsinid.  It's the same as
it is today.  I guess by digging a hole and looking at the rocks we
can guess what the temperature was in the past. Organisms have to move
fast enough or adapt to the ozone depletion. If it became warmer or
cooler where the Weller's salamanders live it would the amount of
salamanders.  Reproductive isolation has happened vertically and one
group has evolved into different groups.  Species are altitude
dependent and at the top of Mount Rogers it is known as a Canadian
Life Zone, with its Spruce and Fur trees, because of the similar
weather patterns.  It's a mist forest(cloud), because it's misty there
is alot of precipation at the high elevation of Mount Rogers because
of the mist.  Acid fog is surrounding the area.  Higher up on the
Mount Rogers we saw the Dutchman's Pipe plant, and the Frazier Fur and
the Red Cedar are predominant.  There are so many volcanic rocks and
downed trees there.  Particle size is determined by the ocean's size. 
The Weller's salamander is temperature altitude intended.  Frazier Fur
hold the shallow soil to the steep wet slopes.  My varve is older that
570,000,000 million years old, was alternating layers of grit and clay
and probably formed in a glacial lake, but I don't know which one, or
how it got where it did.  Pairs  of layers were formed annually. We
hiked to the Massie Gap Overlook and feasted on the High Bush
Blueberries.  I sure hope you can help me, I'll be able to handwrite
my paper and I need 500 words.  Thank you.

Request for Question Clarification by knowledge_seeker-ga on 07 Sep 2002 13:14 PDT
Hey jemas21,

Is this your class?

http://www.clc.cc.il.us/home/bio564/nathistsyllabus.htm

-K~

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 08 Sep 2002 13:31 PDT
Many species of salamander are aquatic and live in rivers, streams or
springs.  The Weller's salamander is a terrestial species that needs
damp, moist, shady environments under forest cover.  These terrestial
salamanders must stay moist because they do not have lungs and must
breathe through their skin.  It is possible that the range of the
Weller's salamander was once more widespread during the Ice Age and as
the climate warmed, they retreated to the cool, moist mountaintops. 
Concerns developed among biologists and conservationists that timber
harvest activities could negatively impact salamanders by opening the
forest canopy which would raise temperatures and dry the soil.  Their
is also concern that road building and the military on top of Whitetop
Mountain was causing habitat loss or change.  It is important that we
protect the unique flora and fauna in this region, because their
aren't many areas such as this left in the world that can possibly
answer questions about the evolution of the earth.  The vast amount
questions of questions and answers can possibly help all the sciences,
including medicine.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 08 Sep 2002 14:54 PDT
Dear-k-- I don't have the clarification on the hints this information
gives about climate changes in the past and whether this information 
relates to global warming changes.  I wish I had clear and concise
answers so I can say that I did research these points and not retell
the what the teacher told me.  I need to look up the answers and
accomplish the researh part of my essay.  I hope you can help me,
because I really don't know my way around a computer and if I did I
have a feeling there is information to nail the answers to my question
right on the head and then it would be very easy.  I'd also like to
come away from my very fun trip having learned exactly what I'm
supposed to.  There must be somewhere that references the rainfall,
streams and waterfall and what they have to do with the distribution
of plants and animals in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, as
well as being able to tell me about the Laurel Fork Gorge.  I need
answers to my other questions and the researching is the hard part for
me, because I know their are clear and concise answers to the
questions.  This a research paper aside from my notes.  Can you help?

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 09 Sep 2002 13:36 PDT
Dear -k--, You have the right web site of the class I was in.

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 10 Sep 2002 16:43 PDT
Dear-k--, Were you able to find any information that pertains to the
subject of my questions?

Clarification of Question by jemas21-ga on 14 Sep 2002 09:53 PDT
I was hoping to find someone smarter that I am in biology to help me
answer my questions.  I haven't had any luck so far.  If anybody can
refer me to a biologist from Virginia who can probably answer my
questions I would appreciate it. I need to get started writing my
paper.  Thank you.
Answer  
There is no answer at this time.

Comments  
Subject: Re: A biology field trip of the applachian trail.
From: knowledge_seeker-ga on 05 Sep 2002 17:44 PDT
 
You know what jemas?  It sounds like you really did learn a lot on
that field trip! Teachers ask those end-of-the-trip questions to make
sure you were listening, but frankly I think what you've written above
shows you WERE listening. I mean wow! You've said a mouthful there!

It's too bad you can't take that whole thing you just wrote, run it
through a spell checker, and turn it in as your essay. I think you've
done a nice job of summing up what sounds like a long trip covering
lots of ground and lots of topics.

What grade level is this for? Maybe I can point you to some helpful
websites.

--K~
Subject: Re: A biology field trip of the applachian trail.
From: knowledge_seeker-ga on 08 Sep 2002 13:50 PDT
 
Jemas!

That paragraph you just posted is great! Did you write it? If so use
it as the beginning of your essay. It answers the first question
beuatifully. Just fix a couple of things:

1) Break it into two paragraphs. The first one ending after "they
retreated to the cool, moist mountaintops."

2) Spell the word terrestrial correctly (2x)

3) Change the word "their" to "there" in 2 places near the end (the
first "their" is correct)

That's 178 words down. Now focus on the second part of the essay.

Keep going! 

--K~

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