Mangroves

  

    There are three different types of Mangroves, White, Black, and Red Mangroves.  Each one is very different and its not because of their color.   For one thing thier habitats are different, While all Mangroves live in salt water, Red mangroves can live up to a foot deep in water while the Black ones can only live a couple inches in.  White Mangroves live the farthest away out in the water than any of the three, at the same water level the White Mangroves are at.  Also the names of the plants differ, and some arnt even the color that they say they are.  The Red Mangroves are actually not red but are called red because they produce chemicals called tannins that turn the water and mud a rusty color.  Blacl and white Mangroves though however are named after the color of their bark.                                                                                                                                         Red

         

              Black                                                                                                 White


    Mangroves are very important expecially for the coast lines,   they protect them from wave action because they hold the soil together and prevent coastal erosion.  Also after many and many have grown they create almost like a forest and is home to many creatures.  Mangroves even have many fish living by them almost like a fish nursery.  With these mangrove forest they help fishermen easily catch fish.    We should protect Mangroves because they have many benefits and actually these forest along the shoreline saved lives in 2005 when the tsunami hit Asia. There were no deaths in the areas which had mangrove forests, compared to those areas without, which suffered massive causalities.

Saltwater Crocodile

Saltwater Crocodile

Crocodylus porosus

    These Crocodiles live throughout the seasons in different places.  They generally spend the tropical wet season in freshwater swamps and rivers, moving downstream to estuaries in the dry season, and sometimes travelling far out to sea.  Any type of Crocodile is a carnivore and a dangerous predators in the waters, So they need special adaptations in order to help them hunt.  One adaptation of saltwater crocodiles is that their eyes and nose are high on its head so that it can remain mostly underwater, hiding from its prey. Also their broad tails and specially webbed feet help them swim and maneuver quickly. With these two adaptations they can hide but also can easily jump up or to the side to catch their prey.
    
Saltwater crocodiles are extremely dangerous resulting in several attacks to humans annually, sometimes resulting in death.   We make crocodile leather, that is in high demand, and crocodile farms are establish to raise crocodiles solely for their hides. Like other animal skin and fur trades, this practice is highly controversial among those concerned with animal welfare.  But all in all these reptiles are not yet officially threatened, however in many countries populations have declined significantly.  I chose Saltwater Crocs because I remember always going down to swamps where my dad use to live and they would just pop their heads up and they always scared the heck out of me and I thought it would be cool to learn more about these deviled eyes creatures.
 

Ocean Acidification

 

   Ocean Acidification is the ongoing increase of PH in earths ocean.  It's when dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide is affect the sea and causing life under the sea to suffer from it.  Its second to Global Warming, and is polluting our seas to a point where it will take 1000s of years to recover it.  Because of the excessive use of energy human race is using, such as Factory pollution, not renewable energy cars, and other things our ocean is suffering badly.  It is causing planktons to actually die because they are having to use more energy to create their shells, instead of using the energy on other important task they have.  Also the dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide in the ocean water is actually eating away the planktons and other shell fish's shells, causing them to die. 
            



Carbon dioxide is actually healthy to have everywhere around earth even the ocean but when it gets to a dangerous level that's when it starts to make permanent damage to our earth.  The human race can stop and help repair our earth by simply being more aware.  Learn how to get energy naturally, such as more windows and solar power.  And hopefully eventually we can replace gasoline engine cars with plug in cars.  If we keep over abusing our earth the way we have been our ocean will be almost completely dead in the next coming century.

                        
 

What I Learned About Plankton

   At first when I learned about plankton I thought it would be very boring but actually when we started to watch videos of actual footage about them I learned there's a lot more interesting thing I am swimming in when I go to the beach.   For one thing I learned there are 2 different types of plankton, zooplankton, and phytoplankton.  Zooplankton are plankton that actually end of being animals while phytoplankton are more like plants.  One thing I thought was the most interesting was that these things are super tiny and almost needle point size.  They all live as the first layer of the ocean and are 100s maybe even thousands in a cup of ocean water.
    Even though these things are tiny they still eat, and while phytoplankton go through photosynthesis, zooplankton feast on each other.  Most of them don't get to adult hood because of their preys.  Something I also will always remember is that the plankton Phronima gave producers the idea of the movie Aliens.  I actually ended up liking this unit and even though I usually sleep through movies in class, the video that we watched on planktons kept me awake the whole time.

I also now know what Plankton on SpongeBob actually is:)

Beluga Whale

Beluga Whale!!!

Scientific name: Delphinapterus leucas

Habitat:

Belugas swim among icebergs and ice floes in the icy waters of the arctic and subarctic, where water temperatures may be as low as 32 degrees Fahrenheit. They are usually found in shallow coastal waters, often in water barely deep enough to cover their bodies.  In the summer though they are also found in warm-water estuaries and river basins. Reproduction: Male beluga whales become sexually mature at about eight to nine years of age, and females at about four to seven years.  Breeding generally takes place in March through May, about 10 months after calving. And one male, may mate with several females whales.                                            Status: The Beluga whale is starting to become extinct in many parts of the world, and marine biologists are starting to see less and less of them.  While some cooperates are trying to help protect them such as ,SeaWorld, they have no idea if it will help at all. Fun Facts! The blubber is usually around 10-15 cm thick. Imagine taking the mattress off of your bed, wrapping it around your body, then going swimming, that's what it would be like to be a beluga whale.  They have a dorsal ridge on their back instead of a fin. Since they're from the arctic, they use the ridge to break through ice to find a place to breathe. And a dorsal fin would bang on the ice every time that they swim. Beluga whales are mammals which means they have to have hair or fur on some part of their body at some point in their life. While they are a fetus and after they are first born, they have some hair on their top lip, also called their rostrum. Endangered Due to the effects of ocean pollution and Beluga hunting, Beluga whales are, unfortunately, one of the most endangered species of whale around. The effects of ocean pollution must be addressed if the issue of Beluga whales going extinct to go away.  Beluga and many other whales are such magnificent creatures and the world cannot afford to lose these intelligent creatures. I chose the beluga whale just because I always remember seeing it as sea world and I found it to be way different from the other whales with its pearl white skin and funny shaped body, I was really interested to learn more.     .

