Out Standing, In a Field

Recently I started work on the field. It's pretty simple, voles feed on bugs, which feed on flowers, and the hawks eat the voles.

Of course, I rolled a 3, so that means bushes start growing, displacing the flowers. This is very common, and in ecology it is called succession.

We can also see how the tide pool is doing. The sea anemones are back, but the algea and mussels have moved in slightly.

Next I'm thinking Africa.

An Ecosystem for Everyone

So I recently came up with this idea. I do that a lot.

I am going to create a picture of an ecosystem. I already made one for the tide pools.

The top layer are barnacles, then mussels, then sea urchins, and the bottom is a mix of sponges and algea. The mussels and barnacles are fed on by sea stars, the urchins by sea spiders, the algea by limpets (a snail), and the sponges by nudibranchs (sea slugs).

I figure to make things interesting, every once in a while I would roll a die, then use a table to find out what happens to the ecosystem. Today I rolled a 5. That's disease, and the sea urchins seemed the unlucky ones.

To see what happens, tune in late this week!