Analisis of owl prey

Questions from lab
When analyzing our owls prey we can definitely conclude that our owl loves it's voles and rats. Based upon the class rank voles are the most commonly preferred food among the owls in our class. Yummy! I'm guessing that 35 insects are definitely more energy expensive way to dine. When you catch one 35g vole, you only have to find,swoop, and grab. As for 35 1g insects you have to fly around and find 35would take bugs, chase them down, and frankly by that time the owl probably would have found some other source of food. If the shrew population decreased, it would effect the entire food chain. The shrew is eats and is eaten by many other organisms in the food chain. If the shrew goes, the animals that eat it will have lost their main source of food and this could effect the carrying capacity, causing other organisms to start depleting. The owl will then have less to eat, which will again trigger the carrying capacity .

Further inquiry
Our analysis might not be reliable because about half of our bones were gone when we looked for them. We did the best that we could with what we had and otherwise we have accurate data. Next time we could probably put cerran wrap over our bones so that we can have accurate info.

Cats show perfect balance even in their lapping

Sophie Moynihan
7B
Current Event

Cartoon, books, and just about every story about cats depicts a scene of a cat lapping their milk. Another feline stereo-type of cats is that they always have perfect balance. What do these two stereo types have to do with each other? Researchers from MIT, Virginia Tech and Princeton University have looked into this question, and can give you an answer. When cats drink their milk, they form there tong into a shape like a backwards J to get the milk into their mouth. Recent studies show that cat's don't actually dip their tong in the milk, they only lightly brush it with the tip of their tong. While doing this, the milk forms a wake. When the cat stops moving its tong, the inertia keeps the milk moving. It then fills the gap that is forms by the backwards J. The cat then draws its tong up to its mouth, without spilling milk on it's chin. Roman Stocker of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Pedro Reis of CEE and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sunghwan Jung of Virginia Tech's Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Jeffrey Aristoff of Princeton's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering all helped film several other big cats (Jaguars,Tigers, ect.) drinking to see if it was a shared genetic between cats. The scientists studied the videos and came up with a formula for the ways cats drink."The amount of liquid available for the cat to capture each time it closes its mouth depends on the size and speed of the tongue. Our research -- the experimental measurements and theoretical predictions -- suggests that the cat chooses the speed in order to maximize the amount of liquid ingested per lap," said Aristoff, a mathematician who studies liquid surfaces. "This suggests that cats are smarter than many people think, at least when it comes to hydrodynamics."

I choose this article to show that we can make adaption big or small. It can be as simple as having a whole formula devised so you don't spill any milk on your chin. This article didn't really interest me, I'm not a cat person, but I feel like it did make a point about adaption.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101111141806.htm

Science reflection

What is sustainability? What is a human footprint? What can we do to reduce our human footprint?

Sustainability is directly defined as "To bear". This can be applied in conversations, when you're supporting a heavy weight, and in our case when you are trying to save out planet. To me, sustainability is when we make simple sacrifices, such as taking shorter showers or turning off the light when you leave a room, to preserve what is left of earths natural resources. Our planet has changed more in the last 50 years then it has in the previous 10,000 and we are to blame. Every person has a human footprint, which is the mark you make on the planet. It's the food you eat, the energy you use, and the heat and AC you blast in the winter. All of these are some of the many ways that we leave our mark on the planet. In class, we watched a video of some of the biggest contributors to our human footprint. The video provided some statistics of these factors were astounding. Some of the statistics that surprised me most were these. The average American will drink 43,371 cans of soda in a lifetime. We will eat 4 cows, 3 pigs, and 1,423 chickens. We will spend more money on beauty products, then on education. We have a huge variety of ways we impact the environment, we also have a variety of solutions. There are some that are shoved down our throats by the media like using energy efficient light bulbs, and others like eating less meat and not supporting the overpopulation that the meat industry's promote. They are now making eco-friendly food and by purchasing this maybe once a week we are helping reduce our carbon footprint. We are in trouble of completely depleting our earths resources and there are so many simple ways to stop. According to the site we would need 5.2 earth to support me (I'm really sorry guys!)

Suprise visitor

Sophie Moynihan
7B
November 10, 2010

Pollination is the process where pollen from one plant is transferred to the stigma of another plant. When we think of flowers being pollinated, we think of bee's and not much else. Scientists have discovered that not only are bees pollinating, but so are lizards, cockroaches, and a newly found contributor, crickets. The island of Reunion is just off the coast of Africa. Scientists on this island use night vision goggles to observe a certain kind of flower called an orchid. They had been recording what happens to this flower during the night and were trying to see how this flower is pollinated. While watching this flower one night, they made an astounding discovery, a new species of cricket. Not only was the cricket new, but it was also pollinating the orchid, something no one has ever recorded a cricket doing. One of the scientist observing the cricket, Claire Micheneau, said “This was very unexpected. The answer to a question brings us further questions.” Now, a commonly asked question between scientist is if crickets have been pollinating plants for longer then we thought. The cricket will eat the nectar that grows in the orchid, collection the pollen while it eats. It then moves on to the next orchid and transfers the pollen. When looking into this study, scientist think that if plants grows in a different sounding then the one where they originated, it could adapt strange pollinators. We think that this type of orchid was originally grown in Madagascar.

I think this was a really cool example of adaption and mutualism. The orchid, which they think was originally found in Madagascar, has learned to survive, or adapted, in a different environment. Its a good example of mutualism because the plant provide nectar fir the cricket, and in return it gets pollinated. This article really caught my eye because not only have we found a new cricket, but its doing something we have never seen crickets do. The word reunion means "to meet" in french, which sums up the relationship between the cricket and the orchid. When I looked further into this I found the actual video of the cricket and the orchid and it was pretty cool http://vimeo.com/8769516

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100203/Note2.asp

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