11/21: Hot Spot Activity

Western Ghats and Sri Lanka (#21)

1. Location of the hotspot and type of ecosystems found there.
1. Location: Western Ghats (Southwestern India), Sri Lanka
2. Type of ecosystems: Lowland rainforest, montane rainforest, monsoon rainforest

2. Describe at least one endemic plant species and one animal species found there.
1. Plant species: Dipterocarpus zeylanicus (tree)
2. Animal species: Latidens salimalii (bat)

3. Describe the socio-economic conditions  (pre-industrial, transitional, industrial, post-industrial).
1. There are many socioeconomic constraints protecting forest reserves in Sri Lanka, such as the Sinharaja, one of which is encroaching cultivation. (Specific information regarding pre-industrial, transitional, industrial, post-industrial conditions could not be found.)

4. Human induced and/or natural reasons why species biodiversity is decreasing in that region.
1. Planters and farmers increasingly use protected forests to cultivate, with agrochemicals.
2. Forest products, such as timber and medicinal plants are being extracted.
3. Animals are poached.
4. Invasive species pose threats to aquatic species.

5. What is being done to protect this hotspot?
1. Approximately 13.8% of the area is under official protection.
2. Western Ghats is protected in 20 national parks and 68 sanctuaries.
3. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are being identified; the identification in the Western Ghats started in 2003.
4. Sri Lanka is officially protected by the Forest Department and the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

6. Any interesting information you found about the area.
1. The island of Sri Lanka has been repeatedly connected with India between successive interglacials by a 140 km-wide land bridge until about 7000 years go.

11/16: Unit 4 Blog

1. Explain in your own words the difference between species evenness and species richness.

Species evenness is the closeness of the number of each species in an area, whereas species richness is the number of species in the area.

2. List and describe four random processes that can cause evolution.

Random mating is breeding in which the choice of partner is not influenced by the genotype.

Genetic variation provides the basis of natural selection.

Genetic recombination produces a new combination of alleles.

Genetic mutation is a permanent change in the DNA sequence.

3. Summarize in your own words allopatric speciation.  Give an example.

Allopatric speciation is the formation of a new species, caused by geographic isolation. An example is the Galapagos finches.

4. What factors determine the rate of evolution?

A factor that may determine the rate of evolution is the kind of species: r and K selection. R species would allow for slightly higher rate of evolution, since offspring are produced more in quantity and higher in frequency, and K species would allow for a lower rate, since offspring are produced less.

5. Do you agree with the statement below?  Why or why not?

“We are currently experiencing a sixth global extinction.”

Yes, I agree with the statement, because so many species today are endangered, close to extinction.

6. Give an example of each of symbiotic relationships/terms below.

Predator/prey: Lion eats zebra.

Competition: Sea anemones compete for territory.

Mutualism: Plover bird cleans crocodile's teeth and obtains nutrition.

Commensalism: Cattle egrets eat insects that are found in the land the cattle disturb as they move in herds.

Parasitism: Mosquito feeds on blood from human.

Keystone species: The sea otter feeds on sea urchins, controlling their population. The urchins would otherwise eat up the entire kelp population.

K-selected species: Humans.

R-selected species: Rodents.

7. In your own words explain the difference between primary and secondary succession in terms of cause and the types of plant species that begin to grow in each.  Give an example of each.

Primary succession occurs in areas that lacked vegetation prior to the disturbance, whereas secondary succession occurs in areas previously supported with vegetation. Primary succession also involves a greater disturbance such as a volcano eruption and pioneer species such as hardwood trees, while secondary succession involves comparatively smaller disturbances such as forest fire and non-pioneer species such as grass.

11/5: Bean Lab

1. The average value is about 16% lower than the value of 50, which is the population size. The value is not very close.

2. Random sampling can only be so accurate. Although 10 trials were conducted, this method is not the most reliable regarding an exact value.

3. There may be trouble marking the animals and even catching them to count or make marks. This simulation obviously does not account for these kinds of troubles. 

11/3: Community Ecology Interview

1. The three different types of ecological diversity are ecosystem, species, and genetic diversities.
a. Genes are the blueprint of an organism's traits because the they are the fundamental structure of an organism. The diversity derived from these traits helps determines the species diversity as well as the ecosystem diversity.

2. We as humans benefit from diversity, through the various agricultural crops and even simply, the aesthetic beauty.

3. Species is defined as the largest group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. It is estimated that approximately 8.7 million species (plus/minus 1.3 million) are present on the Earth today.

4. There is such a broad range in the number of species that exist on Earth because new species are constantly discovered, and many become extinct.

5. The significance of a phylogenetic tree is that the diagram organizes species into categories that indicate how related they are to one another.

6. The difference in a gene and a genotype is that while a gene is a physical location on the chromosomes, genotype is the complete set of genes in an individual.

