Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Community Involvment: Nature walk
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| Megan went to Hedges creek and explored the area and read all the signs. Also, she attempted to identify birds and large plants/trees. |
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| The rushing stream |
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| A tree has fallen over and you can see its roots through the nature in front. |
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| Another picture of the tree that has fallen over and the cool roots. |
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| Megan exploring the earth. |
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| Educating myself about hedges creek. |
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| I found a song sparrow! |
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| and many American Robins. |
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Case Study: Maldives Tsunami
1. 99% of local households of the Maldivian population rely on rainwater for their drinking supply and use groundwater for other things. Rainwater is renewable. Groundwater is replenishable because it takes a period of time to be replaced. They also use desalination even though it is expensive, and it is renewable.
2. The Maldives' freshwater supply is susceptible to damage from a tsunami because much of the groundwater lies below sea level. When the tsunami floods the islands, the seawater contaminates the groundwater supplys which is what the population uses as freshwater.
3. Following the tsunami, agricultural factors such as fertilizers and manure could infiltrate the freshwater supplies and increase nutrient levels. Another factor that could increase nutrient levels is wastewater.When I first read this question I thought increased nutrient levels would be a good thing, but in this case the increased nutrient levels is not a good thing and could potentially be toxic.
4. Water is becoming more scarce as the years go on. The growing population of the world and our increased use of water is not helping matters. In 2000, the percentage of people living with chronic water scarcity was 3.7%. In 2050, it is projected that the percentage of people living with chronic water scarcity will be 17.8%. That is a massive jump in just 50 years. That is almost 1/5 of the world living with water scarcity...and that is scary. The Maldives, just like other impoverished places, does not have enough money to easily access water. They mostly use rainwater and groundwater even though it can become contaminated so easily and it isnt reliable. Many people think that because they are islands that they are surrounded by water. But this is seawater and it needs to be desalinated which takes a lot of money to do, money that only the resorts have. It is not that there isnt enough water to go around, it is just that only the rich can easily access the water.
5.
Picture:
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1. 99% of local households of the Maldivian population rely on rainwater for their drinking supply and use groundwater for other things. Rainwater is renewable. Groundwater is replenishable because it takes a period of time to be replaced. They also use desalination even though it is expensive, and it is renewable.
2. The Maldives' freshwater supply is susceptible to damage from a tsunami because much of the groundwater lies below sea level. When the tsunami floods the islands, the seawater contaminates the groundwater supplys which is what the population uses as freshwater.
3. Following the tsunami, agricultural factors such as fertilizers and manure could infiltrate the freshwater supplies and increase nutrient levels. Another factor that could increase nutrient levels is wastewater.When I first read this question I thought increased nutrient levels would be a good thing, but in this case the increased nutrient levels is not a good thing and could potentially be toxic.
4. Water is becoming more scarce as the years go on. The growing population of the world and our increased use of water is not helping matters. In 2000, the percentage of people living with chronic water scarcity was 3.7%. In 2050, it is projected that the percentage of people living with chronic water scarcity will be 17.8%. That is a massive jump in just 50 years. That is almost 1/5 of the world living with water scarcity...and that is scary. The Maldives, just like other impoverished places, does not have enough money to easily access water. They mostly use rainwater and groundwater even though it can become contaminated so easily and it isnt reliable. Many people think that because they are islands that they are surrounded by water. But this is seawater and it needs to be desalinated which takes a lot of money to do, money that only the resorts have. It is not that there isnt enough water to go around, it is just that only the rich can easily access the water.
Picture:
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Case Study: Madagascar
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Digital image. Web. http://www.oryxphotography.com/wp-content/gallery/gallery-tours-madagascar-birds-amp-wildlife/licking-ringtail-lemur.jpg.
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2. There are many pressures that have led to high extinction rates on Madagascar. These pressures almost all have to do with humans and our human impact on Madagascar. Humans have hunted the animals, have taken away the habit of the animals through deforestation, farming, and mining. The growing population of humans in Madagascar is becoming an increasing problem that affects the environment of Madagascar. If the population keeps growing as it is doing now, not only will that take more habitat away from the unique animals of Madagascar, it will also probably cause more of these endemic species to become extinct.
3.
4. 18,482 x 100 = 1,846,200 / 600,461 = 3.07 = 3% of Madagascar's total area is protected.
5. Something that could help conserve Madagascar is to remove much of the human population who lives there. Humans have negatively impacted the island for centuries and in order to preserve what is left on the island, humans should leave it. Madagascar could become similar to the Galapagos Islands, where the only people who live there are people who are very aware of the ecological importance of the endemic species. There could be researchers and people would be allowed to visit the island, however most of the population would be moved off the island in hopes that the endemic and natives species could take back over the island.
In the unlikely event that this would ever happen, another thing that people could do to help conserve biodiversity is to educate individuals. Even people who live in the United States can be educated about endemic species and about the situation Madagascar is in. We can donate money, and we can practice good habits in our own ecosystems around where we live. We can grow native plants in our backyards.
