The common garter snake (Genus Thamnophis) is a harmless snake that is common throughout most of North America. This particular one was photographed near my family home in Charlotte, NC. There is debate on the classification of species of garter snakes so a species distinction is not commonly used. They have a varied diet and can adjust to multiple habitat types giving them a wide fundamental niche. However, their realized niche is smaller due to them mainly living near water because they primarily eat amphibians.

This common conehead Katydid was found on a window over at the seahawk crossing. Common Conehead (genus Neoconocephalus) is an insect in the katydid family. Common coneheads are herbivores that eat mostly grass seeds or sedges. These insects also have a very unique reproductive cycle. Females have long ovipositors that they use to lay fertilized eggs in plant tissues. This is an example of an r-stragegist.

This is the Laspeyresia saltitans, otherwise known as the Mexican Jumping bean moth. In this photo, taken February 15th 2017 in my apartment, I have captured the exact moment that the moth has hatched from its "Jumping bean" shell, which isn't even a bean at all. It is a small section of a seed capsule of the Sapium biloculare which flower in the Spring and summer months, at which time a female moth will lay her eggs within the seed capsule and as the larvae inside grow, they will feed off of the seed and eventually eat their way out of the capsule when they have transformed into a moth. If the jumping bean is exposed to sunlight or warmth, the larvae inside will jump, hence the name "Jumping Bean". Since the larvae of the moth is completely eating the seed within the capsule, the relationship between the moth and the plant is not beneficial to the plant and the moth is seen as a seed predator.

One of the most telling signs that spring has sprung is the appearance of ladybugs. These small creatures hibernate all winter long and only come out when conditions are once again warm and favorable. Once ladybugs receive the sign to end hibernation, they immediately being into action, gathering food and resources and finding mates while the season is ripe. Ladybugs tend to be one of the first of many hibernating insects to emerge in the early spring. The main advantage of this is that they are often able to outcompete other insects for resources simply because they end their hibernating period before others. The main disadvantage to this technique however, is that ladybugs risk coming out of hiding too early, when potential frosts can still occur and devastate the population and their resources. A modern day concern is that with global warming trends. spring weather seems to be occurring earlier and earlier, which can affect the ladybug's circadian rhythms that function to allow it to come out of hibernation in the spring. With warmer days earlier in the season, ladybugs may emerge quicker than they should and be subject to harsher conditions and limited resources. This in turn would lead to increased intraspecific competition between ladybugs for sufficient resources early in the season.

For more information visit sites.psu.edu/ecologistsnotebook/2012/02/06/signs-of-spri...

This photo was taken on February 24th right outside the Watson Education Building on campus.

This is a picture of a young bamboo plant taken last Wednesday at the Bluthenthal wildflower preserve on campus. This plant looks out of place because it is. Bamboo is an exotic invasive species here in North Carolina and it spreads quickly and easily. Additionally, there are no natural consumers of bamboo in this area which makes it even more difficult to contain. According to a Star News article from 2012, a woman who owned a house in Carolina Beach returned to it after several years only to find her yard taken over by bamboo. This news story brought the issue of introducing invasive species for someone’s yard aesthetic to the attention of public officials in the area. The problem was that her neighbor decided to plant some in her yard, and did not control it which made it spread all over her yard. Bamboo is nearly impossible to get rid of once you have it, and you have to control it by either mowing it diligently or by using chemical warfare to kill off what you don’t want.

www.ncwildflower.org/plant_galleries/invasives_list

www.starnewsonline.com/news/20120614/booming-bamboo-a-gro...

Jon Lehrer Dance Company. Photo: Rhea Anna. A performance by this dance troupe will kick off the ACDA New England Conference on Wednesday, March 22 at 8:00 pm in the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Potsdam.

