Redwood Sorrel Case Study

This picture is of a decomposing Redwood. Until it is fully broken down, it will provide nutrients for new plants such as ferns and clovers to grow.

Scouring Rush (Equisetum hyemale) shares the forest floor with Redwood sorrel. It needs not to much sunlight but enough to go through photosynthesis and grow. This is perfect because under the redwood trees it won’t get too much sunlight. This is a mutualistic relationship because both the redwood benefits from having the sunlight and the Scouring Rush benefits from the shade produced by redwoods.

As you can see on the tree, there are little fungi called cupped fungi. These fungi linger on fallen trees and decompose them more easily. This is found commonly in the redwoods habitat.

Fiddlehead
The water is an abiotic factor but helps the western firn grow by putting good nutrients into the soil. This is a commensalism relationship because the western firn doesn’t affect the water but the water affects the firn positively.

Redwood Sorrel (oxalis oregana) is a very common plant in the redwood forest. It is commonly mistaken for a closer although it isn’t. A consumer of this plant is the omnivore black tailed deer. These species are pretty small but they compete with each other for sunlight to grow.

This is a picture of a hole in the redwood tree filled with water. This isn’t uncommon in the forest. The abiotic factor of water helps the tree, a biotic factor grow by doing this. This can also be used as a good source of water for biotic factors that also live in the tree such as birds and squirrels.

As you can see in the picture, there are trunks of redwood trees (Sequoioideae). They look black because they were burnt in forest fires but were able to recover. These trees compete for the abiotic factor sunlight to photosynthesize. When the trees photosynthesize, the carbon cycle is created taking in carbon dioxide and letting out usable oxygen. The trees are also a niche for almost every animal in the redwood