Posts Three Days in a Row!

On top of posting our teaching and outreach resources online, I also updated my personal website. I added in a page about teaching and a gallery with photos of both my labmates and mosses. Also I had a few new and future publications to add to that page. I am in the process of gearing up for my phd defense in October and hitting the job market soon after. I figured that my website could use an update. Blog posting may be a little light until post-defense time.

A Visit to the Miniature Forest - Brochure

 Insights into the biology and evolution of Bryophytes in Northeastern Connecticut

The naturalist walking through the forests and wetlands of Northeastern Connecticut searches for the hidden flowers and listens to the songs of the birds. The mosses and liverworts that cover the trail bank, color the tree trunks in shades of green and form soft cushions or carpets on the boulders, typically pass unnoticed. Yet several hundred species of Bryophytes occur in our region, and provide important services to the ecosystem, including partially controlling water movement, decreasing erosion, and providing microhabitats for numerous invertebrates. They can even dominate the vegetation in an area or, as in rainforests, compose a majority of the biomass in a local area.

Bryophytes are common, diverse and locally abundant. A closer look at their architecture, habitat, and life history provides insights into the ecological roles of bryophytes, the challenges encountered by plants on land and the solutions to some of these obstacles. This guide is not a field guide to the bryophytes of the forest. Accurate identification of bryophyte species often requires observation of microscopic characters. The guide aims to highlight some of the species common to the area and to raise awareness of bryophytes as a component of our forests, presenting aspects of plant biology through the “eyes” of a bryophyte.

(Click here to link to my website where you can download a free color PDF version of this brochure.)

Please contact Dr. Bernard Goffinet (bernard.goffinet@uconn.edu) to order printed color versions of this brochure. Printing fees of approximately $3.50 per brochure may apply.

Credits: These resources were developed by Jon Swanson, M.S. (Edwin O. Smith High School, Storrs, CT), Jessica Budke, M.S., and Bernard Goffinet Ph.D. (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT) funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0919284).

Chemical Competition in Peatland Plants using the Moss Sphagnum

Laboratory Resources for High School Biology Teachers

These laboratory exercises were designed to help students to better understand the concept of chemical competition in ecology using the moss Sphagnum. These exercises aim to show students that not all competition is carried out by animals and not all competition is a physical battle, as most of the traditional examples show. By using the chemical alteration of the environment by Sphagnum, students can also be taught about pH, in a biological framework. As a result, the labs can be used in either an ecology unit or a chemistry unit, within a biology course.

(Click here to link to my website where you can download the powerpoint, laboratory exercises and notes for free.)

Powerpoint Introduction – Includes 15 slides that introduce the concepts of competition, ion exchange in Sphagnum mosses and succession in peatlands.

Laboratory Exercise 1 – The ability to alter the pH of the water surrounding it is compared between Sphagnum moss and another non-moss aquatic plant.

Laboratory Exercise 2 – The ability of Sphagnum to alter the pH of the water surrounding it is compared with and without additional ions.

Teacher’s Notes – Pre-laboratory preparation, data collection, and Sphagnum collection are covered.

Credits: These resources were developed by Jon Swanson, M.S. (Edwin O. Smith High School, Storrs, CT), Jessica Budke, M.S., and Bernard Goffinet Ph.D. (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT) funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0919284).

Mosses at the Aspetuck Land Trust

Here are some photos from the Moss Workshop that I led at the Aspetuck Land Trust at Trout Brook Valley, CT in May. It was a fun group and we got to see quite a few great plants. 

Thanks to Heather Williams for helping to organize the workshop. Also thanks to the gal who took and sent me these photos. I can't recall her name at the moment. 

Passing out hand lenses and ID sheets before the walk.

 Scraping a moss off a rock. Probably an Orthotirchaceae. And now let me tell you about it. 

(At least my mouth wasn't gaping open mid-sentence.)

 Using a hand lens.