This pine cone stuck out to me on my way to Bluethenthal Wildflower Preserve on the afternoon of January 29. It is a female pine cone from a long leaf pine, Pinus palustris, which is a common gymnosperm in the southeastern US, it is especially common on campus. This pine cone was sitting by itself near the university apartments. This tree is monoecious or hermaphroditic meaning it has both male and female reproductive organs on the same individual. Pictured in this photograph is the female reproductive organ which looks like a characteristic pine cone with a hard, bark-like texture with rectangular, curved scales radiating from the center. The male pine cone is soft, flexible, cylindrical, smaller, and orange in color. Both pine cones play important roles in the plant's reproductive cycle: the male pine cone releases pollen relying on environmental factors, namely wind or animals, to lead them to the female cones. Females cones protect the seeds as they mature and will eventually open and release them. Once released, the seeds can rely on many different environmental factors to disperse them such as wind, water, and animals. Dispersion is also a role the female pine cone itself plays as it often bounces and rolls away after falling from a tree and can be further moved by other organisms, such as being kicked around by UNCW students. Dispersing seeds is important because it prevents or reduces the competition between parent and offspring for resources such as light, water, or space.

This is an image of a jellyfish found on Bald Head Island. It had been washed up onto the beach. Jellyfish are known to possibly be the oldest multi-organ animals. There are several different types of jellyfish including some known as the flower hat jelly, the purple striped jelly, the moon jelly, and many more. Jellyfish are known as medusaes are are carnivorous animals that feed on plankton, fish eggs, small fish, and even other jellyfish. They live in every ocean and are mainly known as marine animals. Jellyfish hunt using their tentacles as nets which allow them to easily catch prey. There are a few predators preying on jellyfish, however, the jellyfish can also be considered top predators in the ocean's food chain.

www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/textonly/ecolo...

This picture was taken during spring break this semester off the coast of Costa Rica near Cano Island in the Pacific Ocean. I think this is a tan starfish (Phataria unifascialis) because of its blue color, five legs, and location in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This sea star was found in shallow water on a small reef where they tend to feed on algae, detritus, and microorganisms.

Not pertaining to this specific sea star but in general, sea stars may be considered as a keystone predator. In 1963, an ecologist named Robert Paine found very large orange and purple sea stars known as Pisaster ochraceus. For the next few years he started to one by one remove the sea stars from the outcrops near a sandy bay. To his surprise he saw a dramatic decrease in biodiversity. This led to the creation of the term keystone predation. Keystone predation by definition is predation that is central to the organization of a community; the predator enhances one or more inferior competitors by reducing the abundance of the superior competitor. In other words, predators regulate ecosystems as Robert Paine had found with the large purple sea stars at the top of the food chain. This species of sea star was eating a lot of mussels. When the sea star was removed the mussels dominated other marine life decreasing biodiversity from 15 species to a monoculture of mussels in only seven years. This ground breaking experiment showed that one predator can regulate the composition of an entire community.

nautil.us/issue/37/currents/the-ecologist-who-threw-starf...

www.thatpetplace.com/Phataria-unifascialis-blue-starfish-...

Low intensity fires are key in the life cycle of the Longleaf pine(Pinus palustris). The fires clear weedy invaders and aids the germination of the Longleaf pine seeds. The optimal timing for burning to coincide with when natural fires would occur is during the spring and summer month to coincide with thunderstorms. many Braken ferns (Pteridium aquilinum) can also be seen thriving with the recently cleared underbrush. Intermediate disturbances in ecological succession are also known to maximize biodiversity.

This photo was taken at Fort Fisher near the aquarium. I chose this photo because you can see the line in the sand of where the tide has gone up to, as seen by the slight line of smaller shells and debris. Although this doesn't directly show it within this picture, I thought it related back to erosion. Beaches in the general surrounding area often battle with the problem of beach and dune erosion. Heavy rain, tide, wind and many other variables add to this problem. I'm originally from Michigan and I'm used to seeing huge sand dunes, almost 100 feet above the water level. Michigan sand dunes don't experience tides, as heavy rains as North Carolina or as heavy winds so they don't experience such a drastic difference in their beaches compared to this beach featured in the photo.

