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A dragonfly can eat
about 300 mosquitoes a day. What
eats dragonflies? |
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There are also small
mosquito fish in the pond that eat mosquitoes. |
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What other plants and
animals are part of this food web? |
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| 2. |
A house
stood here from 1914 to 1959, while other areas were not
built on because they were too wet or too steep. |
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Can you find the steps
and part of the old wall that remain here? |
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| 4. |
A
Backyard Wildlife Habitat provides food, water, shelter,
and places for animals to raise their young. The thick
shrubbery here is a good protective cover. |
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What other kinds of shelters
are here? |
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| 8. |
Many
trees produce seeds that provide food for birds and other
animals. You may find acorns and magnolia pods near
here. How many other types of seeds can you find? |
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What are the ways that
seeds are moved from plants to places where they
might sprout? |
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Click
here to learn about trees and seeds with Dragonfly. |
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| 9. |
The
leaves accumulating here are a key part of soil formation. Soil
is part of ecosystems with insects, earthworms, fungi, microorganisms
and climate factors helping break down the fallen leaves
and release their nutrients to other plants. They also
help aerate the soil and the organic material improves the
soil's waterholding capacity. |
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Click
here to learn about GLIDE - Global Litter Invertebrate
Decomposition Experiment |
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| 10. |
This
stump was one of the largest cottonwoods in Columbia. It
was cut because it was dying and the dead branches posed
a hazard. As it rots, the stump will provide food for
insects, which in turn feed birds. Eventually, the
tree will be "recycled" into soil and feed other plants and
animals. The younger cottonwood nearby was planted
in 2001. |
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Click
here to learn more about Cottonwood Trees. |
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| 11. |
This
pond is mainly spring fed. The concrete weir controls
the level. Water that flows over the weir passes
through a drainage pipe under Blossom Street and is released
into Rocky Branch Creek on the other side. |
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Where does Rocky Branch
Creek flow? |
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| 12. |
Only
a few species of trees including the bald cypress have "knees." Although
we don't know exactly how they benefit the tree, the most
widely accepted theory is that they are an adaptation to
the cypress' usual swamp environment where they help provide
oxygen by reaching above waterlogged soil. |
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To
read more about the Baldcypress click here. |
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| 13. |
The
pond makes a good habitat for amphibians, such as toads,
frogs, and salamanders, because most hatch in water and spend
the early parts of their life there before moving on to land. These
amphibians are major consumers of arthropods, mostly insects. |
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| 14. |
In
this sunny meadow area, we are working to establish native
species, including sweet grass and a variety of asters, which
will bloom summer to fall and provide native insects and
birds with their accustomed food. Non-native species,
such as Japanese honeysuckle, crowd out native plants and
must be removed. |
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| 15. |
Toads
need moist places to shelter during the day. They are
valuable pest managers in the Garden. The adults might
eat 100 slugs, flies or grubs every night and the tadpoles
on the pond eat mosquito larvae. |
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| 16. |
Sign
posts are made of a recycled material called TREX, that
uses equal parts recycled grocery bags and waste wood fiber
to create a strong durable material that doesn't require
the use of other toxic materials, like wood stain or preservatives. |
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| 17. |
Air
pollution in urban areas stresses trees and limits their
growth. Trees, however, also help improve urban air
quality by absorbing gaseous pollutants, like sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxide, through their leaves. Particulates
are trapped and filtered by leaves, stems and twigs, and
washed to the ground by rainfall. |
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