On Dec. 15th, Jeanne, Michael and I headed to the other NEON site on the grasslands. In fact, NEON has two sites on the grasslands. We are special. 🙂 The Terrestrial Site was in the NEON post. It was more accessible. So the Aquatic Site, I knew was going to be trickier to navigate with the recent rains.
As you can see the creek level was high. In the past, I was able to walk along on sand bar edges. Still nice to see the water!
So we headed up the creek trying to peer over into the creek while making our way through the greenbriar, brush, and trees.
First sign. Well, not a sign and not even sure this was NEON strap. It was just a strap, but we left it alone in case it was NEON’s.
A flag along the opposite bank.
Big beans! None us could remember what tree this was. However, when I got home I found its name, Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa). I checked with Suzanne just to be sure. 🙂 Thanks Suzanne!
We torn apart a seed pod for a closer look!
Such flat seeds wrapped in twos.
More flags and still deep water and steep edges!
Finally I was able to read what was on the orange tape. It read FSH4. So I assume that it goes with the marker on NEON map as Fish Point PRIN.AOS.fish.point.04. “Fish are an essential part of freshwater aquatic ecosystems. As a keystone predator, fish have an exceptionally large impact on their environment relative to other species. They transfer energy and nutrients throughout the food chain by eating other fish and macroinvertebrates and in turn being eaten by other predators. Studying these interactions is critical to understanding the impacts of pollutants on ecosystem food webs.” (NEON)
Got lucky again! Most of the writing on the orange tape was too far away. This one read Riparian Assessment PRIN.AOS.riparian.transect.04.
NEON had even put in steps. Of course this was on the other side. So we will have to check it out further on another outing.
The steps lead down to the edge of the water. In the water were two yellow floaty things. “Aquatic sampling targets the following groups: aquatic microbes, periphyton, phytoplankton, and aquatic plants, fish, and macroinvertebrates and zooplankton.” NEON
Benchmark PRIN.AOS.benchmark.5 was not on the NEON map, but there was a fish point 5 and a Riparian Assessment point 5. So I assumed it would be in the same area.
Michael found a sand/gravel bar. He was hunting for pretty pebbles.
Indeed, it was like a treasure hunt searching for the NEON points! What fun!
Such a pretty creek. Well, arent they all. Whales truly are remarkable critters. Very interesting.
Sure are.
That NEON site looks very interesting! I’ll have to check it out sometime soon.
You should! 🙂
Thank you for the article on the ocean! Sooo interesting!
You are welcome 🙂 So much that we don’t know about this planet earth.
Thanks for showing us this working research site!
You are welcome!