7. Mutation can be caused by UV exposure or nuclear exposure.

8. Recombination can lead to a mutation by bringing together new combinations of genes on a chromosome that can sometimes produce new traits. One chromosome breaks off and attaches to another chromosome during reproductive cell division.

9. The difference between an organisms's genotype and phenotype is that genotype is the set of genes, while phenotype is the physical appearance as a result of the individual's genes.

10. Artificial selection is breeding in which professionals try to produce offspring that possess many of the desirable characteristics found in their parents. Examples are purebred dog breeding and crop breeding.

11. My order of Darwin's Key Ideas:
     1. Individuals differ in their traits.
     2. Differences in traits are associated with differences in the ability to survive and
         reproduce.
     3.Differences in traits can be passed on from parents to offspring.
     4. Not all offspring can survive.
     5. Individuals produce an excess of offspring.

12. a. Mutation can increase in frequency in a population over time.
      b. Genetic drift can cause some genotypes to be lost by chance.
      c. Bottleneck effect occurs after a population experiences a drastic decrease in size.
      d. Founder effect occurs when a few individuals colonize an island, and the genotypes
          on the island represent only part of the genotypes present in the whole population.

13. An example of allopatric speciation is the Asian elephant.

14. A species can successfully undergo adaptation if the rate of environmental change is not
too fast or too slow and the genetic variation within the species allows for a wide variety of phenotypes. Also, population size matters, as smaller ones evolve more quickly, and generation time tends to be shorter for species that are more reproductively mature.

15. A niche generalist is more equipped to produce a chronic lineage than a niche specialist because generalist is able to survive in a variety of environmental conditions, while specialist is only able to depend on a narrow range of conditions.
a. This could play out in nature in terms of what an organisms consumes. For example, a heterotroph would be a niche generalist since it consumes both animals and plants, while a koala would be a niche specialist since it only consumes one plant species.

There are so many different kinds of plants and animals because the Earth is different everywhere. The same plant wouldn't be able to live in both the desert and the rainforest.

Evolution is the idea that ancestors of animals today were different from animals today. 

You know if something is evolving or has evolved by looking at a tree-like diagram to see how the species connect.

A single animal cannot evolve. Instead, a group of animals, or population, evolves over millions of years.

9/22: Unit 2 Blog

Our ocean is impacted by the “Big Four”: human, environmental, economic impacts, and governmental legislation. The growth of human population as well as development in technology directly impacts on our oceans today.

Human Impact:

For humans, the ocean equates dumping ground. Sewage, industrial run-off, and chemicals are dumped into the ocean, in addition to oil spills from tanker accidents.  The pollution results in bioaccumulation, in which the toxic chemical levels in organisms increase at each trophic level. Pollution from land affects the ocean too; the excess nutrients from fertilizers used in intensive farming are released into coasts by streams and rivers, a type of pollution called eutrophication. Human activities have also caused a rise in carbon dioxide level, and because the ocean absorbs one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions, it is becoming more acidic, as more carbon dioxide results in decrease in pH.

Environmental Impact:

The human impact ties into environmental impact, like a chain-reaction that further influences the ocean. The negative impact of eutrophication is displayed when blooms result from too much phytoplankton. Then, when the large number of the plankton dies, the sharp increase in decomposition leads to depleted oxygen levels. Eventually, other organisms such as fish die from the lack of oxygen. The environment is complicated, for even an introduction of species can threat the entire ecosystem; visiting ships occasionally introduce new organisms to a habitat. Also, even the slightest change in pH level is a huge issue for the marine ecosystem, as its biodiversity may decrease.

Economic Impact:

Economic impact on the ocean is clearly is seen in fisheries, as advances in fishing equipment and increasing population along the coast are causing full or even overexploiting of fish. As the fish stocks are decreasing, the economic demand calls for unsustainable fishing practices such as dredging and trawling, which damage marine life.

Governmental Legislation

In New Zealand, the government sets limits of commercial fish that can be caught, a quota system, in attempt to manage fish stocks. In the United States, federal agencies have been protecting the marine environment. In 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted to prevent animal extinction; the legislation lists threatened or endangered species, designates their critical habitats, and restores the populations. The Coral Reef Conservation Act (CRCA) was established in 2000 in order to preserve coral reef ecosystems, establishing several major programs such as the Coral Reef Conservation Fund. Several countries have experienced recent policy changes, which have resulted in the view by some that our ocean cannot be an everlasting dumpster. This hopefully calls for a dramatic change in our usage of the ocean!


Works Cited

"Human Impacts on Marine Environments." Science Learning Hub RSS. The University of 
          Waikato, 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. 
          <http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Life-in-the-Sea/Science-Ideas-and-
          Concepts/Human-impacts-on-marine-environments>.
"Laws Protecting the Oceans." Oceana. Oceana, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014. 
          <http://oceana.org/en/policy/laws-protecting-the-oceans>.

9/18: Practice Question #1

a) Shutting down thermohaline circulation would lower the temperature of Western Europe because the salt water in the oceanic region may not be dense in salinity. Thermohaline circulation drives the mixing of surface water and deep water; the supposedly dense, cold, salty water from the poles would sink, allowing warm water from the equator to rise, but if the water from Greenland is not dense enough, then the warm water's rising to Western Europe may not be guaranteed, resulting in a decreased temperature in Western Europe.

b) There would be large populations of fish along the west coasts of most continents because of the upwelling caused by the diverging currents. Upwelling is the rise of ocean water toward its surface, and because deep waters bring nutrients from the bottom, the ecosystem is more productive, allowing large populations of fish to reside.

c) Shutting down thermohaline circulation would affect the transport of nutrients among the oceans of the world because the mixing of surface water and deep water would be prevented, and as a result, the nutrients from the bottom of the ocean would not be transferred to the surface. The diverging currents, then, would not be able to circulate water containing nutrients, which would have been present if the thermohaline circulation were active.

9/16: Unit 2 Checkpoint

Difference between weather and climate?
Weather refers to atmospheric conditions of a region at a certain point of time, whereas climate refers to the average condition of a region over a longer period of time.

Effect of Earth's rotation on atmospheric circulation and ocean currents?
Coriolis Effect. Gyres: Water generally circulates clockwise in Northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in Southern hemisphere.

Similarities of atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns? Differences?
Both affected by and influence temperature.
Atmospheric: Air, trade winds/westerlies (consistent temperature - trade winds: warm; westerlies: cold).
Oceanic: Water, thermohalic circulation (more cyclical than trade winds/westerlies).

9/12: Hadley Cell

1. What causes water vapor in the rising air to condense and precipitate?

Answer: Adiabatic cooling.

2. What makes the air rise farther up into the atmosphere after the condensation of water vapor?

Answer: Latent heat release is produced, and air expands.

3. How does the cool air flow back toward the equator after sinking?

Answer: The air reaches Earth's surface as warm, dry air after adiabatic heating.

Day 2 - The Lorax

1. The Lorax is the voice of nature. His role is to speak for the organisms in the community harmed by industrialization. 

2. Both Once-ler's way of business and Roosevelt and Pinchot's utilitarian conservatism favor mankind. Though both prioritize the good of men, Once-ler is insensitive to the well-being of nature, as he ruthlessly takes advantage of all available resources, while Roosevelt and Pinchot more or less compromise the good of all. However, neither ideas are sensitive to nature. 

3. The Lorax as similar views as those of Muir. Their views are controversial today because the environment continues to be industrialized more than ever. Thus, the belief of prioritizing good of mankind is noticeably more popular than biocentric preservation.

4. The production of thneed resulted in various toxins such as carbon dioxide from factory smoke and waste in the ponds.

5. The production of thneed can contribute to the increase in global temperature, increase in global level of carbon dioxide, and decrease in biodiversity.

6. Energy consumption and loss of biodiversity together can worsen their respective effects by majorly disturbing the food web, which is based on the flow of energy from an organism to another. The food web obviously portrays the big picture of a particular habitat.

7. In a developing country, thneed production would be different from that in a developed one, in terms of production level. The technology would be less developed, so production level would not be as high. However, raw materials may be more prevalent. Additionally, workers would be under worse conditions.

8. "Unless" refers to the fact that the environment will continue to suffer unless people act differently. An average citizen can make a difference in the environment by simply choosing to recycle, for example. The word "unless" recognizes that every little action is necessary in order to better the environment in which we live today.

9. Having properly defined property rights means that our surroundings, or properties, are under the names of specific individuals, thus preventing people from altering too much of an area. This would help solve the problem by keeping the changes made to our habitats under control.

Day 1 - Introduction

My name is Annie Lee. I am involved in the band, which is currently the only activity I have time for since marching and football seasons are both up and running right now...

During the summer, I went to New York, Washington D.C., and Baltimore, and stayed with my sister, who was taking summer courses at her school at Johns Hopkins. While she was having fun (not really) studying for organic chemistry, I had a fun taste of what college would be like. It was a very cool experience talking to individuals just starting to delve into their respective interests; they inspired me to look forward to what I dream of. Shortly after I arrived back in Dallas, I attended the George Parks Drum Major Academy, a week-long summer camp of participating in "drum major activities." The days were hot and long, and as soon as I got back from that, summer band began at the end of July. I've also been going to Lifetime every day to get back in shape since I never have time during the school year.

The best vacation for me would be a trip to Alaska. I would love to stay away from the heat and do awesome things in the cold. I haven't really planned any specifics.. yet... but I'm not fond of this Texas heat.

After I walk across the stage with my diploma and hopefully not falling on my face, I plan to attend college and go into medical field. I've always been interested in surgery procedures.

Something unique about me... I have perfect pitch. I hear a sound and know what note it is. That's something.. it kind of relates to science.. harmonic motion. Yay physics.

I'm looking forward to this class and earning a new perspective of our world!