Final Post

The picture I chose is from September, when it had all of its leaves. I really have become more connected with nature because of my tree and focusing on it once a week. It shocked me how much my tree would change week by week. I remember how much of a shock it was to me when I noticed all of its leaves were falling off, or when the leaves all turned completely red in only one week. If I would not have had this journal, I know I would have just ran out of my apartment every day for class without noticing one change. Every time I'm around a lot of trees I think about how important they are to the environment. This journal gave me a better understanding for why ecosystem services are important and why they need to be in balance so that the environment is healthy and running how it was intended. My entity has changed a great deal over the semester, but I'm glad I chose something that is right outside my door because now I get to see it grow all of its leaves back in the spring :)

Economic Sustainability

So my tree officially has ZERO leaves on it. But if you look closely, you can see there is a birds nest in my tree! The economic environment surrounding my tree is basically just the apartment complex that I live at. The management placed the trees to help promote economic sustainability so that it was more appealing to people considering to sign a lease with them. If there were no trees, then it would look less appealing and a lot more bare which would not promote economic sustainability. Basically, the more trees that are surrounding apartment buildings, the higher the occupancy rates.

Thanksgiving

This is a picture of Westfield Mall in Merrillville Indiana on "Black Friday." This is the mall near my home town where I worked for 3 and a half years. I worked at a retail clothing store and had worked 3 Black Friday's in row so I know how crazy people can get. Although, I had never seen anything like this before! All of these people are waiting ONLY for Victoria's Secret! The reason I've posted this picture instead of a picture of a turkey is because Black Friday is basically a Thanksgiving tradition now for a lot of Americans.

Social Sustainability

My tree has lost a lot of leaves since last week! I didn't think it happened so quickly. Trees can promote environmental justice by having more of them in poor communities, which typically tend to be cities. Urban forests are a way to reduce carbon monoxide in the air considering trees absorb it. By planting more trees in urban or poor communities, equity is being promoted for these communities.

Sustainability

My tree is not surrounded by other trees. It is surrounded more by artificial, man made materials rather than other natural entities. Usually trees are seen together, i.e. a forest, but my tree was placed where it is for aesthetic reasons. Other trees in my community are placed in the same spots as you go down the row of apartments; it looks pretty uniform. But what are the ways my entity can promote environmental sustainability if improved. Trees help sustain the environment by reducing carbon dioxide in the environment they are present. By adding more trees near my tree, it can help promote a more sustainable environment. Also by having more trees next to my apartment, they can help shade it from sunlight during hot summer days. In the winter, the trees can help prevent cold winds from making my apartment colder. Trees seem to be the best thing for the environment!

Abiotic Environment

My tree is red! Every single leaf is completely red without even a speck of green on any of them. Abiotic features of my tree's environment can affect it by destroying it. One of them is rain. If it rains really hard and if there is a lot of wind, it can completely destroy my tree by breaking it in half. My tree's trunk is pretty thin so there is a higher chance of this happening. Snow and ice can break the branches of my tree. Tornadoes can completely wipe out the entire tree and place it somewhere else, and high winds in general can tear off branches.

"Halloween" by Denny Davis
The night is dark
and the goblins are out,
and the witches and black cats
are prowling about.

And costumed creatures
the strangest I've seen,
are knocking on doors
'cause tonight's Halloween!

and for more Halloween fun, click on the link below :)
Halloween Light Show 2011--must watch!

Fall is here!

About a month ago, my entity had bold green leaves. Today, my entity has green leaves, but they all have at least a bit of red on the ends of them. Some of the leaves are all red, and some are a mixture. This is indicating that Fall is officially here, regardless of the fact that "The Weather Channel" is predicting it to be 76 degrees in B-Town tomorrow. So what is the real reason the leaves on my tree are changing? This is a seasonal change that is occuring because the sun is not warming the leaves as much when the season changes from Summer to Fall (Farmers Almanac Staff 2006). This causes the leaves to use its food storage, which makes the color in the leaves less vibrant (Farmer's Almanac Staff 2006).

