Ten days ago, my classmates and I began our trip around Wyoming to broaden our new knowledge about the geography and ecology of the West. We watched sunrises, camped in the badlands, visited incredible geographical formations, and swam in the Tetons. Although we all found it exhausting, every day was incredibly fulfilling and edifying. The…
Tag: Wyoming
Wyoming Spring Creek: Prairie Dogs Holes and the Surrounding Soil
When deciding what I wanted to do for my independent project, I knew that I wanted to do something related to the animals on the property. I’m specifically interested in small mammals, and the abundance of prairie dogs on the property made choosing them to research was an easy choice. Along with their strong presence…
Independent Project – Bizarre Vegetation Bands Along the Mowry Formation
In our first week on the Spring Creek preserve I noticed a strange pattern: Along the hillsides near our camp there were a series of horizontal vegetation bands, alternating between relatively sparse and dense vegetation. I immediately began to question why this was happening. My conclusion was that, since the bands occurred along the strike…
Wyoming Spring Creek – Forest Regeneration Near Fallen Trees
I chose to do an ecology-based independent project. For my question, I asked “Does proximity to large piles of coarse woody debris affect the overall species diversity in regenerating forest by way of light availability, browsing by ungulates, and/or space availability”? I then hypothesized that areas nearer to coarse woody debris will have more diverse…
Wyoming Spring Creek – Endangered Species Habitat Analysis
The environment of the Spring Creek Preserve here in Wyoming is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before – and it is something that I am unlikely to have the opportunity to study in-depth again. That’s why, when choosing the question for my independent research project, I wanted to focus on the prairie ecosystem. Despite appearing…
Wyoming Spring Creek: Pollinators of the Snowy Range
For my independent research project, my hypothesis that I investigated was “if the time of day and weather vary (in terms of a temperature, wind, and precipitation), then pollinators will display different behavior.” The materials I utilized in the field included a plant identification guide to ID wildflower species, a clock to time 10-minute intervals,…
Wyoming Spring Creek: Vegetation and Climate Change Project
Throughout the past week, our class has been working on planning and conducting independent research projects. I chose to tackle the question of how climate change will affect the vegetation on Pitt’s Spring Creek Preserve. My overarching hypothesis is “if the changing climate of the southeastern Wyoming region leads to less snowpack accumulation, then the…
Wyoming Spring Creek: A Tale of Two Wetlands
One of the reasons I decided to apply to the Spring Creek Field Studies Program was to learn more deeply about how Earth systems interact to shape the world we see in front of us. Over the first half of the course, I was fascinated by the different plant communities we saw on the preserve…
Wyoming Spring Creek – Macroinvertebrates in Different Environments
My research project involves the lives of macroinvertebrates and how the richness and abundance of them changes as various stream conditions change. I’ve had some experience in the past kick-netting streams, identifying macros, and teaching elementary school kids about stream health, so I was very excited to get to work in the water to study…
Plants, Lizards, and Ants
My independent project was focused on Short Horned Lizards and the microhabitats that they live in. These small lizards have limited home ranges that often span less than 100 meters. Short Horned Lizards on the property appear to cluster around certain areas, being notably absent across wide stretches of land. My question, then, was: are…