Ecosystem Diversity

Today in class, we watched a video about tropical rainforests. It was quite intriguing; we learned about their importance. The rainforest is the Earth’s most diverse ecosystem and is home to over five million species (over half the world’s species). This really caught my attention, so I did some further digging. The rainforest is a rather stable environment; its climate remains warm and humid all year round. The rainforest is also located on or near the equator, so it receives the most rainfall out of all the other ecosystems on the planet. These two factors contribute to its surplus of biodiversity. Organisms don’t only live in the rainforest, they thrive. If you want to dig even deeper than I did, you can read the information here.  

Not only are rainforests rich in biodiversity, they’re also essential climate stabilizers. Due to their size and insanely large number of trees and tree species, rainforests take in lots and lots of carbon. While humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, trees do the opposite. The rainforests require carbon to survive and store a significant amount, thus helping to lower the levels of carbon in the atmosphere. This function is becoming increasingly more important as the Earth experiences climate change. Too much carbon in the atmosphere is causing the Earth to heat up and any help alleviating these high carbon levels helps to stabilize the atmosphere. With this being said, deforestation is a huge problem. If we keep cutting down the rainforests of the world, we’ll be releasing all of the carbon rainforests help to reduce back into the atmosphere. In order to ensure the health of our planet, we must preserve and protect the rainforest. 

Given the fact that the tropical rainforest is the most biologically diverse ecosystem on the planet, lots of research is conducted and data collected there. Regardless of where an ecosystem exists, they all have similarities in one way or another. Therefore, the data collected in a tropical rainforest in regards to biodiversity can hold true in other ecosystems as well, such as Yellowstone National Park. Conservationists, researchers, or park rangers can use data gathered in the rainforest to guide the work they do in their ecosystem. For example, in the video we watched, park rangers worked to repopulate wolves back into the Yellowstone ecosystem. They noticed a change after they were eradicated from the region and knew that, in order to preserve the health of Yellowstone, they needed to reintroduce wolves, the top predators, back into the ecosystem. If needed, the park rangers could’ve reviewed data from rainforest to back up their decision and further support their cause. Overall, I really enjoyed this video and it helped me open up my eyes to the world around me.

Image 1: 

http://www.onemeteratatime.org/wp-content/uploads/rainforest1.jpg

Image 2:

http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/images/where/whemap.gif

Image 3: http://cf067b.medialib.glogster.com/media/d6/d6ac6cc6f34531b93db1a14f48867d9049f5c4dd50d6141bde7b392cd86c33b3/rainforest-carbon-cycle-jpg.jpg

Image 4:

http://www.nathab.com/uploaded-files/carousels/TRIPS/Yellowstone-Wolf-Quest/US-National-Parks-Yellowstone-Wolf-Quest-1-wolves.jpg

Ecology Lab

Over the past few days, my Honors Environmental Science class has been learning about ecosystems and their complexity. Ecosystems have a lot of different components, and to help give us a better understanding as well as wrap up the section, we completed an ecology lab in class. For this lab, we used an online simulator of a make-believe ecosystem and completed a series of activities related to it.

The lab was broken up into two sections: one on producers and the other on food webs. For the producer section, we were given a scenario where an ecosystem was recently destroyed by a wildfire and two plants were re-emerging back into the environment. We had to use the simulator to see what would happen to these two plants as they began to grow and re-populate the ecosystem without any consumers eating them. Both plant populations started at 5,000 organisms. Over a 100 day simulation, the population of Plant A doubled in size to 10,000 organisms while Plant B went extinct. Through this simulation, I learned that co-dominance is very difficult to achieve and therefore, must be quite rare within nature. I also learned that certain environmental conditions may be more suitable for one particular species over another. 

For the next simulation, we were required to add an herbivore into the mix. Since Plant B went extinct, we were instructed to add a population of rabbits into the simulation and have them only eat Plant A. After a 100 day simulation, the population of Plant A slightly increased while Plant B was able to remain alive and only lost approximately half of its original population. Adding an herbivore into the ecosystem allowed both plants to exist and added to the overall health of the environment. 