Traditional musicians Robin and Linda Williams, well known from their many appearances on A Prairie Home Companion, will perform at Pickens Hall in Heuvelton, NY on Sunday, June 4 at 7 pm.

I took this picture while enjoying the amazing weather at the fire pit in my apartment complex. There have been many fires across the country and in our own backyard occupying the news lately. These fires have caused a great deal of damage, but they are also allowing for a new opportunity at secondary succession. Secondary succession, unlike primary succession, occurs after a disturbance such as a fire. Vegetation will again begin to develop in these areas of disturbance. The surviving community left untouched by these fires will have a significant influence on the proceeding development.

This aloe plant (aloe vera) is planted in a pot of soil. Like other succulents, aloe fixes carbon through CAM photosynthesis. Aloe vera

forms a mutualistic bond with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, which helps it take in nutrients. This symbiotic relationship is quite common and it's interesting how plants and fungi live in harmony all over the world. This photo was taken on January 30th, 2017 in Wrighstville Beach, NC

This photo was taken on March 29, 2017 during my ecology lab. We went out to explore the wetlands on UNCW’s campus. While collecting data I came across a tree that seemed to have a gall formation which could be a host response to parasite invasion. My other lab partners were equally excited since we had just covered that material in lecture and took an exam on it. As a plant, when invaded by a parasite the response is forming a gall which is like a cyst or scab. They appear to look like knobs, balls, or warts. Another eye attractive factor is their coloration which can range from white to red to green or black. These galls are not always due to parasitism. Other factors such as irritation or cell stimulation due to feeding or egg-laying could be the cause of such galls. Thousands of species produce these galls on their leaves, twigs, or roots. Although alarming to find for the first time, I am sure I will be more aware of these formations in the future and see them frequently.

www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-and-plant-advice/help...

I took this picture on Tuesday (3/28) on a Marine Biology lab field trip. This pufferfish was caught during a trawl we conducted off of the South End of Wrightsville Beach. Pufferfish have elastic stomachs, allowing them to drink large amounts of water and inflate quickly. The inflation is a defense mechanism to make it harder to be swallowed by predators. Pufferfish also demonstrate unpalatability by containing tetrodotoxin, a foul-tasting and possibly lethal chemical. Some species display aposematism, meaning they have bold colors and markings to warn predators of their toxicity.

animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/pufferfish/

Eastern Oysters, Crassostrea virginica, are a large fishery on the East Coast of the United States. These oysters live in intercostal waters in salt marsh areas and are harvested to be sold to restaurants and grocery stores. This picture was taken at Myrtle Grove at the end of the dock of Center for Marine Science. Since oysters are benthic animals they have many resources and special adaptations to suit this life style. One of the most important resources an oyster needs is space. The larval oyster uses its foot to move around in search for a hard substrate. When the oyster finds the substrate it will permanently bind the that substrate. Finding a hard surface can be difficult to do and they oysters are competing for space with each other so they are able to grow and mature and eventually reproduce. This is an example of intraspecific competition. Intraspecific competition is competition between the same species for a desired resource. The oysters need a hard to find a substrate that will be able to hold them in one place for the rest of their life's. With limited space that can provide them with a hard substrate this causes intense competition within eastern oysters to find a place were they can grow and mature.

The ecological significance of the cypress play a huge roll in the wetland ecosystem. The prevention of erosion, habitat, and natural flow of nutrients helps regulate other species as well as water quality. The cause of the dead cypress is related to salt water intrusion from weather, humans, overpopulation and hurricanes. This problem will continue to happen due to the uptake of freshwater for irrigation and human use.

