*Getting Down at Muttontown!*

On the week of June 28th, Dr. Aronson and I went out to Muttontown Preserve (http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Parks/wheretogo/preserves/north_shore_preserve/Muttontown_Pres.html) to check on our flagged non-invaded areas. We identified some species and flagged the invaded areas of where we would set up our plots. The forest looked absolutely beautiful and the flagged area that we are going to conduct the experiment was perfect.

We went out again later that week to complete our diversity sampling. We teamed up with the research teacher, Mr. Weiss and one student from Southside High school, Nick, as well as another high school student from Locust Valley High school and one of Dr. Aronson’s field assistants from Hofstra. We completed ten plots from the invaded area and ten plots from the non-invaded area. There was a lot of diversity among the forest especially in the non-invaded areas. It really broadened my knowledge to many different species of natives (such as violet, jewel weed, red maple, spice bush, Canada mayflower, may apple, etc.) and non-natives (such as English ivy, garlic mustard, Japanese honeysuckle, etc.) . There was also a lot of poison ivy but we tried our best to avoid it!

English ivy
Jewel weed

After the sampling was completed, we collected soil from the non-invaded area as well as the invaded area. The soil will be used in the greenhouse experiment along with our activated carbon to test for allelopathic chemicals being left behind by this invasive species. I also decided on exactly which company I would order the activated carbon from by using scientific literature, searching on the web and contacting companies. We should have it in time for the greenhouse experiment.

We could not identify some of the species in the plots so we carried back samples from the field site. We could only identify one out of the six species that we were not sure about. We identified it by looking at identification books. This was the only species with flowers. However, we pressed the other species in the lab to save for later identification and we plan to return to the field site once these unknowns are flowering. It is very difficult to identify herbaceous plants that have not flowered yet.