Sources Cited:
Farmer's Almanac Staff, (2006, October 23). What causes leaves to change color? Farmer's Almanac. Retrieved from: http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/2006/10/23/what-causes-leaves-to-change-color/

Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl is the reason why America has many different car businesses to choose from, because as Americans, the typical American, we depend on automobiles for transportation. This started when we wanted the American Dream; to live in suburbs and have the "perfect" family. But this required the government to cut down many trees in order to build communities for us. This also meant that the greenfields that we once had, were also turned into built environments. Deforestation resulted in urban sprawl to help us have the American Dream, but having less trees is not a benefit. Looking back at the post labeled "Why?" it was determined that my tree was placed there for the aesthetic value. Although trees were planted in the neigborhoods and towns that were built because of urban sprawl, it is still not enough trees that we need in our environment as a whole to keep up with the biodiversity we need.

How do trees get water?

Trees primarily receive most of their water from the ground, so this is why trees are not seen in desert areas. They take the water into their roots and then they push the water up into the leaves and the leaves receive water also. The water then goes out into the atmosphere from the leaves in a process called transpiration. Trees also get water when it rains and if a person waters the tree, but trees have to rely on groundwater to survive.

Why?

I believe the reason that my tree is in its location is because someone planted it there. It was done purely for landscaping and not for any type of ecoysystem service. A person placed a seed to create this tree. This is known by the fact that when you look around the area, there are many of the same trees that are at the same distance from each other. Although it still provides the ecosystem services that it does, the services weren't the intention for why they were planted.

Roots; they're where we come from...

I wanted to take a photo of my tree's trunk to show where it comes from out of the ground. Most people only pay attention to a tree's leaves, so this photo and post is to concentrate on its roots. The tree has roots that are underground that we can't see, but they are very important to the tree's health. According to Sillick and Jacobi, "Roots obtain water, oxygen, and minerals from soil. Soil compaction, change in soil depth and improper watering can injure roots, increasing stress and susceptibility to disease and insects. To avoid root disease, maintain a healthy vigorous environment around a tree. Once a root system is severly affected, the tree usually must be removed." So from this, we see trees need more care than most people think they do! If the areas around them aren't a good environment for them, they can produce root disease which can result in extermination of the entire tree. Trees are important to our environment for many reasons and provide ecosystem services that I've already noted in a previous post. So in conclusion, the healthier the roots, the healthier the tree, the healthier the environment.

J.M. Sillick, & W.R. Jacobi, (August 29, 2011). Healthy Roots and Healthy Trees. Retrieved from http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/02926.html

Prediction

As the next four months pass, the weather will become cold and Bloomington will look different than it does today. My tree will look dehydrated and shriveled. It will not have leaves, so you will be able to see all of its branches. The only color of my tree will be brown. It will not be as vibrant and colorful as it is now. In the next few weeks, I will see that the leaves are turning brown and they will be on the ground, instead of on the tree branches.

Ecosystem Services

Forest ecosystems provide many goods and services for many environments. Trees specifically provide goods such as lumber and many different services. Some of the services are, maintaining biodiversity, removing air pollutants, emitting oxygen, generating soil, and cycles nutrients. Trees are important to all environments and help promote a good environment.


United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, World Resources Institute. "Primary Goods and Services Provided by Ecosystems." A Guide to World Resources 2000-2001 Sep. 2000: 5

Introduction

I decided to choose a tree as my natural entity because trees remind me of my earliest childhood experiences. At the age of 6, I started to climb a small lilac tree next to my house every day. It was one of my favorite things to do, but now that I think about it, I'm a little concerned why my parents didn't stop me from climbing a tree at such a young age? I may have to look into that... I had a spot in the tree where I was able to sit. As a child, you're short, and you're usually looking up at everyone and almost everything, but when I would climb my tree, I could see a lot more at once rather than only what I saw straight ahead of me.