Making the most of a meal

Sophie Moynihan
7B
Science for kids

Scientists have discovered a type a slug called the Elysia chlorotica that looks like a plant and feeds buy sucking the nutrients out of the algae it feeds off of. A marine biologist named Sydney Pierce decided to look into these snails, and found some extraordinary discoverys. Pierce knew that these animals had the chemical in them that allows them to photosynthesize, or turn sunlight into food. Pierce has know found that not only can they turn light into food, they can also create chlorophyll, which is a chemical that is vital for the process. These slugs are starting to act like there food. “This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” John Zardus. Mr. Zardus is a zoologist at the The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He specializes in invertebrates like these snails. In the algae and in every plant cells are chloroplasts. These chloroplasts absorbs sun, water, and air to make chlorophyll. When the snails eat the algae, it separates the chloroplasts instead of digesting them It Then absorbs the chloroplasts into its own cell system. But the chloroplasts use up the chlorophyll during photosynthesis. Pierce has dicovered that the slug dosn't only steal the chloroplasts, but also the gene that allows it to make chlorophyll. These slugs are takings the saying "You are what you eat" to a whole new level.

This article really interested me. I loved how the theme was that the snails were taking the saying " You are what you eat" to a whole new level. These snails have adapted to know how to separate the chloroplasts from everything else they eat and I think that is insane. They can separate the minuscule chloroplasts from everything else they eat! If that isn't true adaption I'm not sure what is.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100127/Feature1.asp

Damsel Fish "Gardeners" Selectivly Weed Algae Gardens (Oct. 26,2010)

Science Daily
June 21, 2010

Hiroki Hata from Ehime University Japan investigated the behavior a type of Damsel Fish called Stegastes Nigricans. They found that it could selectively weed different algae gardens. "We surveyed 320 territories of 18 damselfish species and thoroughly examined algae from each fish territory from coral reefs in Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, the Maldives, Thailand, Borneo, the Okinawa Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef. We found that although the crop alga species shifted in the West Indian Ocean, the intensive farming by damselfish was seen throughout this geographic range." Said Mr.Hata. The damsel fish don't have the rite digestive system to grind up the algae fibers it eats. The most common type of algae it can eat is the Red algae Polysiphonia, which isn't very territorial. Instead of dying out the fish have found a way to adapt. The damsel fish help the plant by killing off their rivals, or "gardening". This mutual relationship provides the damsel fish with an easy source of food and the algae gets more latitude to grow. When coming up with the results a satisfied Hata said "Obligate reciprocal interaction between marine algae and herbivorous damsel fish, called 'cultivation mutualism' was found to be largely maintained in the Indo-West Pacific." This is just one of the many fantastic relationships between animals.

I chose this article because it was a great example of adaptation and mutuality. Instead of dying out the damsel fish found a way to increase the likeliness of its food growing. It amazes me that a small fish can find a way to increases its chance of living. Fishes brains are probably a hundredth of what ours are and sometimes I think they're smarter then us!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100617194322.htm

Clam cleanup

January 1,2009
Science Daily

We're using them as pollutant traps," said Harriette Phelps, Ph.D., a biologist at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. In Maryland, high school students teamed up with marine biologist to try and clean up the toxins in rivers. Usually this is a hard, pricey job but we have found a way to easily clean up the rivers that won't cost a thing. The students collected clams and placed them in some of the rivers over dirty areas like highways. Clams are filter feeders so they naturally such in water and absorb the content of it. What the clams didn't know was that by eating they were doing us a huge favor. Not only was the muscle they grabbing it's food particles, but it grabbed toxins in the water as well. When brought into the lab and cracked open the pollution in the water was reviled. The clams reviled that a outlawed pesticide that was thought to be buried, had leaked out. "We can trace them back to sources, and then hopefully we can go from there and get rid of the sources," Dr. Phelps said.
I think of the clams as little cops busting the toxins in the water. Then when they are studied in the lab its like the police figuring out how and what the criminal was using. Its really cool that we have found a way to clean up the mess we made using natural techniques. The clam isn't forced to do anything it doesn't want or need to and in return they clean our rivers. In class now we are learning about relationships between animals. There are three major types of interactions, competition, predation, and symbiosis. Then there are three different types of symbiotic relations. Mutualism where both organisms benefit, commensailism where one organism is helped and the other isn't helped or harmed, and parasitism, where one organism is helped and the other isn't helped or harmed. This is a really good example of either commercialism because the clam isn't harmed but it doesn't necessarily benefit from being in the river.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0110-clam_cleanup.htm