This ecosystem is a small, planned urban park along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Father Hennepin Bluff Park is roughly 8 acres in size and is designated as a city park. Signs throughout the park indicated that invasive plant species are frequently cleared out by the city and replaced with native plants. There is a man-made waterfall that comes out of an energy plant at the Northern edge of the park, which feeds a smaller, slow moving river that feeds into the Mississippi. This park is mostly forested with large, native trees and most plants are woody rather than grassy.
It appears to be a small haven for wildlife within the city, which is otherwise inhospitable for many of the species I observed in the park. I observed many animal species, including marmots, a great blue heron, and various songbirds when I visited.
I visited this site on May 26, 2022, when it is still spring in Minnesota but warming up significantly. The weather was overcast and slightly windy. The temperature was 18 C.
Some questions I have are:
How does the animal biodiversity differ from the city around the park?
Do large crowds change the number of easily observed animal species in the park?
Does the animal biodiversity change in different areas of the park (i.e. from the smaller, calmer rivers to the larger Mississippi shoreline)?
Unfortunately, this website was having trouble uploading my field note images so I needed to significantly compress them and they are blurry.
