Fort Washington Biodiversity
Fort Washington Rationale
Fort Washington is an urban historical park located in Prince George County, Maryland, and is managed by the National Park Service. This location has a unique natural landscape that is interconnected with local urban neighborhoods which seemingly has a huge effect on the biodiversity present there. This adjacency to urban residential areas, and the presence of federal land has altered the overall biodiversity making Fort Washington a suitable site for observation.
Fort Washington's Ecology includes historical fort infrastructure, forested areas, wetlands, and waterfronts that border the Potomac River. All of these landscapes will provide plenty of opportunities to observe a unique biodiversity that has been altered by the presence of human urbanization.
Another interesting variable is the availability of avian species that take advantage of the Fort Washington site. Fort Washington is located on the Atlantic Flyway which makes this site perfect for viewing a diverse number of birds that make their way through Maryland during migration.
White Tail Deer: the deer population in this area appears to be out of control due to the lack of hunting solutions that can be implemented on the site. This will no doubt be due to the lack of predator species in the area, and the protected status of the land.
Photo Credit (top to bottom):
Biodiversity/Common Species
Biodiversity:
Biodiversity is the amount of variation when it comes to the availability of flora and fauna. (Bio) means life while (diversity) is a range of variety.
Some of the commonly found animal/plant species of Fort Washington Park:
Groundhog
White Tail Deer
Great Blue Heron
Flowering Dogwood
Photo Credit (top to bottom):
https://www.pennlive.com/wildaboutpa/2018/01/15_things_you_dont_know_about_1.html
https://www.outdoorlife.com/deer-hunting-forecast/
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/id
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/viewSpecies.php?species=1490
Importance of Biodiversity
Below are some of the ways that biodiversity can benefit humans:
Human Health
Both mental and physical health can be improved with the presence of bio-diverse green spaces. These areas provide human communities with natural outlets to decompress, this exposure to natural landscapes provides an escape from daily stresses, and encourages physical activity.
Environmental Services
Most natural areas are utilized for the numerous environmental services that they provide. These services are much more numerous when the site has a high level of biodiversity, and can benefit humans in many ways by interacting with the resources. Environmental services include any qualitative service that is offered by natural areas.
Soil/Water Quality
Soil quality can be improved by the presence of bio-diverse microscopic bacteria, while water sources can improve with the existence of water purifying bivalves. The presence of these organisms promote healthy working ecosystems.
Medicinal/Personal Uses
Biodiversity aids the medical field in supplying a selection of medicinal herbs and plants that can be developed into medicine. Other uses would include the additions to the culinary field as many of the herbs and spices come from the natural world.
Photo Credit: https://www.visitmaryland.org/list/top-maryland-birds
Fort Washington Information:
Roughly 341 acres.
3 Miles of trails lining the perimeter of the park.
Mixture of urban deciduous forest, grasslands, and wetlands that border the Potomac River.
Location- 38°42′39″N 77°01′59″W
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The map to the left has been organized to represent some of the important features of Fort Washington Park. My goal was to organize a map that I can constantly update with new content. This content will include locations within the Fort Washington site that harbor this areas biodiversity. Below are the layers that I have included in the map.
Fort Washington (Blue): This category labels important operational facilities, and landmarks that are located within Fort Washington.
Historical Structures (Yellow): This category focuses on the historically built infrastructure that is present at Fort Washington.
Ecology (Colored Polygons): This layer roughly organizes the ecology of Fort Washington. The three main landscapes that I observed. These are wetlands, open grasslands, and deciduous forest.
Biodiversity/Habitats (Green): This layer focuses on some of the interesting characteristics that influence biodiversity at Fort Washington.
Google My Maps: Compared to applications like ArcGIS, Google MyMaps is a simplistic map builder that can be used by anybody. The main appeal of this program is its extremely accessible user interface that allows you to articulate a quick and simple map.
USGS Web Soil Survey
This map represents the USGS web soil survey data of Fort Washington Park located in Prince George County Maryland. The map lists several categories of soil composition, and the relative total amount of the soil type.
This information can be valuable to anyone attempting to uncover different features present around the site. The most commonly found soil type is Sassafras and Croom soils which encompass approximately 50% of the sites soil composition.
The USGS web soil survey is a great application for anybody trying to access geographical soil information for a plot of land. The National Park Service has its own database included which allows users to look up these federal sites directly.
Being somewhat of a novice operator of the USGS web soil survey I was pleased to find out that the user interface is very easy to learn, and the instructions given on the homepage are sufficient enough to effectively use the product.
The site can be altered to fit your specific research needs. By using a cropping tool you are able to separate the areas that you want to focus on. This allows you to access the soil data of the entire site or for smaller more focused areas within the site. Once the site is selected the user is able to manipulated the application to represent the current soil types located there.
The chart included to the left presents all of the existing soil types found around Fort Washington Park.
Climate and Weather
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations website displays a complete list of climate related data. These datasets include things like temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation,cloudiness, and winds, all of which have substantial effects on local environmental health and biodiversity.
Temperature: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers a multitude of temperature measurements to include average daily temperatures, average annual temperatures, highs and lows, and much more. The data compiled is from 1895 to 2019.
Precipitation: NOAA has also included information on the average precipitation that occurred in PG County. The data included shows measurements from 1895 to 2019, and has things like min/max, and averages.
Monthly US Climate Reports: NOAA also included an in-depth analysis on the current state of climate in the US. The report includes a general update on month to month changes in climate, as well as goes into weather events, and extremes. This report for May and Spring 2019 is presented on the left.
https://w2.weather.gov/climate/
Picture Source (top to bottom): https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/02/climate-risk-missing-in-polar-vortex-reporting/
iNaturalist User Review:
iNaturalist is a mobile application that allows the user to access a database of collective information regarding the flora, and fauna of a particular geographical location. The description that the website offers is that iNaturalist serves scientists, and citizen scientists alike by forming a community of like-minded naturalists. the information is free to access, and the user interface is designed to be accessible for everyone. The services that iNaturalist provides include the ability to keep track of species that you encounter in the wild, iNaturalist then allows the user to upload both known species, and unknown species to a for identification via crowdsourcing. iNaturalist also serves as a great application for identifying local species, the lists tab allows users to view the type, and number of species in a particular geographic location.
One of the main focuses of iNaturalist is to provide data to professional scientists valuable data that has been provided by citizen scientists all over the world. Citizen science is a new innovative way to include science enthusiasts when it comes to providing data to scientists. iNaturalist is one of the flagship applications for scientists world wide, and should be utilized as a community based scientific resource. The accessibility of the application and web resource makes iNaturalist a powerhouse database that is updated by the public daily.
My personal use of iNaturalist has allowed me to produce the dendrology slide that is presented above. Using past observations in the regional area of Prince Georges County Maryland I was able to produce a slide-show that represented all of the known flora species in and around Fort Washington Park. This made it incredibly convenient when I was attempting to identify many of the species I uncovered while on site.
Source Material/Annotated Bibliography
Argent, G. (2019, March 2). What Are the Benefits of Biodiversity? Retrieved from https://sciencing.com/list-6177330-benefits-biodiversity-.html
Brown, C., & Grant, M. (2005). Biodiversity and Human Health: What Role for Nature in Healthy Urban Planning? Built Environment, 31(4), 326–338. doi: 10.2148/benv.2005.31.4.326
Orrell, T. M., & Weigt, L. (2005). The Northern Snakehead Channa argus (Anabantomorpha: Channidae), a non- indigenous fish species in the Potomac River, U.S.A. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 118(2), 407-415. doi:10.2988/0006-324x(2005)118[407:tnscaa]2.0.co;2