Today four of us got to explore a bay that only one of us had ever been to before--and that was many years ago. We're about to start a new project looking at amphibians in a bay that is contaminated with coal fly ash and we need a "reference" bay that's nearby, similar habitat but no ash. Went to check out Bay 100 (we have incredibly exciting bay names eh?) and were all stunned to find water! It did rain last night but most bays are still bone dry. In fact Ellenton Bay is now so dry you have to dig to -69 on the depth gauge to find water. Anyway, Bay 100 is absolutely gorgeous. It's somewhat amorphous--just a meandering bay right now--full of cypress trees. It almost felt like walking on a bog, very spongy. Didn't see any signs of amphibians yet, but we didn't exactly come prepared to find water so we didn't have dip nets etc. I'm pretty excited to put up some drift fences here and at the nearby contaminated bay and start adding these to our regular sampling routine for a while. Hopefully we'll have some good finds. Hope you enjoy the photos--the light was great, not sure I captured it, but mostly it's just never-ending cypress with Spanish moss. Really, really pretty.
Today four of us got to explore a bay that only one of us had ever been to before--and that was many years ago. We're about to start a new project looking at amphibians in a bay that is contaminated with coal fly ash and we need a "reference" bay that's nearby, similar habitat but no ash. Went to check out Bay 100 (we have incredibly exciting bay names eh?) and were all stunned to find water! It did rain last night but most bays are still bone dry. In fact Ellenton Bay is now so dry you have to dig to -69 on the depth gauge to find water. Anyway, Bay 100 is absolutely gorgeous. It's somewhat amorphous--just a meandering bay right now--full of cypress trees. It almost felt like walking on a bog, very spongy. Didn't see any signs of amphibians yet, but we didn't exactly come prepared to find water so we didn't have dip nets etc. I'm pretty excited to put up some drift fences here and at the nearby contaminated bay and start adding these to our regular sampling routine for a while. Hopefully we'll have some good finds. Hope you enjoy the photos--the light was great, not sure I captured it, but mostly it's just never-ending cypress with Spanish moss. Really, really pretty.
what kinds of shrubs are there?
ReplyDeleteThe concept of a "bay" without water just seems odd to me. Nice spot in any event.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd, but "normal." We have isolated wetlands of all different hydroperiods. Same is true for vernal pools, prairie potholes, etc etc. We usually break ours up into relatively broad hydroperiod classes (e.g., short, intermediate, long, or semi-permanent). In South Carolina Short ones will fill in the late fall or early winter and dry by March or April. Intermediate will fill at the same time but dry by May or June. Long won't dry until July or August and then semi-permanent will only dry for short periods in some years.
ReplyDelete@ vernalpoolboy: We found a lot of dog hobble growing in the area and right on the cypress trees and some red choke cherry--that had a ton of berries.
ReplyDelete