6. The Tropical Forest Reserve in Figure 9 is a square-ish shape with a kind of triangular part on top of the square. According to Figure 9, the reserve includes grassland and tropical forest. This will allow for a variety of species, including endemic species, to live there. One side of the reserve borders the Sea, which could affect the species inside the reserve and maybe add more ecosystem variations and allow more animals to live on the reserve. The reserve is more square shaped as opposed to one long skinny corridor. This means that there is a lot of middle space on the reserve. The middle space on the reserve would be less impacted by humans, and also potentially less impacted by wind. There is not as much edge space as a long skinny area would have, although there is still plenty of edge. One side of the reserve is near a village, which would affect the reserve and disrupt the species living there because there are humans nearer. Humans are risks and could very well negativly affect the environment on that edge of the reserve. If I were an animal living on this reserve, I would want to live in the middle of the square part of the reserve. I think the design of this reserve is fairly good. I probably would have moved it a little farther from the village, but I think its good that it has a mostly square feel.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge
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| Megan visits the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge |
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| Megan brings Weaz with her to look at birds and other wildlife. |
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| Megan spots a Great Blue Heron pretending to be a part of a tree. He is so stoic and regal...and the only bird we could get a picture of because he held still. Besides geese. But who wants a picture of them. |
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| Megan and Weaz are confused about why a wire is stuffed through a branch. |
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Duckweed Lab
Megan Simmons
1B
Duckweed Lab
Question: How does water pollution affect the population rate of duckweed?
Background Information:
Duckweed is the smallest flowering plant. Duckweed floats on the water surface and has no stems and no leaves. It can have small roots. Most species of Duckweed are found in tropical and warm temperate regions, however Duckweed can grow almost anywhere except for in extremely hot and extremely cold regions. Duckweed can grow in the sunlight or in the shade. Duckweed absorbs nutrients in the water and it cannot handle toxic wastes and heavy metals. The most commonly used method of counting duckweed is to count fronds. (The fronds are the green spheres).
Materials:
9 cups
Motor Oil
Dirt
Duckweed
Procedure:
1. Fill 9 cups of control cups with 200mL of water in each cup.
2. Put 20 Duckweed fronds in each cup.
3. Fill 3 cups of water with motor oil with 1 drop in each cup.
4. Fill 3 cup of dirt with 5 grams of dirt per cup.
5. Leave 3 cups for control cups with just Duckweed and water in them.
6. When counting Duckweed, count the fronds.
Data Table:
Class
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Motor Oil: 1st cup, 2nd cup, 3rd cup
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Motor Avg
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Dirt: 1st cup, 2nd cup, 3rd cup
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Dirt Avg
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Control: 1st cup, 2nd cup, 3rd cup
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Control Avg.
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1
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24, 31, 28
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28
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27, 21, 28
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25
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21, 25, 20
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22
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2
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25, 31, 39
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32
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36, 26, 33
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31
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26, 28, 24
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26
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3
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25*, 36, 46
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36
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30, 30, 35
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32
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24, 26, 23
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34
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4
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26, 35, 44
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35
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34, 29, 35
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33
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25, 25, 22
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24
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5
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29, 33, 47
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36
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35, 28, 31
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32
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25, 26, 23
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25
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*1 is on the bottom of motor oil cup.
Range: Class 5- Class 1 (Averages)
Motor Oil
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36-28= 8
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Dirt
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32-25= 7
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Control
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25-22= 3
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| Oil and Duckweed Top View of Cup |
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| Oil and Duckweed Bottom View of Cup |
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| Dirt and Duckweed Top View of Cup |
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| Dirt and Duckweed Side View of Cup |
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| Control Cup- Water and Duckweed Top View |
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| Control Cup- Water and Duckweed Side View |
In conclusion, our experiment with Duckweed found that the Duckweed reproduced in all of our cups. According to the range numbers in our data, the Duckweed even grew more in the Oil and Dirt Cups than in the Control Cups. On average, the Motor Oil reached a high of 36 Duckweed fronds, the Dirt reached a high of 33 Duckweed fronds, and the Control reached a high of 34 Duckweed fronds. From this data I can conclude that the Duckweed grew about the same amount in total, if not at the same rate in all of the cups. I wanted to know if Motor Oil and Dirt would affect the population rate of Duckweed. According to my data, the Motor Oil and the Dirt did not affect the population of Duckweed as I thought it would. Because it isn’t natural for Duckweed to grow in Motor Oil and Dirt, I figured that these, especially the Motor Oil, would negatively affect the Duckweed. Even though my results and data did not show this in numbers, I still don’t think it is good for Duckweed to grow in Motor Oil. I know that Motor Oil blocks sunlight, and even though Duckweed can grow in shade, it still needs sunlight as all living things do. I think so limitations to this lab were that I don’t think we conducted the experiment for a long enough period of time. I also think that the cup that the Duckweed was grown in was not nutrient rich water, which is where Duckweed thrives. If I were to do this experiment over again, I would conduct it over a period of several months, and I would make sure the Duckweed was grown in nutrient rich water.
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