BEYE Discovery: Ecosystems of the Indianna Dunes National Lakeshore: Wetlands

Post Contributed by Ally Bernstein, Teaching Assistant

Indiana Dunes: Wetland Ecosystem:

For our last week of Earth Month, we featured the ecosystems of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which, despite being a mid-sized national park, is one of the most ecologically diverse in the country! To begin the week, we focused on wetlands. Wetlands are a vital ecosystem that protect us from flooding, filter our water, produce delicious foods (such as cranberries and rice), and provide home to an incredible array of plants and animals.

Theo drawing a fish swimming through eelgrass

There are many, many different types of wetland, and we discussed the factors that make each wetland special. Saltwater, freshwater, or brackish? Swamp, bayou or bog? Year round wetland or vernal pool? Any area that is saturated with water – either for part of or the entire year – is a wetland, and they are found on every continent except for Antarctica – so you can bet they’re incredibly important!

After learning about wetlands, we discussed the four different types of plants found in a wetland. Each student chose one plant to draw for the wetland murals that we created. The four wetland plant categories are:

- Submerged – plants that are entirely underwater. These provide food for animals, shelter for fish and mollusks, and water filtration. Beye students drew eelgrass and fanwort in our wetland.

Ethan adding more fanwort

- Floating – plants that sit on top of the water, floating free, without attached roots. These plants provide shelter for animals, food for avian species, and in some cases, help reduce evaporation by covering the water surface. Beye students drew duckweed and water lilies in our freshwater mural.

students drawing fanwort, eelgrass, lilypads and a cypress tree

- Emergent – plants that have roots that are in underwater soil, but leaves that emerge above the water surface. These plants (which are characteristic of marshes) provide shelter and nursery habitat, especially for waterfowl, and food for species such as muskrats. Our students drew beautiful arrow arum and native cattails for our healthy wetland.

Jessica (left) adding more lilypadsChan and Heidi adding cattails

- Trees and shrubs – these species are especially helpful in preventing erosion, as well as providing shelter and the structural foundation of certain wetlands, particularly swamps. Species such as the mangrove have two types of roots – aerial roots for oxygen uptake, and structural roots to anchor the plant. In addition to mangroves, Beye students drew cypress trees.

Cassie and Anika working on their cypress tree

Students worked in groups to create 2 large murals using oil pastel on colorful green paper. These murals will soon be on display, along with our foredune murals (to be created later this week). Here's a sneak peak, showing our students in action: