Sphagnam rules..

Our outing today to the Shadow Lake Bog gave me a chance to see a real bog for the first time as well as try to figure out how to tell the mosses apart. We had a dramatic day as far as the weather was concerned;rain, hail, sunshine, then more rain and hail.
I guess memorable weather is great for 1st time experiences. What blew my mind about the Sphagnum is how many colors you can see looking across the hummucks.So many shades of green highlighted by pinks and reds. Some things I learned was the the PH of the bogs are just about the same as a tomato and sadly few of these pristine habitats are left.
Some classmates and I questioned how the Sphagnum, (which is made up of dead cells under the water's surface) if they can activate cellular metabolic functions in these cells. Some things that we talked about were that since Sphagnum is absorbing nutrients from the water and if there was no real cellular action happening would hydrogen ions exchanges happen through diffusion?(which leads to phenolic compounds that give the bog it's acidic nature) Another thing I guess I thought about was the nature of their leaves and if through wicking action they absorb water and nutrients.
We had many questions but visiting this super acidic habitat was a very special experience. Mucking through rusty brown waters and bouncing along the terrain looking for gemmae balls, goblin's gold or just a place to pretend that we could live under the Hylocomium splendens using the feathery leaves for shelter from the rain allowed me to escape into this enchanted place. Looking forward to learning more about Sphagnum.-A

Posted on February 15, 2012 01:51 AM by adog40