Plankton

Plankton are the most important part of the food web, because if plankton disappeared, it would create a domino effect and kill all other animals in the oceans. Because other plankton and small fish eat zooplankton, then small fish eat them, then bigger fish eat them, then squids eat then, then sharks. So even though sharks don't eat plankton, they would still die and go extinct if there was no plankton. 2 main categories are meroplankton and holoplankton. Meroplankton are plankton for only part of their lives usually the larval stage. Holoplankton are plankton for their entire lives. 3 benefits from plankton are: Immune booster, energy enhancer, and mood booster. They can effect your daily life by making you feel better and have more energy and be happier. 

Dinoflagellates

Dinoflagellates cause lots of problems, one of which is the Red Tide. The Red Tide is a phenomenon thats also called an algae bloom. Which is a large about of a microorganism, such as the dinoflagellates. And they take a color of red or a reddish-brown. Red tides are events in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column, resulting in coloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas. It caused neurological damage to humans, and it gets into things like clams tissues and toxicates them. it cannot be prevented because it is an algae bloom.   

Favorite Cephalopod

My favorite cephalopod would be Squids. The scientific name for a squid is Teuthida. The squids posses the same reproductive organs of humans. They mate normally also. Though after mating, the male dies shortly after. And the female dies after laying the eggs. She lays the eggs in egg shells for protection. They're anchored to the sea floor with other squid eggs; which the egg clumps look like flowers. Squid habitats: Some of them thrive in the warm tropic waters while others do much better in water that is at a lower temperature. You will find squid in just about all the major bodies of water found out there. They prefer salt water over fresh water. The squid will feed on small crustaceans and smaller fish. But humans prey on squid and larger sea creatures such as whales or sharks. The thing that makes squids special is their ability to change color or disguise. They will turn white when they need to look more aggressive to another male when fighting for a female. Interesting facts about squids: Squids have 3 hearts. The Big Fin Squid has 10 arms, not 8. Most live about a year. 

Marine instrument

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is an automated
tracking system used on ships and by Vessel Traffic Services (VTS)
for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data
with other nearby ships and VTS stations. AIS transponders use two
different frequencies, VHF maritime channels 87B (161.975 MHz) and
88B (162.025 MHz). SCOUT has designed the KS-30 antenna to be
tuned on the AIS frequencies. Perfectly suited to the AIS radar and AIS Engine.

Plankton

Plankton are important because small fish, whales, and zooplankton eat it as regular food. And if phytoplankton didn't exist, those larger fish that eat the animals who eat the phytoplankton, would die out. They have adapted to make food and nutrients from the sun and the way they move in the water is adaptations. 

Phytoplankton: need sunlight for food and nutrients. 

Zooplankton: need the phytoplankton for food and nutrients. 

Favorite shark

I already posted about the Great White Shark, which is definitely my favorite and most intriguing shark. So I'll post about my second favorite, the Bull Shark! 

Scientific name: Carcharhinus leucas

Found in: Amazon River, Lake Nicaragua (can live in salt or fresh water

Reproduction: they mate in the late summer/early autumn. Pregnant for 12 months. Can have 4-10 pups. 

Predator/prey: Bull's eat mostly honey fish and sharks. Also includes turtles, birds, dolphins, etc. and humans catch and kill Bull Sharks. 

Adaptations: 1. adapted to live in freshwater 2. Has cartilage (no bones) 3. Have 2 dorsal fins.

Endangered/threatened?: they're near threatened. Why? Humans are catching them and not releasing them alive. 

3 facts: 1. Traveled as far up the Mississippi River as Illinios 2. Most responsible for near-shore shark attacks on humans, not great whites 3. Extremely territorial. 

Oceanographer

If I had to choose a oceanographer job, it would be a shark researcher. 

1. I've always had an interest in sharks

2. Sharks is one marine animal that is mysterious

3. You get to dive underwater with the sharks to observe them in shark-proof cages

4. You can also free dive and touch some if you get lucky

5. Just the ability to dive and touch/feed a shark to figure them out more would be the most amazing feeling

Favorite marine animal: Great White Shark

The great white shark's scientific name is :Carcharodon carcharias. 

Habitat: coastal surfaces of waters of all the major oceans. The temp of water they live in is between 54-75 degrees F. 

Reproduction: they become sexually mature between 8 and 15 years of age. They reproduce internally. The males bite the females to hold them down while mating. The females are pregnant for 18 months. 

Predator/prey: largest known macropredatory fish. Most primary predator of the marine animals. Preys on: variety of marine animals (fish and sea birds and seals). On record as having the most attacks on humans. Humans do fish for them for their fin. Used for fish fin soup in china. 

Endangered or threatened? It's unknown. 

Ocean issues affecting the shark: hill nets used for fishing in Baja, Mexico mainly. 

3 interesting facts: 

1.) shark meat is not recommended for human consumption die to the high levels of mercury in the meat. 

