Bog Days

By Anonymous -

Taken with my Samsung
On Tuesday May 22nd our insect ecology class went to a bog called Bear Lake Bog. This bog is located only a few yards off of bear lake road. All of us wearing waders walked out on the bog which we were able to do this not because the water was shallow but because of the sphagnum moss. This vegetation is very thick, especially closer to the shoreline of the lake. Bogs are acidic which is how sphagnum moss is able to grow in this type of water. A bog forms over many years as decaying plants form into peat which is where vegetation such as sphagnum moss originates. Bogs are primarily in northern colder climates such as Siberia which is where the largest wetland consisting of bogs is located (Nat Geo). There are different types of bogs including blanket, quaking, and string bogs. The bog we went to was a quaking bog because the thick vegetation bounces when people or animals walk on them which is why this type of bog is called a quaking bog.  
           
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/338966309435187327/
From what I learned from Dr. Hoekman was how the vegetation that grows in bogs grows very slowly and eventually the entire surface of the lake will be covered in vegetation. This was evident at Bear lake bog where the surroundings of the lake were covered along the edge and the middle of the lake was open water. As we waded closer to this open middle part of the lake you could feel the sphagnum moss getting thinner where it is still growing compared to the thick areas closer to the shore. There also were many leather leaf plants that were dispersed around the bog mainly on one side of the bog but this is where I noticed that the sphagnum moss was thickest. Bogs do not have soil that most plants require so there is only a select few plant species that are able to grow in bogs. Plants decay in the soil but in bogs the plants do not decay because of the low amount of oxygen and high amount of carbon dioxide and just build up in piles on the bog surface (Shirley). What I learned while we were at the bog was how there are many carnivorous plants present in bogs because other plants cannot survive in these environments and carnivorous plants have an abundance of insects they can feed on who inhabit bogs.
Bogs are ecologically important to the environment because they help control flooding by absorbing water because of the types of vegetation. Bogs receive their water from precipitation from the atmosphere instead of streams like most lakes. This is why wetlands change seasonally based on rainfall and flooding because they do not receive a constant supply of water. Bogs and other wetland improve water quality by filtering out pollutants benefiting the organisms around it.
To my surprise this was the site where I caught the most insects for my collection. Of all the insects I caught I kept seven of them, each a different family of insects that covered five different orders. There were many aquatic insects such as whirligig beetles and many flying insects such as dragonflies, bees, and other flies from the order diptera. I also caught my favorite insect at this site, a water scorpion from order hemiptera and family nepidae. While attempting to catch two dragon flies that were mating I made the mistake of running after them with my net and not testing the thickness of the sphagnum, like how we did when we walked out to the edge of the sphagnum, I stepped on a thin part of the vegetation and I fell through in the water and grabbed onto the edge of thicker sphagnum moss otherwise I would have fell all the way into the water because of the heavy waders. Looking back I wish I had let myself fall through so I could have said I swam in a bog.
https://easternplant.blog/2015/10/22/real-sphagnum-moss-for-your-garden-available/


Works Cited
Gray, Shirley W. Wetlands. Compass Point Books, 2001.
National Geographic Society. “Bog.” National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/bog/.

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