Kacie's+Fourth+Visit


 * Free Journal-**

//Observations//: Today the air was moist and the sky was cloudy. It almost looked like it was about to rain where we were and it did drizzle a little, but it didn’t storm or anything. In the mountains, we could see the gray mist and guessed that it was probably raining up there. Which therefore caused the stream to flow a lot faster than usual, probably because of the amount of rain in the mountains. The water also appeared to be a cloudy color due to the mud and silt coming from the mountain. Although it seems to have a lot more water coming down from the mountains, the water level looks to be around the same. I also noticed that the current seemed to be faster where it was narrow, deeper or in the more central part of the stream, while the water moved slower toward the more wider, shallower and edges of the stream During my time there I noticed that the current stayed towards the middle and far side of the stream. Small fish were slightly visible along the shore side, but there are hardly any compare to before. This time we had to look especially carefully just to see them. I once again saw the white duck. It was accompanied by two other and that was the only sign of ducks I had seen today. The stream is a lot quieter than before, very peaceful with not much signs of animals in the river. Debris of branches, sticks and leaves were seen flowing along with the current or stopped by the rocks. The debris seemed to have washed down from up above because there are parts of plants in the stream that were not evident in that area. The plants along side the river are very green and full of life. Coming down we saw many insects including ants, beetles and bee. Every once in a while I could hear bird calls along the side the houses This shows that: Water nurtures everything → showing that there will always be a lot of life near the stream.

//Hypothesis:// If the current affects how much moss grows on a rock, then there would be more moss growing on the slack water rocks than the rocks in the current.

//Procedure//: To test out my hypothesis, I decided to go to a place where I easily have found rocks, but also included a section that had a current and a section that had barely any water movement. When I found my spot, I also decided to collect three rocks all around the same size (3-4 inches) from the current section and slack water section. The rocks were all around the same type of texture, smooth with slight pits, except for current rock number one, which was very rough and had tiny pit holes throughout the rock. As I took pictures of each rock, I also tried to compare the sliminess of the rock, because if it is more slimy then that seems to show there is more moss on that rock. I called this the 'Touch Test' and I rated the rocks as followed: 0 -- no sliminess, actually it felt rough and brittle 1 -- no sliminess, but smooth 2 -- slight sliminess, but still felt resistance against the rock's surface 3 -- slimy with no resistance, feels like your finger kind of just glides on the surface 4 -- very slimy 5 --a forest of moss growing on the rock //Conc//lusion- In conclusion, I can say that in this area my hypothesis was right. The rocks near in the slack water was had a lot more moss on it, compared to that in the current. This may be the reason why fish are seen more in the slack water, because there is more food (algae) that grows on it. I think that this is because with the current rocks are then put in a position where there is constant movement, not letting the sunlight fully hit the rock and allow algae/moss to grow on it. I also observed that where the current is, is where there is a deeper part of the stream with the movement of water slowing breaking down rocks and the dirt, causing it to be lower than the slack water areas. This makes it even harder for moss to grow on these rocks, because the sunlight has to travel a lot farther just to reach the rock. Therefore, the current of water DOES affect the amount of moss/algae that grows on a rock, and moss/algae DOES grow better on the rocks in the slack water compared to that in the current.


 * Assigned Journal-**

//Classification of Animals://