Biodiversity Stewardship

 

     (Images from Wikipedia) Domain : Eukaryota Kingdom: Plantae   Eukaryotes that are distinct in that they have the ability to photosynthesize Phylum:  Anthophyta   Plants that bear flowering reproductive structures Class:   Dicotyledons   A class of flowering plants for which the seed contains two embryonic leaves Order:   Magnoliales Woody plants with simple, alternate leaves, often glossy Family:  Magnoliaceae     Family which has its stamens and pistols in spirals forming a "cone". Often contains sweet-scented flowers and glossy leaves Subfamily: Liriodendroidae    Contains only the Liriodendron genus G enus:       Liriodendron   Contains two species of large trees with tulip-shaped flowers. Species:    L. tulipifera   Fast-growing species with strong wood. Often characterized by its tulip-shaped flowers. References USDA Plants Database . (2025). Usda.gov. https://plants.u...

 Merlin Bird ID Review In this post I hope to express my opinion of the Merlin Bird ID app in the form of a user review. Identification The primary purpose of this app seems to be to identify birds, for which it does an excellent job. It gives the user to option to take a photo, record sound, or use a step by step key. Personally, I usually opt for sound and then try to visually identify the bird(s) that appear from my recording. While it is not always 100% accurate, it can be useful in giving suggestions for what may be nearby. This has specifically been very useful to me in cases where I do not recognize the bird I am hearing/seeing, or it can shed light on the birds that may be in the area.  Explore The "Explore" tab in the app gives a nice guide to all of the birds that may be in the area selected. This extremely useful, as it allows the user to have a quick reference guide to any bird that might be in the area of interest. Additionally, the page allows you to learn about...

 

  The Antecedent Precipitation Tool (APT) https://www.epa.gov/wotus/antecedent-precipitation-tool-apt The APT was developed by the Army Corps of Engineers to assess climatic conditions for specific sites. Its primary use is to determine if sites conditions are normal for the date assessed, which is particularly useful to the Corps to make management decisions. It functions by taking a date and coordinates for specific sites and averaging data from a variety of weather stations in the area, creating a report that outlines recent weather patterns and current climatic conditions. NOAA Data Tools: Find a Station https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/findstation This tool fulfills a similar role to the APT, as it allows the user to find weather data for an area of interest. However, this tool differs from the APT by organizing information based on desired data outputs. For example, the tool can provide hourly precipitation, or a monthly summary of temperature. This tool could be u...

This was not my first time using the Web Soil Survey, but I do not have a lot of previous experience with it. I find it to be a very interesting tool which could be useful in certain situations, but could be especially useful in determining productivity of a landscape. While playing with the tool I found out how many bushels of corn my neighbor could theoretically produce in a year and I mapped out the soils for The Wetlands in Richmond. Lastly, I got the site to print me a report of the soils for The Wetlands, which was well organized and very impressive. For certain professional fields, I can imagine that the printing tool could be very useful.                        Screenshot of productivity map produced by Web Soil Survey