Ecology Unit
Find a Solution Proposal
The ecosystem we have chosen to focus on is Stafford Lake. Humans have had a significant impact on this piece of land. Humans have paved streets and parking lots that have cut into the natural environments of several species such as the Florida Panther which is one of the most endangered species in the world because of threats given from the human population. Although the Florida Panther does not live by Stafford Lake many other species have been impacted such as deer and bird who have found homes by Stafford Lake before the bike park was made. Also since Stafford Lake contributes to 20% of Novato’s water supply, it takes away water that species could drink; especially since California is in a drought. Recently Stafford Lake has brought in a bike park that limits this land even further. We can help diminish this impact by restoring this land to how it used to be before the bike park was made or remove not needed parking lots and buildings.
The ecosystem we have chosen to focus on is Stafford Lake. Humans have had a significant impact on this piece of land. Humans have paved streets and parking lots that have cut into the natural environments of several species such as the Florida Panther which is one of the most endangered species in the world because of threats given from the human population. Although the Florida Panther does not live by Stafford Lake many other species have been impacted such as deer and bird who have found homes by Stafford Lake before the bike park was made. Also since Stafford Lake contributes to 20% of Novato’s water supply, it takes away water that species could drink; especially since California is in a drought. Recently Stafford Lake has brought in a bike park that limits this land even further. We can help diminish this impact by restoring this land to how it used to be before the bike park was made or remove not needed parking lots and buildings.
Terrarium Project
Proposal:
The type of container we are going to use is a salad container. The soil we will need for our terrarium is poor and acidic. Our terrarium will include venus flytraps, moss, and flies. The first step into creating our terrarium will ,be laying the soil down into the container. We will then plant the venus flytraps. Next, we will lay the moss around the flytraps. Lastly, we will release the flies into the container. We might also add LED lights for decoration. Our hypothesis is that the flies will be the food for the venus flytraps, which will allow the flytraps to thrive. Will there be any other plants in the terrarium? Make a list of materials. Will I have to provide anything? We might need to add other plants in the terrarium that work well with the Venus fly trap.The plants could be Bougainvillea, orchid plant, Irish moss,or scotch moss.We will add moss and different kinds of insects including flies and rolly pollies.
The type of container we are going to use is a salad container. The soil we will need for our terrarium is poor and acidic. Our terrarium will include venus flytraps, moss, and flies. The first step into creating our terrarium will ,be laying the soil down into the container. We will then plant the venus flytraps. Next, we will lay the moss around the flytraps. Lastly, we will release the flies into the container. We might also add LED lights for decoration. Our hypothesis is that the flies will be the food for the venus flytraps, which will allow the flytraps to thrive. Will there be any other plants in the terrarium? Make a list of materials. Will I have to provide anything? We might need to add other plants in the terrarium that work well with the Venus fly trap.The plants could be Bougainvillea, orchid plant, Irish moss,or scotch moss.We will add moss and different kinds of insects including flies and rolly pollies.
Terrarium Reflection
Our proposal included almost everything in our terrarium. We added many things to our ecosystem such as the Venus Fly Trap, earthworm, spiders, and beetles. We had Iris Moss and Scotch Moss. Overtime our Venus Fly Trap started to die. We believed that there was to much water soaking up at the bottom of our container so we cut a hole in the bottom. This allowed the water to flow through nicely. Still after a couple of weeks none of the bugs or worms could be seen. Our Fly Trap seems to have died an the only thing looking well is the moss. The cycle of matter includes earthworms taking in mud and than putting it back out.
Socratic Seminar Reflection
During this Socratic seminar we talked about global warming. I brought up that 97% of climate scientists agree that human caused climate change is happening. As evidence I backed up this claim through the site techtimes.com that the Montana Glacier National Park has only 25 glaciers left from the 150 that it had in 1910. We are contributing to global warming through fumes our cars and breath let into the atmosphere. We dig up carbon(fossil fuels) from the earth in the form of oil and burn it using cars. This past decade has been the warmest ever recorded. As a community we can drive more energy efficient cars and choose reuseable energy. I can save energy by taking shorter showers and turning off unused lights.
