Journal #3: Mt. Rainier Field Trip

The first plant I identified at The Nisqually Refuge was the Common Snowberry or Symphoricarpos albus. This plant is characterized by its distinctive white berries it produces as well as its pinkish bell-shaped flowers in the spring. This shrub tends to prefer shady and moist conditions such as wetlands or floodplains. Also, this plant produces a think system of roots and is actually usually for erosion control due to its ability to stabilize surrounding soil. It has adapted to grow this thicket of roots in order to be able to survive in moist and loose soil environments. Also, this plant has evolved to produce berries that are edible to animals so when these animals expel their waste it spreads its seeds to different areas.

  

The Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) was also present at the Nisqually Refuge. Characterized by its large leafs with five lobes, the Bigleaf maple retains these huge leaves in order to catch large amounts of sunlight yet lose a lot of water in the process. This tree tends to be near riverbanks and high moisture soils due to their water lose during photosynthesis. Also, these trees tend to live in windy areas, which has driven them to evolved winged protection for their seeds. This adaption in seed structure allows the wind to carry it greater distances and it allows the seed to fall slowly and safely to the ground much like a helicopter.

These trees were spotted at Mima Mounds and are actually two different species. Directly in the middle is a Red alder (Alnus rubra), which is characterized by its ability to produce both female and male catkins. Also, the red alder has adapted to be a pioneer species in that it can grow on extremely poor soils and surfaces due to its ability to fix nitrogen from the air.  The two trees on each side of the red alder are Oregon Oak trees (Quercus garryana) and tend to dominant these prairie lands. Like many trees, Oregon oak protects its seeds with a hard shell and they are eaten by birds and small mammals which then spreads the seeds across the landscape. This adaptive relationship allows this tree to spread rapidly and in areas where other trees typically don’t grow thus making it easier for the oak to gain sunlight and deal with less competition.

While I trekked up Mt. Rainier I noticed this tree which is a Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) which was much scarcer than the dominant subalpine fir. This tree is characterized by its smaller needles and its conical crown and drooping leader. This adapted shape allows it to survive in snowy environments because the conical shape and drooping tip sheds snow off easily. An adaptation that allows this tree to grow in such extremely cool temperatures and poor soil conditions is its ability to have a thick and strong root system gives it support during the permafrost winters. Also, this tree is highly shade tolerant which allows it to survive the long foggy falls and winters on Mt. Rainier.

This low-land shrub is called Red-mountain heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis) and it grows all over the upper alpine range of Mt. Rainer. This plant is characterized by its short blue/green needles and its pink bell-shaped flowers in the spring. Also, this plant usually thrives in high elevations zones and moist environments. This shrub has adapted to combat high winds and cold temperatures by growing short and having a slow growth process in order to remain under the snowpack during the winter. By doing this, they are protected by the snow from open surface temperatures that could freeze the plant and the high winds are unable to harm the shrub.

Another tree that I spotted on Mt. Rainier was the Alaska yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) and it looks much similar to the western red cedar but some key differences. This tree can be characterized by its yellow/green scale-like leaves and its droopy type shape. This drooping shape allows for snow to easily fall off and keeps the tree from being weighed down by the snow. Also, this tree is extremely hardy and usually only needs conditions that have a lot of sun and moist soil making it well adapted to cold temperatures and high elevations.

This shrub called Devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus) was spotted in the old growth forests of Mt. Rainer. This shrub typically likes well-drained moist soils and can be characterized by it’s large spines on its stem and leaf bottoms. Also, this shrub produces a large amount of red berries that bears are quite fond of. This adaptation of producing berries allows it to spread it’s seeds through the waste of bears. Also, this plant has adapted to form hundreds of sharp spines that prevents animals from chewing on its branches and large leaves.

This thumbnail sketch shows the receding tides of the Nisqually Refuge. This area is unique in many ways but it is an estuary which means it is an area where salt water from the Puget Sound meets the fresh water from the Nisqually River.  This mixture of different waters presents nutrient rich environments where numerous different species thrive and live their lives. The Nisqually River flows from the Nisqually glacier on Mt. Rainer which is the source of all of its water. This glacial runoff ran down the mountain towards the southern tip of the Puget Sound where it finally met the salt water of the sound thus creating the Nisqually estuary.

This thumbnail sketch illustrates where the Nisqually glacier ends and where the start of the Nisqually River begins. The glacier is currently in retreat but about 14,000 years ago during the Ice Age, this glacier was much more massive and carved out the bowl-like canyon in the thumbnail. As present day neared, temperature began to rise and the glacier started to retreat and began to melt. This melting then formed the Nisqually River, which starts in this area in the thumbnail. The glacier caused the tree line to rise and to stop at where the glacier reached and carved out of the granite and other mineral.

Today many glaciers in the world are retreated and nearly diminished, yet the Nisqually glacier is still present but won’t be within the next century. Mount Rainer has been shaped and carved by glaciers throughout thousands of years. During the Pleistocene era, the Cascade Range was overwhelmed by massive glaciers and at this time ice volumes were at an all-time high. Valleys and Canyons were filled to the brim with solid ice and this glacier extended 60 miles down the mountain reaching the lower land regions surrounding the mountain. Since the little Ice Age starting from 1250 to the mid 1800’s, the glaciers on Mount Rainer have been receding due to higher temperatures. Currently the buildup of snow and ice is much slower than the melting rate thus causing the glacier to retreat up the mountain even when the glacier is moving down the mountain about seven inches a day.