Flood, Turtle, Invertebrates in High Ground Refugia

Remarkable and Marvelous

Today we had 4.6 inches rain in 12 hours (midnight to noon). By afternoon the southern 15-20% and western 15-20% of the Woods were flooded- depths 18-30 “ (knee deep to waist deep) with many acre feet of water. (Acre foot = ~326,000 gal.) Marvelous what has happened..every species of centipede, pink millipedes, many thousands of isopods are clustered together on high ground, stumps, branch stobs, sticks. Normally hidden creatures, in a newly drowned forest, earthworms, ground beetles, stink bugs, harvestmen, snails, ants.. the invertebrates have been revealed and they are tightly jammed together in their refugia, wherever there is high ground. In a mutual non-aggression pact predators and prey are jammed together with no evidence of predation as the water rises.
Up on the trunks of trees between chinks of bark there are pentatomids, carabids and more.. a bright red & midnight blue melyrid, waiting out the rain and the rising water.
Bark gleaning birds can/ will have a feast.

OU by flooding the forest (with runoff from Lloyd Noble arena parking lot) sets up conditions for an extraordinary survey of Arthropods. Why are the isopods so dominant in numbers?
The flooded area has been dry and then very dry since February snow until recent 2.5 inch rain late April. But it was flooded last year for long enough to exterminate many of the resident macro-invertebrates. The ones there today are good dispersers, survivors and colonizers. (CA isopods were dominant macro invertebrates in disturbed areas.) I see two of the pretty, exotic pale bordered roach. A big Camponotus carpenter ant colony in a rotten green ash is busy transferring larvae from one part of its nest in a large (now floating) punky log to another. Along NS fence line trail there are isolated pools of struggling earthworms and I collect several of the larger bulky and several of the skinny small ones. Be interesting to see if we have the natives still there or if these are the European worms.

What about the vertebrates? snakes? lizards? They all have to climb trees or leave.
I find a young box turtle by a washed out channel near Elm bridge.. first box turtle I've seen this year. In the NE Woods I startle 2 or 3 deer.. loud snorts.

Aleuria red earth cup fungi are new, out on the Northern Loop. Why so red? Attract spore dispersing flies??? but most of its spore dispersal is by wind.

The East Pond is greatly expanded, filled beyond its borders.. extending out to the jct with the Ravine Trail.. an abrupt change in water chemistry and dissolved oxygen.. interesting change for dominant microbial decomposers in the pond.

A few mosquitoes down on the south side of the Woods.. more to come now.

Density of floating twigs, leaves, ash seeds other lignin debris is quite variable. What determines where it will cover the water surface and where it is absent? What are consequences for decomposition and rafts of debris after drying or drainage.. seed beds? invertebrate and fungal decomposition hotbeds?