Plankton Race!

Well today we did the Plankton race and it was a lot hard than we expected, who would have thought making something sink very slowly would be so difficult.  We were given a handful of items...

 

sticky note, 2 toothpicks, poof ball, 2 rubber bands, straw, bubble wrap, and two other things I had no idea what they were called,

 

 

 

 

So at the beginning of doing this we were told the more simple the better, although me and my partner did not do this, we at first had trouble with actually getting it to not just float and when it finally did start to sink it sunk fast.  Our finally project came out to look like...

Which, yes we have no idea if it even resembles a plankton it did a "OK" job, our average time was 6.51 seconds, after trails and trials of redoing it.  And after watching other groups testing theirs we started to realize we should have really listened to the teacher when she said the more simple the better.  Watching groups get 20 or more seconds by not using anything but the paper itself, and then look at what ever ours was suppose to be, we both felt really dumb founded.  The most difficult part of this project I have to say was everything because at first it was to get to sink and then it was to keep from sinking to fast.  But in the end it was really not even hard me and my partner just made it harder than it really was.

 

Harmful Algal Bloom

     First off algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of microscopic algae the ocean.  They are in both fresh water and marine environment, and they are blooming at concentrations of hundreds to thousands of cells per milliliter, depending on the severity.  In most cases these algaes are not harmful unless the case is HAB, Harmful Algal Bloom.  HAB are  algal bloom events involving toxic or otherwise harmful phytoplankton such as dinoflagellates of the genus Alexandrium and Karenia, or diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia.  They occur in many regions of the world, and in the United States are recurring phenomena in multiple geographical regions.   HAB is a very serious problem in the earths ocean, the harmful effects include...

 

1. the production of neurotoxins which cause mass mortalities in fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals
2. human illness or death via consumption of seafood contaminated by toxic algae
3. mechanical damage to other organisms, such as disruption of epithelial gill tissues in fish, resulting in asphyxiation
4. oxygen depletion of the water column (hypoxia or anoxia) from cellular respiration and bacterial degradation

 
   We can stop HAB by stopping pollution in the ocean,  one cause of HAB is nutrient enrichment in the water.  The Gulf of Maine frequently experiences blooms by an organism that produces a neurotoxin saxitoxin,which for paralytic shellfish poisoning. Also the "Florida red tide" that occurs in the Gulf of Mexico is a HAB caused by Karenia brevis, another dinoflagellate which produces brevetoxin, the neurotoxin responsible for neurotoxic shellfish poisoning.

Why we should study the ocean

1. Food- we find and used many things in the ocean, such as seafood.  Imagine a life without red lobster or no shrimp appetizers.

2.Life- learning about the ocean also helps us learn about life under the sea and discover living beings that we never saw before.  Also we can learn from these species and compare them to humans.



3.Fossil Fuels-  the ocean is also a major producer of fossil fuels, which helps us learn more about global warming and the climate.


4.Weather-  the ocean does not produce waves because of wind but the waves produce the wind.  It's current is what cools us down on a hot day and learning about us helps us determine whether we should wear a jacket or not.


5.Water Source- also of you didn't realize the ocean is made up of water and takes up most of earth and although it is mainly salt water we still use its water day to day.  Without it is human beings would not be able to live without it.  

Sailing Day!

    So today I came in to class after first bell rang and me and my partner ran to hurry up and try to fix some kinks so our boat will sail straight and go faster to get a 100 on our project.  We had a idea that maybe the sail wasn't big enough so we quickly ripped off the sail and made it at lease double in size and also for decoration we drew a cross bone on the sail.  Then the bell wrung  and we crossed our fingers that all would go well.  And as we were called up and stood in line we placed 20 marbles and placed out boat in the water, and when the blow dryer went off what we feared most happened. 

     The boat tilted BUT it did not go to the side the first time, it made it all the way across (maybe not the fastest).  Although we did end up taking the gudder off between the first and second round our boat finished successfully on its side.  Our average time was about 8.5 seconds and even though it made it across I would not design a full boat on this design because everyone would flip off.

Today me and my partner, Vanessa Bailey, design and finished creating our sail boat.  We used Styrofoam to be the base of the boat and to easily carve out a boat shape, although it was very messy.   But then it wasn't till after we carve our boat that we started to fear that it would soak of the water and sink, so then we aligned to boat with closed of straws at the bottom and bubble wrap on its sides.  We then used wax paper for the sail and one wooden stick to hold it up.

      Both of us were pretty confident that it would work and not sink but just to be safe we went to go test it and make sure it didn't sink.   And in the last couple minutes we had to finish designing our boat we realize that our boat wouldn't sink but would tilt over and feared that it might go straight to the side instead of going to the end. 

Do they look alike?:)