AP Biology went on another field trip this week to wetlands in Palo Alto. Save The Bay is an organization that helps cities around the Bay Area restore wetlands. The wetlands in the Bay Area serve an important purpose as a habitat for a diverse set of species and help protect the area from floods. Save The Bay restores the wetlands by planting native plants around the wetlands and removing invasive species of plants as well.
I learned so much of the history of the Bay Area wetlands through documentaries we watched in class before our field trip and from our amazing guides. I also learned about the diverse species that are only seen in the Bay Area. The history of California has always been interesting but I have never learned about the ocean we live so close to. While watching the documentary I was surprised and proud that the people who founded Save The Bay were three women who wanted to protect the waters from the trash that had been dumped.
If you are ever in the Bay Area, I would definitely suggest to volunteer at Save The Bay. The work that we did was not hard at all but very tedious. We first had to calculate the biotic factors in a quadrat that was provided. We counted every species that was in the quadrat and then calculated the Simpson’s Biodiversity index to see how diverse each plot was. Then we calculated the abiotic factors of each plot through measuring the soil moisture, pH, and salinity. The work is easy enough for anyone to volunteer.
Kaitlyn's Ap Biology Site 