Find a Solution Video
Find a Solution Script
Humans have had a significant impact on the species in Stafford Lake County Park. People have paved streets and parking lots that have cut into the natural environments of several species including coho salmon, steelhead fish, the pacific giant salamander, California red-legged frog, gopher, garter snake, red-tailed hawk, mountain lions, coyotes, geese, and the black-tailed deer. Recently Stafford Lake has brought in a bike park that limits this land even further as well as the Indian Valley Golf Course. The parking lots and structures on the land prevent plants, such as Pacific Snake Root from growing. Plants like the Pacific Snake Root are the food source for several species native to this land. By removing pieces of trash we see around Stafford Lake brought upon by humans, we can preserve the land and bring it back to its natural state which allows native plants to grow freely and restore the ecosystem.
Stafford Lake 3rd Slide:
Video of stafford lake
The golf course 4th slide:
video of golf course
The impacts it has 5th slide:
The development of stafford lake has cut into the natural environments of species listed above in the proposal.
Photos and videos 6th slide
Photos and videos of animals and plants.
The bike park 7th slide
Video of the bike park
Impact 8th slide
Cuts into the land that the plants grew in which then limits the food supply of the animals.
Photos and video 9th slide
Photos and videos of animals and plants.
Solution 10th slide
By simply picking up trash you see around Stafford Lake, you can help out the lives of many plants and animals. (shows pictures of a baby rabbit)
Stafford Lake 3rd Slide:
Video of stafford lake
The golf course 4th slide:
video of golf course
The impacts it has 5th slide:
The development of stafford lake has cut into the natural environments of species listed above in the proposal.
Photos and videos 6th slide
Photos and videos of animals and plants.
The bike park 7th slide
Video of the bike park
Impact 8th slide
Cuts into the land that the plants grew in which then limits the food supply of the animals.
Photos and video 9th slide
Photos and videos of animals and plants.
Solution 10th slide
By simply picking up trash you see around Stafford Lake, you can help out the lives of many plants and animals. (shows pictures of a baby rabbit)
Video Reflection
Our problem was the new bike park and golf course added at Stafford Lake. This is providing a problem to animals and plants living there before they were built. We believe that by picking up trash and removing unused buildings will help the once thriving environment come to life again. I think I did well in coming up with a Solutions on the script and making a story board. I could have improved on be more involved in the video by making more appearances or helping edit. I learned that deer are being affected by the bike park and golf course. This is important to society and me because it affects the amount of beautiful wildlife we see around the back roads and I hate missing out on that.
CCD Project
Summaries of Documents
Neonicotinoid insecticides were introduced in the 1990s. By value they took up around a third of the global insecticides. They were used mainly as seed treatments. The number of pollinators has declined due to the widespread of neonicotinoids. Farmers have been opposed to neonicotinoids because it harms pollinators, the environmental and economic costs, as well as the benefits of the restrictions. A restatement has republished the debate about restricting neonicotinoid use has continued unabated. Many motives have been criticized by environmental non-governmental organizations. Advances such as continuing need for policy-neutral evidence summaries in a highly contested area. New evidence has been published about the effects of neonicotinoids on insect pollinators. Major gaps in our understanding of the subject still remain. Also neonicotinoid insecticides are a highly effective tool to reduce crop yield losses due to insect pests’. Neonicotinoids are sometimes effective and not effective depending on the circumstances. Efficacy studies are most conducted in industries. The trials are expensive and it is up for debate whether industry would benefit in the long run from placing more of its data in the public domain as well as putting in place measures to increase public confidence in studies they fund themselves.
Source: Rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org
Scientific Reports
The survival of a colony is dependent on the health of the queen. It is established that the exposure of neonicotinoid pesticides can affect the queen. Some of the other causes of the bee decline include invasive parasites, changes to climate, and changing land use. Colonies exposed to neonicotinoids produced fewer future queens. Poor queen health is the main cause of honey bee colony mortality in North America and Europe. The length of a queen’s life depends on the sexual maturity and physiological changes that occur following mating which can be affected by neonicotinoid pesticides. The study has proven that queens have a lethal vulnerability to neonicotinoids. This conclusion has highlighted the need for proper evaluation of pesticide safety and insect reproduction.