We then moved on to the second portion of the lab on the food web. For the first activity in this section, we were instructed to add an omnivore and a predator into the mix. We had to have Predator A eat Omnivore A, Omnivore A eat Herbivore A, and Herbivore A eat Plant A. Plant B was to be left untouched by any other organism. In this 100 day simulation, the populations of Plant A and Predator A decreased while the populations of Herbivore A and Omnivore A increased. The population of Plant B remained unaffected. Here, I learned the importance of producers. They provide essential nutrients to organisms up the food chain in higher trophic levels as well as ensure the overall health of the ecosystem at large. 

In the final simulation, we were required to hit the “all on” button on the simulator. This made every single organism eat all the organisms below it. With the exception of Predator A, all other organisms either decreased in population size or went entirely extinct. I ran the 100 day simulation twice, and the result remained the same. I learned that energy flows from the lowest trophic level (producers) to the highest trophic level (highest-level consumer within an ecosystem). 

For the final portion of this lab, we were then to create an ecosystem where all organisms had to stay alive. This took a significant amount of effort and collaboration, but after what seemed like hundreds of attempts, I finally found the perfect configuration. A picture is located below. 

After I ran through all the simulators, there was a short reflection piece. Through the completion of this activity, I discovered that ecosystems are incredibly complex. Even the slightest of changes can have detrimental effects. That’s not to say that all changes are negative, but a slight shift in one thing or another can result in a major change overall. Therefore, humans must be considerate with their actions. We are currently causing lots of harm to various ecosystems across the globe. Things such as greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation have catastrophic effects and we must change our ways to live in harmony with all other living organisms on this planet.

Barn Owl Activity

Today in class, we broke off into small groups and were presented with a math problem. We had to figure out how many acres of grain were needed to feed a two kilogram barn owl. In order to solve the problem, we had to find how many fowls a barn owl eats per year, how much grain a fowl eats a year, and then how many acres were needed to produce that amount of grain in order to come up with an answer. First, my group and I discovered that a two kilogram barn owl eats approximately three fowls per night. When then discovered that fowl eat approximately 4.7 grams of gain each day or 0.0047 kg. After this, we learned that approximately 50 kg of grain can be grown on an acre each year. To figure out how many acres it would take to produce the amount of grain needed, we multiplied the 0.0047 kg of grain a fowl eat a night by three to display the three fowls barn owls eat per night. We then multiplied this by 365 to represent the number of days in a year to get 5.1 kg of grain per 2 kg barn owl per year. We then divided that number by the 50 kg of grain grown per acre per year to find the percentage of an acre needed to produce that amount of grain. We got an answer of 1/10th of an acre or 10%.

Energy Overview Activity

Hello, everyone!

Today was the start of a new trimester. To kick things off, my Honors Environmental Science class broke into small groups and completed an energy chart. The goal of this chart was to test our knowledge of energy along with how it is transferred. The parameters were to sketch how we believed energy transferred from the Sun to an eagle in mid-flight. Below is my group's interpretation. We hypothesized that the thermal energy from the Sun transfers chemical energy to the grass to help it grow. We then hypothesized that that small rodents, like mice, consume the grass in another chemical energy transfer. Then, the eagle consumes mice in yet another chemical energy transfer ignored to have enough energy to fly.

Anatomy of Environmental Issues Final Project: Endangered Species

Hello, everyone!

The fall trimester has officially come to a close and I'd like to share with you my final project. Each person in our class spent a large portion of the trimester researching an environmental issue of their choosing that is currently affecting our planet. We were then given the task to share our research in the from of either a research paper or a Google Slides screencast. I decided to research endangered species and I created a screencast to help share what I learned and discovered with you all. I hope you enjoy!

Global Climate Change Unit

Over the past few weeks, my Honors Environmental Science class has been learning about climate change and its effect on our planet. We started the unit with a short, in-class activity on El Niño. It was in this activity that the class developed a thorough understanding of the severity of climate change along with the difference between climate and weather. Weather is the measure of daily temperature, precipitation, humidity, etc. while climate is the change in weather patterns over extended periods of time. Climate change and the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere also create stronger storms that occur more frequently. This was an incredible way to start out the unit as it was very eye-opening.

After completing the El Niño activity, two climate specialists came to speak with our class; Andra Reed (M.S.) and Dr. Greg Garner (PhD) of the Pennsylvania State University talked about their work studying climate change. The presentation began with Andra Reed where she explained her work studying the effects rising sea levels have on New York City. She went into detail about how climate scientists measure changes in the sea level as well as how they predict the future climate of the region. Her research was even featured in famous publications such as The New York Times. The presentation continued with Dr. Garner. He explained the work he does with studying air quality. Similarly to Andra Reed, Dr. Garner and his team use similar methods to arrive at their conclusions.



We then looked over a climate change presentation created by the Department of Biology and the Department of Geology at West Chester University. The presentation made it so that we were interns working for an imaginary senator. Our goal was to educate our senator on climate change for legislation he was about to pass and we had to start at square one. Here’s what we learned.

Climate was the first thing we learned about; it is the pattern of precipitation, temperature, and wind in a particular area. Climate quickly lead into the discussion on climate change. Climate change is when climate patterns change in time or space. For example, a change in time would be the winter months getting warmer. A change in space would be the occurrence of extreme weather events in areas where they typically do not occur. Climate change is a difficult thing to study, however, because there are so many factors. Climate can be studied in periods of tens, hundreds, or thousands of years and on the local, regional, national, or global levels.

We then learned just how serious climate change is. Climate determines things such as the frequency of extreme weather events, the severity of droughts, the state of human-managed ecosystems like agricultural fields, and the location of biomes (large terrestrial ecosystems). Following our lesson on the severity of the issue, we learned what is causing climate change.

We discovered that temperatures are rising on Earth. While it is normal for our planet to go through gradual stages of warming and cooling, the recent spike in temperature over the past few decades has been rather extreme and far out of proportion compared to other warming and cooling cycles. There is a direct correlation between the rising temperatures and the rise of carbon dioxide. As the temperatures on the planet rise, so do the levels of carbon dioxide. This is because carbon dioxide is a type of greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are incredibly important; a portion of these gases get trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere, thus making the planet habitable for life. This is a process known as the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gasses enter the atmosphere, reflect off the Earth’s surface, and the some go back off into space and some get trapped in by our atmosphere. without the greenhouse effect, humans and many other species would certainly go extinct. The problem is, humans are producing carbon dioxide at incredibly high rates. All this these extra man-made greenhouse gas emissions also get trapped into our atmosphere, and therefore also help raise the temperature of the Earth.

Human activities such as driving cars, flying planes, moving trains, heating homes, lighting streets, growing food, etc all contribute to more greenhouse gas emissions. The results could be (and will be if we do not stop) catastrophic. Just a one degree rise in temperature could cause massive sea level rises, more extreme storms, and the shift of biomes. Rises in temperature can make Pennsylvania feel like Georgia and Georgia feel like a tropical rainforest. Overall, the effects of climate change are detrimental and serious action needs to be taken in order to make a meaningful change in the world. This is our planet and we need to protect it.

Image 1 Source: https://toryardvaark.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/flooded-new-york.jpg
Image 2 Source: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/sites/default/files/image/article/2014/biomes-world.jpg
Image 3 Source: http://72abfb7c1a8a714119014a3d306595cd09781b35fe13ebdb4f63.r27.cf2.rackcdn.com/4C8755B4-B5C2-412D-BB43-16FF536A7514.jpg

You. Nature. Discuss. Activity

Today was unseasonably warm. Wearing shorts in November is not a very common occurrence. In fact, this happens so rarely that our teacher let us have some extra fun in class today. We were assigned a prompt titled, “You. Nature. Discuss.” We were then instructed to venture off into the woods within the campus and sit alone for ten minutes. After the observation period, we were to write whatever came into our minds down in our journals. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts:

I chose to sit on a log right alongside the Horseshoe Trail. The log was a moderately sized tree that had recently fallen over. Around me were several thorn bushes along with some moderately sized trees. I sat there and observed my surroundings. The first thing I noticed were the amount of leaves falling from the trees. Most of the leaves still hanging on the the trees were a bright yellow, while the ones laying on the ground were a autumny mix of yellows, oranges, reds, and browns. My mind soon wandered to all the noises. At first, I heard several birds chirping. The sounds of dump trucks from the quarry along with airplanes flying overhead also caught my attention. There were lots of bug sounds too. Of course, the most identifiable sound was of Afrah laughing. I looked to my feet and noticed some green moss growing on the ground. I also noticed some deer running through the forest. Despite all the things happening in the woods, I observed this overall feeling of peacefulness and serenity. It was quite an uplifting experience and I hope we start doing this activity more often as a class.