The Little Mermaid Learns Succession

By: Aliza James and Emily Shankar

Love at First SightOnce upon a time, deep under the sea there lived a young mermaid named Ariel. She was never satisfied living under the sea, she always wanted to live with humans. One day, as Ariel marveled at her treasures with her friends Sebastian and Flounder, she saw this beautiful creature standing on the land. It was a prince named Eric and the curious Ariel just had to go see the creature closer, but she couldn't leave the water. Ariel could barely make out Eric from under the sea.

He was standing on the beach, holding a silver object, a red box and a container filled with water. She could not take her eyes off of him. She kept watching him curiously. He put the shiny silver container in the sand and poured water from the container into the middle of the silver container. He pressed the red box and stopped it after about 16 seconds. 

CaughtAfter picking up the silver object, Eric looked into the deep blue ocean and saw the beautiful Ariel. Ariel quickly jumped in the water and went to the sea witch, Ursula, to trade her voice for a pair of human legs. The problem was that Ariel needed to kiss her prince before sunset to keep her legs and get her voice back.

Ariel went back to the beach where she found Eric reading. The man looked up and found Ariel standing in front of him. Shocked, Eric tried to make sense of the unknown girl standing before him.

Beach"Hello. What is your name?," Eric said.Ariel tried to talk and remembered that she gave up her voice for legs, but Eric eventually figures out that she can't talk."My name is Eric. I am a biologist/prince. Want to go for a walk?" Ariel nodded and they headed off across the beach. The beach was unlike anything Ariel had ever seen before. She stared at dead animals covered with insects, like beetles and termites, and drift wood scattered on the sand.

"Don't worry. The animals and drift help plants grow and will eventually create soil. The bugs are helping the beach, not hurting it."They walked away from the beach towards an area with little plants growing in the sand.  "Those plants are the dune builders." 

Foredune community

Eric explained while Ariel listened curiously, "This section is made of pioneer plants, which grow in areas that have not yet been inhabited by other plants. So pioneer plants basically start a new community, these plants are the dune builders.

Pioneer plants have to resist extreme drying, require a minimum of soil minerals, and they must hold on to the sand with their roots so they won't move when strong winds blow on them. The wind also blows sand until it hits the dune builders, which is how the dunes were built. It can get pretty windy out here and there is nothing to block the sun either." 

Foredune ContinuedEric kept talking and Ariel, excited to learn new things, kept listening carefully to every word her prince said. "The pioneer plants that you see are called marram grass and Sand reed. When these plants die the decaying roots and leaves add more humus, or nutrients, to the sand, making it easier for other plants to grow in these areas."

Eric bent down and put the shiny container on the ground again, poured water in the middle and pushed the red box. Ariel gave him a confused look and Eric explained, "Oh, I am percolating. Which basically means that I am measuring how long it takes all the water to go underground."He pushed the red box again and it said 21.4 on it. "This is a stop watch. See how it says 21.4? That means it took 21.4 seconds for the water to go underground in the dune builder area compared to the 16 seconds it took at the beach. This means that there are more nutrients in this soil than in the middle beach"

Cottonwood Stage

Further along their walk, Ariel noticed some bigger trees starting to appear. She saw these cool leaves on a foreign plant. "That is a cottonwood tree. As the plants increase in number, they provide more moisture, shelter and food for the animals that follow them, so you will likely spot more animals in the cottonwood stage of the dunes," Eric explained to his curious companion. It was true, Ariel noticed many animals such as grasshoppers, sparrows, white tiger beetles and birds. 

Lee SideEric described the next section of their walk as the lee side. Ariel gave him a questioning look. He explained, "this is the part of the dune that is protected from the wind. Can't you feel that it's less windy than it was at the beach?" Ariel didn't say anything, she just nodded and smiled. Eric pointed out the little plants growing on all sides, giving them names like little bluestem, even though it was red in color. He told Ariel that little bluestem grows on the lee side because it is dry and protected from wind.

Once again, Eric bent down and put the shiny container in the ground and percolated. This time, to Ariel's amazement, it took 47.4 seconds."That means there are even more nutrients in the soil than by the dune builders. This is because Lee side has a bigger plant population than the foredunes and the decay of plants give more humus to the soil. Therefore, lee side is richer in nutrients and takes longer for water to get through the soil," Eric said. 

