#ecological perspective

[ritaglietti]

Judith Butler

[pebblegalaxy]

Understanding the Circle of Life: Exploring its Biological, Ecological, Cultural, and Philosophical Aspects

The “circle of life” is a metaphorical concept that describes the interconnectedness and cyclical nature of all living things. It is a fundamental idea in many cultures and religions, representing the continuous cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth. The concept is often depicted as a circle or wheel, with each point representing a different stage in the cycle. The circle of life can be…

View On WordPress

[gscheelsushi]

Journal 3

Field Trip 2 - Six Mile Cypress Slough

The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is about 3,500 acres of wetlands in Fort Myers, Florida. The wetland came into protection thanks to a high school environmental group who had learned about the few standing hardwood wetlands and took initiative to have Lee county purchase this land and have it be placed into preservation.

It's amazing to read that from this first initial act of love to care for our local environment, these high schoolers created an opportunity for the Lee county community to have voted over 30,000 acres into preservation. This conservation effort had three main goals of flood protection, drinking water supply, and recreation -- which all directly benefit us humans.

Essentially, a slough is a drainage channel within a wetland, so this area is very important to the water management and circulation in Fort Myers. The slough drains a 33-square mile watershed and during the wet season holds water 2-3 feet deep. That means the Slough is important for water storage and flood protection. The technical term for this slough is a cypress swamp, as it is a wetland dominated by trees.

It's important to note that this particular slough is a second generation forest of regrowth due to logging. Many of the trees along the boardwalk were planted recently in efforts of restoration. I noticed that there aren't many other plant species than the cypress. This is due to the difficulty of sustaining life amongst standing water. The cypress trees have adapted overtime to thrive in this type of environment . One way is by the design of the base of the tree. The cypress trees trunks are wide, sort of like straddled legs, to help stabilize their grounding amongst the soft soaked soil. The widening of the trunks is called buttressing.

Gator Lake is an attraction within the preserve, and it is a man-made lake due to limestone mining used to build the foundation of a road. An indicator to knowing this is not a natural occurring lake is that it's got steep sides and deep water. Even at the height of the dry season, the lake still retains water, inviting alligators and other wildlife at a time when water and prey are scarce.

In the photo below, you can see just above the treeline, floating on the surface of the water is a little gator. It is common to also find a variety of bird species such as the white ibis, great egret, little blue heron, and snow egret.

When it comes to Florida, elevation means a whole lot to what can be grown, even just a mere few inches of gradual change.

The berm that surrounds Gator Lake is man-made as described earlier, but it creates a narrow land surface high enough for pine trees to establish and grow out of the flooded swamp. Coming from the berm, the elevation drops only a couple of inches, but it is enough for oaks to outcompete the pines. The laurel oaks can tolerate wetter soil than the pines, so you'll find them next as you move downhill and off the berm. As you continue to move toward the center of the slough, the elevation drops further, and cypress trees become the dominant plant species.

You can observe this subtle change in elevation by paying attention to the thin layers of ecosystem changes. This transition is known as an ecotone.

Within the Wood Duck Pond, there's two other tree species that will grow in the deeper waters at the edge of these natural water bodies. Pond apple and pop ash are both native tree species that are adapted to growing in flooded swamp soils. These trees have shorter lives than the cypress, and are smaller with multiple limbs, but they are similar by being deciduous. They also form buttressed bases to give them more stability in the soft soils, just neither are as strongly supported as the cypress has adapted to be.

These two trees are important in supporting the protection of wading birds and their nestlings. The birds enjoy being around the bases of these trees where they can seek safety from lurking predators, like the alligator.

A fish commonly seen swimming in these ponds is the Florida Gar. It is a long and narrow spotted fish that is native to Florida, as the name hints at. The spawning season for the Florida Gar occurs in late winter and early spring, within the shallow weeded waters where the females can safely discharge their eggs which will attach to the marshy grass.

One of my favorite things within wetlands are the breathing knees of the cypress trees. They remind me so much of the aesthetic of stalagmites found within caverns. The nubby knees poking above the water is another adaptation in the fight to survive within the Six Mile Cypress Slough. They provide extra stability in the soft shifting soil of the swamp and are an extension to the underground rooting system that we are visually unaware of.

This is such a powerful quote by Chief Seattle. We must live our lives with the future in mind. Many things we do are taking away opportunities for the ones to come.

By looking to nature, we can see it has many groups/communities/ecosystems (ponds, lakes, ecotones due to elevation differences), that co-exist within a larger sustainable system (the slough).

Nature is forgiving of us, and resilient to our actions, and we must work together and find our humanity to heal our mother, for our children of the future.

The foundational story to the Six Mile Cypress Slough is very inspiring to learn that a couple of passionate tree hugging high schoolers have changed the ecological course and sustainability of Fort Myers forever, sharing a beloved spot, providing the community with a greater sense of place.

Grace

*disclaimer: all photos were retrieved from the Youtube video provided for us to view*

[poeticmindfulness]

Parental Belief

According to the literature in the parent’s opinion about childhood education, scholars basically followed three crucial dimensions to explore this concept: First, the value system of the parents and their goals for their children’s education; second, the parent’s behavior toward the achievement of such educational goals; third, the parent’s attitude in the rearing of their children (Darling &…

View On WordPress

[summerstretchux]

Stop Trying to Save the World

Big ideas are destroying international development.

A sobering read on unintended consequences. What are your takeaways? Mine are:

There are always unintended consequences of introducing new technology/designs

Designers absolutely must take an ecological ("relationships") approach

Let's educate people and help them build skills, so they can create their own solutions that work for them, rather than "saving" them

[te352-blog-blog]

“The Ecological Perspective of Development”

Bronfenbrenner’s work on ecological psychology is a highly valuable asset for educators in order to understand the funds of knowledge, family background, and other influences that can affect an immigrant student, or any other student too.  For many immigrant youth, their past life in their native home might have been emotionally traumatic and unstable.  Therefore, “interactions with others and the environment are key to development.”  A student’s well-being is supported by the societal connections between parents, school, culture, and other groups.  With this in mind, a teacher should strive to connect with the parents or guardians of an immigrant student and even learn about the student’s culture.  This demonstrates to the student that an authority figure does care about him or her and wants to help.  By also understanding the student’s macrosystem, or larger cultural context, and skills, a teacher can discover both the youth’s funds of knowledge and possible challenges to overcome in American education.  Ideally, this support network and understanding of a student’s home life and background would help an immigrant youth not succumb to “studenting” and being overwhelmed with American schools and culture.  Instead, he or she would have intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learn and succeed in school.  

The ecological perspective of development. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2014, from http://faculty.weber.edu/tlday/human.development/ecological.htm

[socialjusticesolutions]

On Needing Green Spaces

Growing up in West Michigan, I was never far from the shore of Lake Michigan. I went on countless trips to the beach and to the state parks along the lakeshore as a kid, but I didn’t truly begin to understand and properly appreciate how unique these natural ... CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE