Computer Transpiration Lab

Here is my data table:

Normal                      With Fan                   With Heat               With Lamp

3.6	7.5	6.6	4
0.9	6	3.9	3
2.9	4.6	4.1	3
4.1	7.7	6	3.9
1.8	5.1	3.2	2.1
1.2	4.7	5.8	2.4
4.9	8.4	6.8	4.5
3.3	6.1	4.9	2.5
4.2	7.6	6.1	3.2

Journal Questions:

Describe the process of transpiration in vascular plants. Transpiration is the evaporation of water from the leaves and stems of plants into the atmosphere. Water travels from the soil into the roots and then to the stomates, which are small openings underneath leaves that are connected to the vascular tissue of plants. Transpiration is regulated by humidity in the atmosphere and moisture in the soil.  ----------------- Describe any experimental controls used in the Investigation. The controls were the "normal" ones. Instead of using outside factors to affect transpiration, each plant had one time where no external efects were imposing on the plant.  ----------------- What environmental factors that you tested increased the rate of transpiration? Was the rate of transpiration increased for all plants tested? The fan had the most increased rate of traspiration. Every plant had an increased rate with the fan. Heat, Light, and the fan all increased the rate. The zebra plant was the only one that had less rate for the light than the normal.  ----------------- Did any of the environmental factors (heat, light, or wind) increase the transpiration rate more than the others? Why? The wind from the fan had the most increased rate. This is because wind removes the boundary layer which is a still layer of water that hugs the surface of the leaf. Wind also increases the movement of water on the surface of the leaf.  ----------------- Which species of plants that you tested had the highest transpiration rates? Why do you think different species of plants transpire at different rates? The Rubber Plant had one of the most highest rates. The larger the leaf, the larger the surface area so more opportunity to do transpiration. Also the moisture of the soil and the nutrients available factor in.  ----------------- Suppose you coated the leaves of a plant with petroleum jelly. How would the plant's rate of transpiration be affected? The petroleum jelly would block the stomates and transpiration would not be in effect.  ----------------- Of what value to a plant is the ability to lose water through transpiration? Transpiration raises air humidity and moderates daily change in temperature. Evaportaion cools the leaves. Transpiration allows the leaves to spread and they will get more sunlight. There is a transpiration flow in the xylem which carries dissolved nutrients up with the water. -----------------

Botany of Desire Pinterest Post

Coevolution

(Pollinator, November 9, 2004)

Coevolution is when two parties act on each other to advance their individual interests but wind up trading favors. In this example, the bee gets food and the flower genes get transportation. 

Domesticated Species

(http://www.dogtraininginlondon.co.uk/can-we-learn-from-wolves/)

We as people tend to think that wolves are more impressive than domesticated dogs, however dogs are much more impressive because they have mastered knowing our needs and desires and our emotions and values. This is why dogs have been thriving and have millions in the world, were wolves are only in the thousands. 

Nature's Alchemists

(Shakespeare-Wikipedia, 22 April 2006)

Plants are nature's alchemists because they are experts at transforming water, soil, and sunlight into precious substances. Plants can do photosynthesis and have perfected organic chemistry. 

Artificial Selection

(John Doebley, 13 October 2003) 

Charles Darwin's term for the process in which domesticated species came into this world was artificial selection. He did not use fake because what was happening was not fake. Darwin said that human desire played the same role that nature did in matching which species will fit with which. 

Source: The Botany of Desire a Plant's-Eye View of the World, by Michael Pollan  

Predator/Prey Lab Graph Analysis

For the Predator/Prey Lab, our habitat was a tropical forest. We had three different species of rabbits: white rabbits, light green rabbits, and dark green rabbits. The wolf species had two types of variations, large in size and small in size. In the first few generations, the wolves ended up dying of starvation due to the small population size of the rabbits. Also, the light and dark green had better adaptations to survive due to better camouflage, so the white rabbits were close to extinction at the beginning of the lab since there were so few. Over time, the rabbit population became more abundant, so the wolf population also became more abundant due to more opportunity to get food. However, once the wolves began to reproduce a lot, the rabbit population started to decline. In turn, so did the wolf population.
 

Disaster in the Marine Pelagic Biome!

As you all know from my last post that over break I visited a marine pelagic biome. But now something horrible has happened! The tiger sharks in Shark Bay, Australia have gone extinct!

PC: Rob Stewart/Sharkwater

The tiger shark is a keynote species. A keynote species is a type of species that has a disproportionately large effect on its ecosystem in relation to its abundance. In Shark Bay, Australia, the tiger shark was the main predator of Dugongs and Green Sea Turtles.

PC: Julien Willem, 1 July 2008

PC: Alexander Vasenin, 9 April 2010

Both the Dugongs and Green Sea Turtles feed off of nutritious sea grass. The tiger sharks usually are found in waters where sea grass is abundant, but since they are extinct, they are not there any more, leaving the Dugongs and Green Sea Turtles to feed freely. When grazing, the Dugongs remove the entire seagrass plant. This disrupts the structure of the seagrass meadow, the nutrients content, and the surrounding environment. When grazing, Green Sea Turtles remove the top of the seagrass blades. The presence of tiger sharks distributed the grazing of turtles. Without the tiger sharks the seagrass population will become very scarce and this will affect not only species that rely on eating the seagrass but also the bottom sea communities.


*This post is for a biology project. Tiger sharks are not really extinct in Australia currently.


Sources:
  http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/o/fileadmin/oceana/uploads/Sharks/Predators_as_Prey_FINAL_FINAL.pdf

Citations for Marine Biome travel blog

Websites used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagic_zone
http://marinebio.org/oceans/open-ocean.asp
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/121001_acidicoceans
http://www.protectplanetocean.org/collections/introduction/introbox/humanimpact/introduction-item.html

Biome Travel Blog- Marine Pelagic

Over Spring Break, I visited a Marine Pelagic Biome in the Pacific Ocean. The marine pelagic biome is the zone of water in the sea that is neither close to the bottom of the sea nor near the shore. The world pelagic is derived from the Ancient Greek word pelagos meaning open sea. There are five different zones in the pelagic region, epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic.

 Brooks/Cole, Marine Pelagic, 2002, Thompson Learning, 4/17/14

There are many components to a marine pelagic biome. Abiotic features are physical or climate conditions. Some examples are salinity, which is 3.5%, dissolved gases, which are oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, temperature, which varies from about 40 degrees fahrenheit to over 100 degrees fahrenheit ( average temperature being 39 degrees fahrenheit), pressure, which is for every 33 feet down, 1 atmosphere, pH, which is usually from 7.5 to 8.4, density, which is 1.025 g/ml at the surface, average rainfall, which can be up to 100 inches, wavelengths, and current strength and direction. 

There are also many biotic, living organisms, such as produces, consumers, and decomposers. The producers consists of phytoplankton which use sunlight from the upper epipelagic zone for photosynthesis.

UC Santa Barbara, Where have all the phytoplankton gone?, 2010, 4/17/14

The consumers include pelagic birds, such as the Atlantic puffin, macaroni penguins, sooty terns, and shearwaters. They feed on crustaceans, squid, and fish. Pelagic fish include migratory forage fish which feed on plankton, such as herring anchovies, capelin, and menhaden. Some fish that feed off of other fish are billfish, tuna, and sharks. 

Bartz, Richard, 14 July 2013, 4/17/14

Invertebrates include krill, copepods, jellyfish, decapod larve, hyperid amphipods, ratifiers, and cladocera. Reptiles include the pelagic sea snake. 

Since the marine pelagic biome does not include the shore or the bottom of the ocean, the decomposers do not include crabs, sea urchins, and shrimp. It does include, however, many types of bacteria and fungi. 

Over 40% of the worlds ocean are heavily impacted from human activities. Human activities include fishing, costal development, pollution from shipping, sewage dump age into the ocean, noise pollution from boats, chemicals being released, and oil spills. 

 U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 11 February 2005, 4/17/13

State College Florida, Marine Environment, 4/17/14 

Food chain -> phytoplankton -> herring -> tuna -> shark

Wikipedia commons, 30 August 2009, 4/17/14

An example of a symbiotic relationship in the marine pelagic zone is the whale shark and the remora. Their relationship is called Commensalism, which means the remora benefits from the shark's presence, but the shark is unaffected. The remora catches scraps of food from the shark's meal cleans the food off of the shark's body. 

Bird, Jonathan, 1998, 4/17/14

In more recent times, due to the oceans becoming more acidic, the living organisms in the pelagic zone are forced to adapt to it. Lower pH levels in the ocean mean that organisms like algae and plankton may be in danger, and that could affect the whole food chain. A study at UC Berkley showed that coccolithophores put into acidic environments were able to grow faster than in the normal acidity. They were able to adapt so that in the future they can survive. Also over the years, sharks have adapted to having their bodies taper to points at both the snout and tail, making less water resistance. This and other adaptations that help decrease drag, help the sharks swim faster, making it easier for them to catch their prey.

This video isn't specifically about marine pelagic but still informative and entertaining:
Marine Biome Song

  

Animal Behavior Lab

ABSTRACT:

In this lab, we are experimenting to find out the behavior of pill bugs. We created two experiments. One tested for the reaction of pill bugs to wet and dry areas. The other tested for the reaction of pill bugs to areas with and without honey. We originally thought that since pill bugs are found in wet places in nature, the pill bugs would be drawn to the wet chamber. We also originally thought that since honey can be a food source, the pill bugs would be drawn to the honey chamber. We were able to determine if our hypothesis was correct by recording the number of pill bugs in each chamber for a set period of time.

INTRODUCTION:

Behavior is an animal's response to sensory (internal or external) input. There are two basic types of behavior, learned and inherited/innate. The study of animal behavior is called ethology. The proximate questions about behavior are questions that focus on the environmental stimuli that trigger a certain behavior. These questions are also known as the "How" questions. Ultimate questions are ones that ask about the evolutionary significance of the certain behavior. Theres questions are also knows as the "Why" questions. If a bird is singing, a proximate question could be, How can the bird know when is the right time to sing? An ultimate question could be, Does the singing have evolutionary benefits e.g. is it able to attract mates to continue the bloodline of the bird? Fixed action patterns are a pattern or sequence of unlearned behavior acts that is unable to change once started and is usually carried to the end or completion. An example of fixed action patterns are mating dances of birds. Imprinting is a type of behavior that includes innate and learning components and is usually irreversible. Imprinting has a sensitive period meaning that there is a limited phase in an animal's development when particular behaviors can be understood and learned. A proximate question for imprinting in young geese is, What specific actions does the mother goose do in order to trigger imprinting? An ultimate question is, Does imprinting help the young geese learn vital skills which will help them succeed in their lives? Orientation behaviors help move the animal into its most desirable environment. In taxis, the animal goes toward or away from a stimulus. The stimulus is usually light, heat, moisture, sound, or chemicals. Kinesis is the movement that does not result in the orientation with respect to the stimulus and is random. If an animal responds to loud noises by coming towards it, then that is taxis. If it responds by moving all over the place and by random movements, then that is kinesis. Classical conditioning is a type of associated learning where arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward of punishment. Operant conditioning is a type of associated learning where an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with a reward or punishment.

HYPOTHESIS:

If the 10 pill bugs are placed in two chambers, one wet and one dry, then they will move into the wet chamber over time in a taxis manner because in nature pill bugs are usually found in wet habitats. If the 10 pill bugs are placed in two chambers, one with honey and one with nothing, then the pill bugs will also move in a taxis manner to the honey chamber because honey contains sugar and other sources of food and nutrients. In our experiment the independent variable would be the time that the pill bugs stay in the chambers. The dependent variable would be the number of pill bugs in each different chamber.

MATERIALS:

- 2 containers each with 2 attached chambers
- 4 pieces of filter paper
- 10 pill bugs
- beaker containing water
- beaker containing honey
- brush

PROCEDURE:

1. Use a container with 2 chambers attached in it. Put filter paper in each chamber. Put water in one chamber and leave the other alone as a control.

2. Gently brush pill bugs into chambers and record the number of pill bugs in each chamber.

3. Cover the the chambers to make them dark. After 30 seconds, record the number of pill bugs in each chamber.

4. Keep recording the number until 7 minutes are up. Then take the pill bugs out and clean up.

5. For the honey experiment, use the same steps above but instead of water use honey.

RESULTS:

Time (Minutes)	# of pill bugs in wet chamber	# of pill bugs in control chamber
0	5	5
0.5	4	6
1	5	5
1.5	6	4
2	6	4
2.5	6	4
3	5	5
3.5	3	7
4	5	5
4.5	5	5
5	5	5
5.5	6	4
6	7	3
6.5	7	3
7	7	3

Time (Minutes)	# in honey chamber	# in control chamber
0	4	6
0.5	4	6
1	4	6
1.5	5	5
2	4	6
2.5	5	5
3	5	5
3.5	5	5
4	5	5
4.5	5	5
5	5	5
5.5	5	5
6	6	4
6.5	6	4
7	5	5

CONCLUSION:

In the first experiment with the wet and dry chambers, at first it seems that the pill bugs are moving around in a kinesis manner. However over time majority of the pill bugs eventually move towards the stimulus, the water. If we timed the pill bugs for longer, they probably would all move towards the water eventually because their natural habitat is wet as well. For the second experiment with the honey, the pill bugs do not show a preference to either chamber. They move in a kinesis manner. For a long time there is an equal amount of pill bugs in each chamber. This concludes that even though honey may be a source of nutrients to some animals, it does not have a direct effect on pill bugs. But, if we had timed longer, we might have seen a pattern or a preference. One source of error is that we might have spilled a drop of water into the control or dry chamber during the honey experiment, so the pill bugs may have been drawn to that.