Monday, August 18, 2014

Mmmmm, leaf decomposition and questions!

So many questions come up as I crunch these videos together. The above is 34 days (~July 13th - August 16th) time lapsed down to 34 seconds. Below is a quick list of questions/observations that I think would be neat to edit into the video and provide clickable links for further info.
  1. Did the fungus in the first few seconds target the grass, or did it just expand outward?
  2. Can / Does / Why / How would fungus travel in a specific direction?
  3. What goes after leaf/grass first, is it bacteria, fungus, bugs, a combination?
  4. After the soil has been rained on and the leaf turns very dark there's a significant influx of skinny semi transparent worms? What are these?
  5. What are ALL of the bugs that we can see? (another post coming soon)
  6. Bugs eating roots. Tasty!
  7. What are roots made of, what sort of nutrients do the bugs gain from eating them?
  8. Fungus! Can we find any fungal traps for bugs?
  9. Vertical Root Growth (Radishes)
    1. When / why does it begin and stop?
    2. Circumference change over time?
  10. Secondary/Horizontal Root Growth (Radishes)
    1. When / why does it begin and stop?
    2. Circumference change over time?
  11. Gravitropism & Phototropism
  12. Leaf decomposition process
    1. Mid rib last to go? In a few days all should be gone except that.
  13. Can we find any worm casts?
    1. Is that what we see in the first second of the video, above the left middle portion of the leaf?
I started reading "What a Plant Knows" by Daniel Chamovitz. Sufficiently awesome if you want a basic overview of plant senses. Last: Michigan Interlibrary Loan / MeLCat program FTW for making library books more accessible : )

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