    

Jack PinesAs they were leaving the Lee side, Ariel noticed more and more trees. These trees were beautiful, but when she touched one, it hurt her finger. Eric explained this stage of succession as the Jack Pines. "Since the big jack pines provide a lot of shade from the hot summer sun, it is easier for young pine seedlings to grow. There are more shrubs, such as junipers, which provide perfect conditions for grasshoppers and cicadas to grow."

Eric stuck the silver percolation container into the soil and started percolating. This time they ended up getting a time of 290 seconds. Ariel realized that there is an increased amount of humus in the Jack Pines stage compared to all the other stages they walked through.

BlowoutSuddenly, Ariel and Eric came upon an open space in between all the plants and trees."This is a blowout," Eric said. "This happens when animals, wind, and humans cause disturbances in the environment. On this side of the dunes it's not very windy, so wind erosion didn't cause this. That leaves either animals or humans. You know it's a blowout because of those little dune builders growing in sand, surrounded by trees. These dune builders are examples of secondary succession because they are growing in a place where plant life already existed, but was killed by a disturbance. In primary succession, plants grow in an area that has never been inhabited before."

Eric said they had to percolate again, and offered the container to Ariel. She put it in the sand, near a dune builder, added water, and started the timer. After 22.1 seconds, all the water was absorbed into the sand, very similar to the time at the dune builders. Ariel was ecstatic that she got to use the percolation tools and the two continued on their walk, hand in hand. 

Wooded DunesAfter the blowout, the two partners walked towards many huge trees. "This is the Wooded Dunes. This stage consists of different trees such as oak, hickory, elm, sassafras, ash and many other kinds. Aren't these trees beautiful?" Ariel nodded excitedly. Eric let Ariel percolate again next to a huge oak tree.

While Ariel percolated, Eric noticed how a strip of sunlight that came through the huge trees, there is not that much sun exposure in the wooded dunes, fell on Ariel's beautiful face and made her red hair glow a beautiful color. Strangely, Eric heard something whisper "Kiss the Girl."  Ariel finished percolating. It took 381 seconds for all the water to be absorbed into the ground. Which means that there is more humus in the wooded dunes than in any other stage of the dunes.

Ariel's CuriosityAriel noticed there weren't many small plants on the forest floor and wondered why. "The huge trees took over this land. The leaves of the trees do not let much sunlight through to the ground, so small plants have a hard time living here." Ariel nodded. Ariel heard many kinds of noises in the wooded dunes. She heard birds, animals, and bugs. Ariel noticed there was not much wind in the wooded dunes. The trees must be blocking it, she thought. Ariel noticed Eric staring at her and she blushed.

Sandmine Succession Stage"This is where people came and took a lot of sand away to use for other things. This would have been the climax community, filled with large trees and lots of leaves and plants matter covering the forest floor. When people mined the sand, it created a confusing stage of succession. There are dune builders over here, and not ten feet away there is a full grown oak tree! This area has a random mix of all stages of succession. I can stand by the oak tree and be protected from the wind and sun, while you can stand by marram grass, completely exposed to the elements all in one stage."

Ariel smiles excitedly and points at the percolation container. Eric hands it over and Ariel sets to work. Putting the container next to marram grass, she comes back with a time of 35.1 seconds. This time is consistent with the time for percolation of dune builders, showing about the same amount of nutrients are in the soil. Eric still could hear the sound of "kiss the girl" ringing in his ears.

Interdunal Pond Stage"This is the last stage of succession on our walk today. It's the interdunal pond stage. This was created because of wind erosion. It is a depression between the two sand dunes that filled with water to create the pond. We are back out in the sun and exposed to the wind because we left the lee side and wooded dunes

Happily Ever AfterThey ended their long stroll through the succession trail. Eric still heard the little "Kiss the Girl" whispers and he wondered what it would be like to actually kiss Ariel. Finally he managed to summon the courage and kissed her right before sunset. It was the best kiss they ever had. Ariel got her amazing voice back and she got to stay human forever. Even though she missed her family who lived in the ocean, she loved Eric and loved walking through the succession trail with him every summer.