I received an interesting slide of prepared peat material from the Jarvis St. muskeg core. The slide was made from the 8,000 year old part of the core. Tom sent this slide because of the abundance of fungal hyphae and in particular because of the bumpy or papillose hyphae that he found in this core. He said that he associates an abundance of fungi in a given layer with dryer conditions that would favor decompostion. I see alot of hyphae in the rhizosphere zone, but perhaps that abundance doesn't continue in the deeper layers. I haven't really looked at the peat below the root system, so don't have much of an opinion. Unfortunately, the camera set-up on the microscope hasn't been cooperating lately, so this is the best I can do for now. Hopefully, I can improve on the situation. The bumpy hyphae in the prepared peat cores matches some of the hyphae that I've found in my rhizosphere work. The bumps or papillae seem to a permanent part of the cell wall exterior given that they survive both boiling in KOH and the horrors of peat samples for pollen observations. I haven't been able to identify the type of hyphae yet, tried sending out an inquiry to a couple of people, but haven't had a definitive answer yet. I found some hyphae with clamp connections in the slide, so there are definitely Basidiomycetes and other structures such as sclerotia that look very much like what I'm seeing in the current muskeg material.
Also in the sample is alot of pollen. Still hoping to get some photos and learn abit on how to identify the pollen.
I've changed my thoughts about muskeg plants and their root systems since I started digging around this fall. One thing that I've heard and probably repeated about muskeg plants is that their leaves seem to be adapted for dry conditions (xeromorphy). They are often tough, with cuticles and narrow shaped with enrolled margins. It seems that a more accurate way to think about the leaves is that they are adapted for long life rather than to reduce moisture loss. Narrow evergreen leaves have less nitrogen and lower photosynthetic rates than broad deciduous ones. The lower nitrogen availability in muskegs would seem to favor plants with evergreen leaves. Muskeg plants also have reasonably well developed root systems with root hairs. Not of course as abundant as your average grass in the prairie, but much more well developed than I had thought. Given the amount of water in the muskeg during the active part of the growing season, it seems that adequate water is available. Given how water moves into the vascular system, it seems that water isn't a problem. Does it really matter that the rhizosphere might be mostly frozen in the winter when they aren't actively growing?
In addition to asking about the bumpy hyphae, I asked about a small basidiomycete collected from a cedar last year that was allegedly sent on to UAF for identification. Found out that it never made the trip and since I couldn't relocate the small piece that I had saved, went out and collected another.
The fungus grows on cedar, where I've seen it the bark was gone. I'm not certain if this fungus is limited to cedar or if I just haven't noticed it on other species. This one was growing on a cedar above the canyon beyond the waterfall on the route between Herring cove and Beaver lake. The fungus colonies look like scattered black dots on the tree trunk. It was on the adjacent trees as well, but the largest colony was on the tree from which I collected the fungus. It is in the mail.
Ian had 4 wisdom teeth removed on Sunday, so I've been home most mornings this week, only running to town for groceries or to take a dance class. He is still very swollen up, maybe 2 at a time might have been better. Although maybe a sensible person wouldn't go back for more torture.
Tuesday saw a group of about 25 Pacific loons between Breast island and the Lighthouse. One pair of Marbled murrelets and several pelagic cormorants.
Since the Natural history class was cancelled, I decided to do the channel bird count on my own. Yesterday there were 67 scaups, 26 longtails, 12 common mergansers, 3 Red-breasted mergansers, 3 pelagic cormorants, 2 crows and 1 raven. There were considerably more longtails out of the count area toward ANB harbor. There were 2 song sparrows between the bridge and the Coast guard dock.
I've finished 120 plant descriptions, well below where I wanted to be, but at least I'm making some progress.
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