Galapagos Blue Footed Boobies

The Blue Footed Boobies mate by whichever male has the best dance and whoever has the brightest feet. They can dive in water a little as three feet deep, and they gather in the thousands. Their blue feet coloration genes get passed down through generations, so eventually all of the boobies feet are blue.

Sex and the Single Guppy

1. Even though bright colors attract predators, the coloration of the guppies depend on where they are in the stream. It varies with each stream or river, and through different parts of the stream. Bright colors also attract mates. A scientist, Endler, wanted to test these discoveries, finding this as his results.

2. After viewing the fish gallery, I think that the Poecilia reticulata is my favorite fish. The origin of this fish is Brazil. It's average size is about 3.5 centimeters. It is a male, so it has many bright colors. It is probably the brightest of the gallery of fish. It is mostly dark blue on the top side of the fish, but towards the bottom, it has splotches of yellow and green. The tail is green and the dorsal fin is orangish.

3. After viewing the predator gallery, I think the Fat Sleeper, or the Dormitator maculatus, is the most interesting of the predators. It has distributed to Southern North America, Bahamas, and Latin America.

4. The size of the body of water and the size of the predator fish will affect the predator population.

5. John Endler is an evolutionary biologist who began studying wild guppies in the 1970s. He studied it in various streams and found that the coloration of the guppy depends on where the guppies are.

6. Pool 1: Brightly Multi Colored with large spots.
Pool 2: Medium coloration on body and tail, with medium sized spots.
Pool 3: Drab coloration, very small spots concentrated near tail.

7. I think in different parts of the stream, the coloration of the guppies vary depending on the amount of predators and females in that particular part of the stream. I think that bright guppies will last the longest, because they attract mates, and the rest depends on the amount of predators in the area.

	% of Brightest Guppies (10 generations)	% of Bright Guppies (10 generations)	% of Drab Guppies (10 generations)	% of DrabbestGuppies (10 generations)
Trial 1 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus	57%	25%	14%	5%
Trial 2 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara	4%	61%	35%	0%
Trial 3 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid	0%	11%	7%	82%
Trial 4 Guppy: Mostly Bright Predators: 30 Rivulus	64%	30%	5%	2%
Trial 5 Guppy: Mostly Drab Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid	0%	0%	0%	100%

8. Predators influence guppy coloration because they can spot the brightly colored ones ore easily than the drab ones. So depending on the amount of predators in the area, there with be more/less brightly colored ones.

9. My hypothesis was not correct because depending on the variables, there were more drab guppies than bright guppies.

10. I think it means that male guppies health depends on reproducing, and not being eaten. Male guppies depend on others to stay healthy.

11. In different areas of the stream, there are more or less predators, and depending on the amount of predators, there is a greater population of guppies.

12. If mostly drab guppies were placed in a stream with very few predators, they would probably overrun the predators because drab guppies are harder for the predators to spot, so eventually the predators would die out.

13. If brightly colored guppies were placed in a stream with many predators, the predators would overrun because the bright colored guppies are easier to spot, and eventually would die out since there are so many predators.

Biodiversity

Biodiversities everywhere have a sharp decline in the species that help maintain the delicate balance the biodiversity holds. More than one million species in ecosystems around the world will disappear in as little as 50 years. Over fishing, pollution, research, and many other human related activities are large contributors to the effects that the biodiversities are experiencing. Even when we have done nothing to intentionally disturb some creatures, but by disturbing others, like the seal, for example, otters are now being targeted by whales, who have lost seals, their main source if nutrition. Be use of this, humans are also being effected, although we might not know it.

Over a long period of time, medicines that could be found from some of these species that we are harming, are also becoming more and more scarce. Loosing the animals can reduce our chances of the human species living the longest it can. After many many studies, scientists have already found some medicines that could solve huge problems in the health department, but they will never know because they do not have enough of the sour e to test their discoveries.

In addition to loosing some of the most important scientific discoveries, some less industrialized countries are dying off from starvation. The species that are dying out, are probably somebody else's way to survive, and that someone may be one of our own kind.

Of course, there is also pollution. Although we are trying to get everyone motivated to reduce, reuse, recycle, there is just not enough people doing it.toxic chemicals are poisoning wildlife everywhere, and by poisoning them, we will also be effected in a negative way.

http://www.unep.org/wed/2010/english/biodiversity.asp

Humans are becoming more vulnerable as the change continues on because of loss of coral reefs. Reefs are natural barriers and help prevent damage from floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc. Without them we are more vulnerable to natural disasters. There are many cultures that are attached to a certain ecosystem, and without that ecosystem, their beliefs are slowly depleting. The waters are dirty, and may beck e too toxic for the purifiers to take care of. Jobs will be lost, and there will be less money, which leads to another stock market crash. The whole works can be directly and indirectly effected by the unnatural change.