This photo was taken 3/28/17 outside the Fisher Student Union on the campus of UNCW. The photo shows a pond with a fountain in the middle. The fountain is more than just a pretty decoration. It actually helps the overall health of the pond. Fountains help to move water and nutrients throughout the water column. Fountains also help to add additional dissolved oxygen to the water. Because fountains create additional water movement they help to reduce algae blooms and to improve water clarity. At a time when so many human additions to ecosystems cause harm its nice to see a man made addition that actually helps out.

This was found in the back yard of an AirBNB in Asheville North Carolina in late January. From what I can tell online, this is either a type of Kudzu, or is English Ivy. In either case, the ecological concept is the same. The plant grows relatively large, canopy like leaves a few inches above the ground that block most of the light from getting to the plants beneath, which has created a microclimate. The average temperature, humidity, light accessibility, and wind speeds are likely to differ in this microclimate from the climate of Western Carolina, allowing different kinds of organisms to flourish that would not be able to otherwise.

If the plant is in fact Kudzu, it is considered an invasive species because it can actually grow with such speed and ferocity as to kill off the natural vegetation in an area, which can drastically affect the ecological balance in an area. This plant, if it is Kudzu, seems to be maintained by the landscaper to prevent dangerous spreading.

This is broom fork moss colonizing on a bark surface in the UNCW forest. The leaves tend to curve to one side giving it a particular characteristic that leads to how it got its name. The scientific name, Dicranum scoparium, comes from the Latin word scopae, which means ‘a broom’ because the leaves look like they have been swept to one side. This makes the leaves falcate-secund and usually has a glossy green appearance. It tends to gather and form large cushions that are 2-8 cm high. Moss favors cool, humid conditions and grows on tree bases, rocks, humus, and logs as an epiphyte. It has a wide spread distribution but is most commonly found in the northeastern region of the United States.

This is an image of acorn barnacle attached to the jetty at Masonboro Inlet, taken on March 27th. Barnacles exhibit a certain kind of intraspecific competition due to their clumped distribution; rather than centering around something like food to survive, this species is more concerned with the availability of space. There was an experiment done at the Hatfield Marine Science center in Newport, Oregon, where they were testing to see how density affects the fitness of barnacle populations. The researchers found that the individual's growth in a low-density population was high than that of those in a high-density population. However, survival rates were higher in the high-density populations. From reading about the experiment, it seems that barnacles have a higher survival rate in larger populations. Perhaps this is because resources are easily distributed between the barnacles when they are smaller and more abundant.

www.asnailsodyssey.com/LEARNABOUT/BARNACLE/barnHabi.php

This photo was taken this past Friday behind Masonboro Island at Myrtle Grove. The lagoon and marsh ecosystems are ecologically dynamic environments, where the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere all meet. One ecological concept I took note of involved the salt tolerance of marsh grass (Spartina alterniflora and patens), which can be seen in the background. excluding, sequestering or exuding. Spartina is known as a halophyte, or a salt-loving plant. Halophytes deal with salt in multiple ways. Some have leaves that sequester the salt in special structures which then rupture and release salt back into the environment. Other halophytes have specialized structures that have evolved to collect the salts which are then forced through pores before they reach the vascular system of the plant. Additionally, halophytes collect the salts and store them in plant cells that are less susceptible to salts than others in the plant. It is interesting to think that only a small portion of plants are salt-tolerant/loving when 96.5% of Earth's water is salt water. In addition to their tolerance to salt, Spartina are also fascinating for their roles in ecosystems as environmental engineers. Spartina grasses grows out into the water at the edge of salt marshes, and accumulate sediment, enabling other habitat-engineering species (mussels/oysters in particular) to settle and thrive. This accumulation of sediment and substrate-building species gradually builds up the level of the land at the seaward edge, and other, higher-marsh species move onto the new land. Spartina are undoubtedly crucial to marshes and fascinating subjects of research.

