Ecology Vocab #3

Word	Part of Speech	Definition	Example
fauna	noun	The animal life in an area	rabbits
flora	noun	The plant life in an area	flowers
Food web	noun	Many food chains put together to show how energy flows through the ecosystem	Shows the relationships between the animals
Food chain	noun	The order in which animals feed on plants and other animals (shows how energy flows from producer-consumer-decomposer)	Prey, predators; less complicated than a food web
population	noun	All the members of one species that live in one area	The number of turtles living in a pond
predator	noun	a n animal that hunts, kills and eats other animals	A lion, a tiger
prey	noun	An animal that is hunted, killed and eaten by a predator	A more defenseless animal: bunny, mice
producer	noun	An organism that can makes its own food	Plants use photosynthesis
Primary consumer	noun	Animals that eat primary producers; they are also called herbivores (plant eaters)	Giraffes eat grass
Secondary consumers	noun	Animals that eat primary consumers; can be carnivores and omnivores	A duck
Tertiary consumers	noun	A carnivore at the top of the food chain that feeds on other carnivores; an animal that feeds only on secondary consumers	Great white shark

Casa Grande Hatchery and Bodega Bay Research Center

Casa Grande Hatchery:

A group of students, including Neto, went over to Casa Grande High School to learn about their unique fish hatchery because it went along with some of our projects. The picture shown above is only one of the sections that describes their timeline and progress of this hatchery. They are the first hatchery to open up in a high school throughout the world. They have their experiences and initial start on the river they document all along this wall and keep it clean constantly. 

The fish they were working with when we came were Steel Head Trout. They are all cooped up into the corner here because they do not like light; too much light and loud noises can actually kill them. They are kept in this water so they can be monitored until they are big enough to be fed food. 

This is a panoramic view of the Steel Head Trout as they get older. This is what the students and teachers of this program have to document and take care of throughout the year. 

Bodega Bay:

Our entire class, including Neto and Tucker, went out to the Bodega Bay Research Center to learn more about what they really do for our ocean since it had direct correlations to a lot of our unit projects. Once we got there, we were split up into different groups and had a tour guide. For my group, our man, Roger Patton, led us around their entire facility and explained the importance of keeping the ocean clean. He went into depth on the future possibilities of the ocean's health is the carbon dioxide levels continue to increase along with the ocean's acidification. 

They kept their species separated in these big buckets that were continuously refilled with water so they could thrive like they would in the ocean. There were crabs, different kinds of starfish, urchins, fish, and other organisms from the ocean. 

Overall, both of these field trips were very influential and beneficial because I learned a lot more than I would have if I had simply read about it on the internet. 

Fossil Fuels & Ecology Vocab #2

What are they?

A group of energy sources that were formed from different plants and organisms during the Carboniferous Period around 360 million years ago

Different types of fossil fuels depend on the organic matter, temperature, time, and pressure conditions while decomposing

3 Major Types:
- coal --> formed from plants and trees that were combined with pressure and heat
- oil --> small organisms that were combined with more heat and pressure
- natural gas

- fossil fuels are sought after energy sources because they have a high energy density
- they are the world's dominant energy source
- they are considered non-renewable resources because they take a long time to form and cannot be reused
- carbon dioxide causes environmental and health issues

Word	Part of Speech	Definition	Example
Decomposers	Noun	An organism, such as bacteria or fungus, that breaks down dead matter and returns nutrients to the soil	Fungus on a cut down tree
Estuary	Noun	A body of water freshwater and saltwater ecosystems merge together	A protected space
Habitat	Noun	The place and surroundings where an organism normally lives	Red fox can live in a range of habitats
Herbivores	Noun	An organism that eats only plants	Cattle and deer
Host	Noun	A living organism on which a parasite lives	Mouse is a host of a tick
Limiting factor	Noun	Something is an environment that keeps the population of an organism from increasing as much as it could	Competition and disease
Niche	Noun	The habitat that supplies everything needed for a species or an organism to survive	Birds in the water are getting their food source from the water
Omnivores	Noun	A consumer that eats both plants and meats	Humans and bears
Parasite	Noun	An organism that lives in or one another organism	A tick living on a mouse

Water Lab

Station 1 - What Water Can We Drink?

What are we testing?
- bacteria
- lead
- pesticides
- total nitrite
- pH

Materials:
- 5 dixie cups
- 5 little test tubes
- tap water in each dixie cup (amount isn't listed)

Procedures:
- Add tap water to each dixie cup
- Add 5 droplets of tap water from each cup into a separate test tube for each one
- Testing the pH using the test tubes, which will be looked at on Thursday

There are 5 little cups filled with tap water. Each of the cups are labeled as either pesticides, lead, bacteria, nitrite, and pH. A stick that will test this tap water will tell us whether or not the listed chemical(s) are inside of the tap water or not. 

Listed from left to right: pH, Nitrite, Bacteria, Lead, and Pesticides

Where does our tap water come from?
- rivers
- sewer
- ponds
- ground
2% potable (fresh, drinkable)

How is it filtered?
1.) it is extracted from the ground
2.) sent to a filtration plant to filter out the "bad"
3.) adds minerals to the water 

What is Chlorine?
- a toxic, irritant, pale green gas
- kills bacteria and microbiological organism 

Chlorine is very harmful because it is toxic and if it is combined with other chemicals, it will react easily. 

Lead
- NEVER safe
- lead piping
- soft or corrosive (easily tarnished)

Lead is very harmful to humans because it can cause air pollution, it moves through the ecosystem, and it can cause organ damage.  


Station 2 - pH of Ocean Water

Vocabulary:
acid: a molecule or other entity that can donate a proton or accept an electron pair in reactions
base: molecule that accepts protons
proton: a particle found in the nucleus with a positive charge 

What is pH?
--> acidity or alkalinity of a solution
- normal range for ocean water is 8.0-8.4
- pH levels fluctuate 
- lower numbers are acidic
- higher are alkaline
- 7 is about neutral

Materials:
- pH strips
- sample of ocean water
- cups
- color chart

Procedure:
- collect sample
- dip test strip into the ocean water

Why does the strip change color?

Acids and bases aeither accept or donate a hydrogen ion and the color changes depending on whether or not a hydrogen ion has been accepted/denied

How does this relate to the environment?

The release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the environment increase the pH in the ocean. Oceans absorb CO2 and turns it into carbonic acid, leading to higher acidity. This limits shell growth in marine animals and damages reproductive disorders in fish. The ocean's pH has been 8.2 for the past 300 million years, but it is now 8.1 which can show how these gasses and chemicals affect our environment. 

Station 3 - Bacteria in a Pond?

What are we testing?
Whether or not there is bacteria in a pond

Materials:
- 5 dixie cups
- small test tubes that include the pond water 

Vocabulary:
microscopic: anything that is alive and is able to be seen without a microscope (usually the bigger things)
photoautotroph: anything that produces its own food through photosynthesis
heterotroph: an organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances

Finding bacteria in a pond is significant to our community because ponds are stagnant, so all of the water stays still. That means all of the waste that is building up in the pond will stay there. If humans or other living things are exposed to the bacteria in the ponds, it will be harmful to people's immune systems. It is hard for biotic factors to process bacteria that shouldn't be there in the first place. 

Results

• Tap
• Bacteria = Negative (no bacteria was detected)
• pH = 6.5
• Chlorine = 0
• Total hardness = 250
• Total nitrate = 1.0
• Nitrite = 0.75
• Pesticide = Invalid
• Lead = Invalid
• Pond
• Bacteria = Negative (no bacteria was detected)
• pH = 6.0
• Chlorine = 0
• Total hardness = 0
• Total nitrate = 2.0
• Nitrite = 1.5
• Pesticide = Invalid
• Lead = Invalid
• Ocean
• Bacteria = Negative (no bacteria was detected)
• pH = 7.5
• Chlorine = Invalid 
• Total hardness = Invalid
• Total nitrate = 0
• Nitrite = 0
• Pesticide = Invalid
• Lead = Invalid

Water Cycle Demo

What did we use?

- flask with hot water in it
- 6 mL of salt
- 500 mL water
- 1000 mL beaker
- 25 mL beaker
- a few ice cubes
- 75-100 bee-bees 
- rubber band

Procedures?

- Combined 6 mL of Morton Salt with 500 mL of hot water
- Put a smaller beaker inside of the big one so it will float
- Put a plastic wrap over the containers to keep the heat inside
- Add a few ice cubes on top of the plastic wrap
- Take about 75-100 bee-bees and add them to the small beaker that is floating in order to weigh it down 
- Wrap a rubber band around the beaker to keep the heat in 

Vocabulary Words:

precipitation: when rain, snow etc falls to the ground
condensation: the process of vapor turning into liquid
evaporation: the process of liquid turning into vapor
sublimation: when ice evaporates into the water vapor form
transpiration: the water molecules inside of the leaves evaporating