Gasses and Climate Change

Hypothesis: I think that if the alcohol gets turned into a gas, that their will be a small amount of soot that comes out of the top of the bottle.

Observations: When the bottle was introduced to the fire, the flame caused the bottle to quickly shoot eight feet off of the table. It was very fast and the flame was about 2 feet long.

Combustion can enter the atmosphere in many different ways. Combustion is everywhere and can be found in cars, farms, cities, and many more. Combustion is in many gasses found in animals, plants, people, and towns.

CO2 Gas Demo

Hypothesis: I think that the gas will interact with the open flame and cause the flame to spark.

Observation: The carbon dioxide put out the flame because an open flame needs oxygen to survive.

Hydrogen Gas Demo

Hypothesis: I think that the hydrochloric acid will cause a large flame to occur because of the reaction it has with the flame.

Observations: The hydrogen caught fire when the flame was introduced to it. Eventually the flame died out and the zinc pieces dissolved once it reacted with the hydrochloric acid.

Air Pressure Demo

Hypothesis: I think that the ice in the ice water will melt quickly when the water vapor is placed in it because the water vapor is still hot and will cause the ice to melt,

Observation:nothing happened. The ice did not melt.

Second hypothesis: The ice will melt now that the open side of the can will be placed into the water. Some of the water will turn into gas but most of it will must stay room temperature.

Observations: as soon as the can touched the ice it squished inwards rapidly and the ice water stayed the same. The gas could not go anywhere when it was inverted. It reminded me of a vacuum.

The article on air pressure really reminded me how fragile this planet is. One slight change and the whole ecosystem could fall apart. If the air pressure is disturbed in any way, shape, or form, the moisture is moving in different direction causing different weather patterns. More rainfall, less snow, more sunny days, etc. Air pressure makes the world go round and when air pressure is not evenly distributed things happen that are not natural.

Ten years of Chornobyl Era Questions

1) Why and how did the explosion happen?
2) If you came in contact with the contaminated milk ans crops, what would happen?
3) What percent of the people who lived by Chernobyl was harshly effected by the explosion?
4) How long has the illnesses been passed on? If it is still being passed, when will it eventually fade?
5) Are people today still being affected by the disaster? If so, how?
6) Will the Chernobyl area ever be safe for humans to re-inhabit it?

5 Questions for the Panel

Would it be safe for me and my family of three year old triplets to live there?

If the site is not safe, what will you do to make it safe?

Is there a way to live close to the area without coming in contact witg any chemicals?

What are the boundaries that I should set for my children so they do not have to come in contact with any dumped materials?

If it is safe now, is there any chance of the chemicals to seep to the surface in the future?

Love Canal Part 2

The toxins dumped in the Love Canal eventually came to the surface, because the blizzard of 1977 overfilled the canal, and the water had to come up from underneath the canal and began oozing out of the top, bringing the toxins with it. When the chemicals were easily able to come in contact with, there was more and more diseases found in children and adult residents that lived around the canal. Diseases such as liver disfuntction, cancer, skin irritation, and birth defects were found and becoming more common sighing the area. When the toxins began seeping up to the surface, they also started moving underground. The toxins eventually made it's way to the rivers north of the are, and it effected the Ecosystems in the river.

Hazards of Oil Dispersants

Susan Shaw was explaining how the oil spill was majorly effecting the marine animals that live in the gulf. The toxins in the water are burning the animals eyes, mouth, nose, and skin. When they come up for air the fumes are causing brain damage, skin damage, lung damage, cancers, and many more harmful effects. Susan went diving in the gulf to see the conditions the animals live in and said that you could barely see there was so much oil. Two days after she went diving she got sick and experiences a fire in her throat. But she said that her sickness was nothing compared to the animals who live there 24/7 . She was also talking about the toxins and the chemicals used to help clean up the oil. She said that both the oil and the chemicals are much more toxic than either of them alone.

In the article it was talking about how that 50% of the oil is no longer in the ocean. But the oil has to go somewhere, which in this case, is the air. The oil is now not only polluting the water, but the air too! When it falls down as rain, the fish in many different places besides the gulf will have this oil in the water making the fish almost everywhere unsafe to eat. Samantha Joyce, a marine biologist from UGA said "A large proportion of this oil is still in the system, floating around the water or trying to make it to the bottom. Until we put a hard number on how fast the oil is degrading, we can't put a hard number on how much oil is still left."

8th Grade DLC Reflection

• How are chemical dispersants harming the animals?
• Is there enough chemical dispersants to clean up all of the oil?
• Do chemical dispersants clump the oil together or get rid of it completely?