It's Tuesday the 28th at Flytrap Downs, and the UNCW men's rugby team practice, trying their best to be the fittest team in the league. Some of the Cape Fear men's team old fellas are hanging around laughing and talking about their lives, utilizing this time to relax from the daily grind of work and yell at the young guys. Two dogs trample around, playing and running carefree. At the far end of the field in the tryzone are the posts. A few of us notice something a top the post. One lonely owl. What is she doing there? Owls are nocturnal, shouldn't she be asleep or hiding for a few more hours? Or does she find comfort in the setting sun just as we do? There's no way to know. Maybe this beautiful bird is actually a ferocious predator, and she chooses this post as the most optimal location to pounce on unassuming prey, trying her best to survive. If that's the case, then she is no different from our team. Both are hungry for meat. Both work hard to be the most dominant organism they can be. Both just want to live and be free. So often we see ourselves as distant to our fellow animals, but here, in this moment, I realize we are truly one in nature.

Mannheim, Germany. - Photo by Assad Sharifi @ www.assadshadsharifi.com

SP2017-0001-0001

This photo depicts a group of bamboo culms (individual stems) in the Bluthenthal Wildflower Preserve on UNCW campus, and was taken on April 14, 2017. While North America does have one native bamboo genus, Arundinaria, the bamboo in this photo, Pseudosasa japonica, also called arrow bamboo, is native to Japan. Arrow bamboo is considered invasive, and was introduced to North America in 1850 from Japan as an ornamental. In North America, arrow bamboo is commonly found in the southeastern regions of the United States. Because of the dense shade these bamboo clusters can create, seedlings of native plant species rarely survive due to these light limitations. In addition, underground rhizomes produced by the bamboo likely outcompete native species via exploitative competition for soil water, as the bamboo prefers moist soils. The species is considered a "Rank 2 - Significant threat" by the North Carolina Native Plant Society, meaning the species displays some invasive characteristics, but does not pose as much of a threat as "Rank 1 - Severe threat" species. It is also persistent and difficult to eradicate. So, while arrow bamboo doesn't seem to presently pose a major threat to North American ecosystems, countermeasures, such as the avoidance of planting arrow bamboo as well as chemical eradication, are advised.

(www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/invasive_plants/weeds/arrow_bamboo.pdf)

(www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=7827)

(www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDe...)

(www.nps.gov/plants/alien/pubs/midatlantic/bamboos.htm)

(www.ncwildflower.org/plant_galleries/invasives_list)

Although this Basin Trail at Kure Beach just seems like a lovely afternoon stroll, it entails a lot of ecology components. This boardwalk crosses over a large salt marsh area of Fort Fisher. A salt marsh is a coastal ecosystem between land and open salt water that gets flooded by tides frequently. This salt marsh is a huge part of ecology in the fact that it provides a lot of support and protection for terrestrial wildlife. Smaller animals particularly live in these salt marsh areas because of the shallow and darkish areas which cannot occupy larger fish that could potentially be predators to them. Salt marshes can serve as buffers and pollution filters against flooding and shoreline erosion. Also pictured in this image is cordgrass. This cordgrass plays a big role in vegetation and health to the salt marsh by supplying it with a plethora of organic material that is contributed during decomposition. These marshes get flooded very often and the cordgrass binds to the shoreline and prevents it from being eroded by the tide. Also, when needed, the cordgrass can extract fresh water from the salt water for nutrients for itself. In this sense, I would classify the relationship between the salt water marsh and the cordgrass as being a mutualistic relationship - they both benefit by being in one another's presence.

This photo, taken next to UNCW’s Wagoner Dining Hall, shows a gaggle of Canada geese (Branta canadensis). Canada geese are a K-selected and predominately monogamous species that tend to only find another mate if one happens to die. The young, also known as goslings, are considered to be precocial because they are capable of movement and foraging shortly after hatching. In regards to territoriality, these geese exhibit active defense of their breeding or roosting sites where there can be interspecific competition among different species of Osprey. Fun fact: The inside of a goose's beak, and its tongue, are serrated. This can make it appear as though they have fangs, but the bumps are actually for cutting through succulent grass stems (www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/fun-facts-about...).