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Base Like a Druid: Wetlands

Jess Miller-Camp (they/them), Ph.D.

Druid GM Designs

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Very Basic Environmental Science

  • Two parts

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    • Biotic
      • Living stuff

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    • Abiotic
      • Not living stuff

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What’s a Wetland?

  • Freshwater or brackish

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  • Water can be permanent, seasonal, or just below the surface

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  • Water contents important

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What matters for basing?

  • Surface
    • Loose or solid
    • Shape
    • Size
    • Chemistry
    • Color
    • Wave Pattern
    • Wear/Deposition Pattern

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  • Groundcover
    • Amount
    • Arrangement
    • Density
    • Height
    • Color
    • Type
  • The elements
    • Wind and current
    • Water
    • Light
    • Temperature
    • Gravity
    • Solubles
    • Suspended materials

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  • Space-time
    • Time of day
    • Seasonality
    • Latitude
    • Depth
    • Distance to floor
    • History
  • Ecology
    • Food webs
    • Toxins, diseases, pollution
    • Life cycles
    • Biogeochemical cycles
    • Waste
  • Behavior
    • Affect on surface
    • Affect on vegetation
    • Predation
    • Competition

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Color and opacity of water

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Surface Texture and reflectivity

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Surface textures of water

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Types of Rivers

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Swamps, Bogs, Etc.

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Search Terms for More Ideas (Abiotic)

  • Water table
  • Turbidity
  • Bedload
  • Karst
  • Ephemeral pond/stream
  • Swamp/marsh/bog/fen/wet meadow

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  • Estuary
  • Aggradation
  • Erosion
  • Deposition
  • Braided/�meandering stream
  • Infiltration (hydrology)

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  • Fluvial
  • Lacustrine
  • Wetland
  • Aquifer
  • Riffle
  • Light attenuation
  • Basin/sink
  • Delta
  • Floodplain

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Search Terms for More Ideas (biotic)

  • Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB)
  • Benthic/�planktonic
  • Emergent/�submerged�/floating-leaved/free-floating plants

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  • Hydrophyte/�macrophyte/�microphyte
  • Detritus
  • Peat
  • Periphyton
  • Lake turnover
  • Bryophyte

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  • Biofilm
  • Grazer
  • Filter feeder
  • Detritovore
  • Fossorial
  • Scraper (feeding body part)

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Today’s Bases

  • Bog/fen

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  • Paint the base the color you want your water to be

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  • Slather it in a fairly thick coat of Mod Podge

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  • Use toothpicks and paint to add duckweed

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  • Add desired plants

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  • Wait

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  • Meandering River
  • Decide the path your river will take
  • Use super glue to line up big rocks along cut bank(s) and make point bars with small rocks
  • Super glue bits of cork where the land will be
  • Super glue spackling or slather mud on top and sides of it (not much mud needed)
  • Wait
  • Mod Podge on top (small sections at a time!), then place grass flocking
  • Use toothpick or stick to add bits of Mod Podge on grass, then add foam flocking
  • Paint river color you want water to be in the direction it would flow. Okay (even good) if a few bits of grass flocking fall in it!
  • Add thin layer of resin
  • Wait

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