Resource Partitioning- Scott B, Alex Bishay & Gwen Eder

Our tree was located on Belden, in front of the parking lot. One of the first things that we noticed was that there was some human interaction with the tree. There were staples left in the tree from when a sign or poster had been there, and because of this the bark was starting to peel off. We also noticed that there were some holes in the tree, possibly from a termite or another animal that was using the tree for a parasitic relationship. Although we did not see any squirrels or other rodents, we did see evidence of their existence on the tree. We saw scrapings on the tree that looked they came from the claw of an animal. There was bark peeling off in a few places, which also could have come from the claw of an animal. While most of the relationships we saw with the tree showed evidence of the tree being harmed in the relationship, hopefully there were some interactions that are mutually beneficial for the tree and the other organism. We also noticed a layer of lichen, or moss, was growing on the tree. While we aren’t sure what exactly the lichen does for the tree and vice versa, one thing that we do know is that lichen always grows on the north side of the tree, which is beneficial to humans trying to find their way.