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CHOICE · EXPERIMENTARY · TAKE

A notebook.
Your findings.

Up to six proposals of Cabeceiras, in your own order, to do it at home, in company or on a break.

2 de 6 propostas escolhidas · faça-as ao seu ritmo.

PROPOSTA 1 DE 2 · Life you do not always see

A Transforming Family

Occurrence mentioned in the environmental document

The Iberian wolf

The environmental assessment of the municipal master plan records a wolf pack in the area, based on ICNF information. This reflects Cabeceiras’s ecological importance; it is not a promise of a sighting. Learning about this presence does not require searching for the animals or revealing their shelters. The national platform links a shortage of wild prey with livestock consumption and conflict with pastoral communities. It presents protecting flocks and restoring natural prey as complementary parts of conservation. A pack is also a family that changes. The platform describes a breeding pair, offspring from different years and sometimes other related adults. The group defends a territory, but its composition changes through births, growth and dispersal. In the general cycle described for Portugal, pups are born in late April or May. During summer, rendezvous sites become centres of family activity; in autumn, the young begin accompanying adults as they travel and hunt. This is not an observation calendar for a particular pack. As they grow, some young wolves leave their original group to seek a territory, a mate or another pack. Others stay longer when enough food is available. A count at one moment therefore does not describe an unchanging family: social life follows the annual cycle and the opportunities offered by the landscape.

Vamos experimentar?

  1. Draws a family group with adults and pups from the description.
  2. Add arrows to represent growth and output of young people from the group.
  3. Compare two moments of the drawing: what would change in a countdown?

General biology scheme; it does not represent the number of wolves in a local pack.

Open a história e os seus recursos →
Sources of this proposal

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

PROPOSTA 2 DE 2 · A world beneath the leaves

Draw a change under the ground

General ecology · mycorrhizae

Roots have partners

In mycorrhizas, a plant and a fungus form a partnership. The plant supplies organic compounds; the mycelium associated with the roots helps obtain water and nutrients. Oaks, chestnuts and pines can take part in these relationships. A nearby tree gives an observation context, but does not reveal a mushroom’s identity on its own. Researcher Susana Gonçalves also distinguishes ectomycorrhizas: in these associations, the fungus surrounds the root tips. This example shows that there are different kinds of relationships between plants and fungi, beyond the visible appearance of mushrooms. The partnership extends the area from which the plant can obtain resources: its roots connect with the fungal network. But the participants are not always the same. Some fungi can associate with several plants, while others have very specific partners. Knowing the trees in a place therefore helps us understand the environment without replacing identification of the fungus.

Vamos experimentar?

  1. Draws a plant with roots and a network of hyphae next to them.
  2. Draw an arrow from the plant to the fungus, with the legend organic compounds.
  3. Draw another in the direction of the plant, with water and nutrients; compare the scheme with the photographs, which show only the mushrooms.

General representation of a mycorriza, without stating which partnership is present in the local photographs.

Open a história e os seus recursos →
Sources of this proposal

My findings

An idea, a drawing or a question to go on.

YOUR LOCAL GUIDE

What would you like to discover?

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