Source: Rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org
Scientific Reports
The survival of a colony is dependent on the health of the queen. It is established that the exposure of neonicotinoid pesticides can affect the queen. Some of the other causes of the bee decline include invasive parasites, changes to climate, and changing land use. Colonies exposed to neonicotinoids produced fewer future queens. Poor queen health is the main cause of honey bee colony mortality in North America and Europe. The length of a queen’s life depends on the sexual maturity and physiological changes that occur following mating which can be affected by neonicotinoid pesticides. The study has proven that queens have a lethal vulnerability to neonicotinoids. This conclusion has highlighted the need for proper evaluation of pesticide safety and insect reproduction.
CCD Reflection
This project involved a lot of scatter plot graphs full of data on the left. We learned about the bee colony collapse disorder. The factors that affect CCD are neonicotinoids. When the bees are constantly being transported from place to place to pollinate crops cause them to get stressed and die. Scientist are working on a way to solve this problem by thinking about using an alternative to the bee farms. We demonstrate the CCD through our curve fit graphs. I learned that curve fit graphs demonstrate data amazingly. I learned that CCD is terrible. Before bees were annoying bugs that could sting you. I learned that bees are very important for our environment and help pollinate our plants.I learned that neonicotinoids are causing the bees population to die off and how important it is to make sure the queen is not affect or else to population will fall.
Final Reflection
Overall this was many different projects including the Find a Solution Project, Terrarium, and Socratic Seminar. Our Find a Solution project went well, while our Terrarium did not. I learned that Venus Fly traps are hard to keep alive if you don't water them over a week. I also learned how to participate in a Socratic Seminar. I believe that I could have been more involved in the Find a Solution Video and I think we could have done a better job taking care of our terrarium. Our peak of the project was the Find a Solution Video and our pit was the terrarium because our Venus flytrap is almost dead.
Natural Product Development and Discovery Lab
Why?- To find potential cures for human ailments, specifically testing extracts for antibiotic activity.
Procedure:
Overview: Gathered plant material, weighed it, made extracts(water + alcohol), filtered extracts, poured agar plates, spread bacteria on agar, place filter paper discs soaked in extracts on bacteria, grown O/N.
What did you do +Why? In this lab we added Ecoli to a petri dish using a glass spreader that burned off bacteria using a bunsenburner. We later added filter paper and waited for the bacteria to grow. We did this to look for clearing in positive, and no clearing in negative.
Results: Our results had bacteria, but for both + and - we had no clearing. It was unexpected and the amp was unknown.
Errors: Our errors could be the filter paper did not stay in the liquid long enough, or the petri dish was not completely filled.
Why it is Important: It allows you to cure diseases. So if one plant doesn't cure a disease, there are many more that might be able to.
Procedure:
Overview: Gathered plant material, weighed it, made extracts(water + alcohol), filtered extracts, poured agar plates, spread bacteria on agar, place filter paper discs soaked in extracts on bacteria, grown O/N.
What did you do +Why? In this lab we added Ecoli to a petri dish using a glass spreader that burned off bacteria using a bunsenburner. We later added filter paper and waited for the bacteria to grow. We did this to look for clearing in positive, and no clearing in negative.
Results: Our results had bacteria, but for both + and - we had no clearing. It was unexpected and the amp was unknown.
Errors: Our errors could be the filter paper did not stay in the liquid long enough, or the petri dish was not completely filled.
Why it is Important: It allows you to cure diseases. So if one plant doesn't cure a disease, there are many more that might be able to.
Reflection:In this lab we look for clearing in the positive and none in negative. I learned that certain alcohol even when on skin can be soaked through and damage your kidneys. I also learned how to use a Bunsen burner. I think I could have poured the plates better, and have kept the filter paper in the specific liquid for the right amount of time. The worst part was crushing the plants. The Best was when we used the Bunsen burner.