2.) their livers can weigh up to 24% of their entire body weight. 

3.) they may use and lose up to 1,000 teeth in its lifetime. 

Bob Ballard

Five facts about the ocean I didn't know: 

1.) more exploration in the Southern Hemisphere during Captain Cook's time, rather than current day. 

2.) there's better maps of mars than out own. 

3.) ocean ridge covers 20% of the world. 

4.) Rift Valley is 9,000ft in depth. 

5.) more active volcanos under the sea, than above it. 

+3 more facts:

6.) seashells are on Mt. Everest. 

7.) lost city is made up of leaf and had pH of 11. 

8.) methan volcanos in Gulf of Mexico. 

Why I think Bob Ballard thinks it's important to explore the ocean: I think his reasoning is because the ocean makes up most of this planet and it's important to explore it to find out what lies beneath. 

His main message: to explore the ocean and maybe end up building structures on the water for human life to inhabit. 

Aquarium Lab Report

I. Purpose: Monitor a freshwater ecosystem overtime and collect and interpret data.

II. Materials:

• Tank
• water
• dechlorinator
• gravel
• rock
• ammonia
• thermometer
• bala sharks (4)
• fish food
• mini beakers
• paper towels
• notebook
• monument
• blue grass
• bacopa
• filter
• bubbler
• nitrate
• ammonia lock
• net
• pitcher
• sifter
• baggies
• scrubbers

III. Procedure:

1. Took gravel out and cleaned with sifter
2. Scrubbed the tank
3. replaced gravel
4. filled tank with water
5. added dechlorinator and ammonia lock
6. waited a day
7. test with nitrite and ammonia and check temperature
8. if water is good, add decorations
9. wait another day
10. test water again
11. if water needs to be changed, take a pitcher and draw out 2/3 of water. Then replace.
12. then add ammonia lock and dechlorinator
13. add a filter and bubbler to the tank
14. add fish
15. feed fish everyday
16. test water everyday

IV. A.) Quantitative (water quality)

• 
  

  
  

      B.) Qualitative (observations)

• 9/17 I have 2 Bala Sharks in my tank. I did have 4, but 2 of then died already. The bigger of the 2 sharks sometimes follows the smaller one. But most of the time the smaller one stays by the decoration, and the bigger one stays within the rocks. Our ammonia is very high, needing a water change.
  
  9/18 the ammonia and nitirite are still high even though we changed it yesterday. The 2 sharks still don't eat much, but they're managing.
  9/19  Today we had to do a water change because the ammonia was a 1.0. We've had to clean our tank all week because our ammonia has been so high. And it's almost killed the sharks so we moved them to the other tank and they became okay overnight. 
  9/20 We had to do a water change again. Just half a tank though. The sharks seem to be doing well and adapting. And we now have 5 clams and they've been opening their mouths which lead us to think that they can feed (good) in the tank. 

  9/26 We had a shark jump out of the tank and die last night. So we have 5 clams and 1 shark left. Our ammonia is again really high, but we didn't have time to change it today. So we'll change it tomorrow. 

  9/28 we came into class and we had an empty tank. So we found our last shark on the floor, dead. I guess he jumped out too and died. So now we only have clams left and no fish. I won't get fish until we get our tank clean and livable to fish. 

  9/29 today we complelty cleaned our tank too to bottom. So hopefully in the next few days it will be a suitable fish tank.

  9/30 today we found out that our tank is finally moving through the nitrogen cycle. The nitrite has gone up, and the ammonia is going down. Our clams have dug down in the gravel so we can't see them. But the big clam is doing good. Our tank seems to be pretty stable. And hopefully I'll get some new different fish soon. 

  10/1 the tanks water is still moving through the stages of getting clean. 

  10/2 it's still getting there. The clams still dig in the gravel, but open their mouths to feed. 

  10/4 the water quality is getting close, so we did a half tank water change to move it faster maybe. 

  10/6 were thinking tomorrow or the next day adding fish. I'm not sure if I can buy any, so I'll see if my partner can. But the clams are doing great and so is the tank.

  10/8 today out water quality was good today and yesterday. So mrs. Wood let us put in fish finally. We took a grey fish with red too eyes and a small almost goldfish fish. 

  10/9 the fish are still alive! We gave our clams to our tank neighbors to have. Our tank is still really clear and is going through the nitrogen cycle. We're finally getting the tank healthy. 

  10/10 we have to do a half tank water change. The fish seem to be okay in the water cup. And hopefully the nitrogen will go back down like the ammonia did. 

  10/13 the water is getting better, no need for a water change. But we'll keep a close eye one it.

  10/15 out tank is finally at 0 on the ammonia and nitrate. I'll check the nitrate tomorrow if I have time. But the 2 new fish are doing great and are eating regularly and seem to live happy together. Not much food has built up on the gravel so that's good. But the filter needs to be cleaned off. 

  10/16 our water is still good but our nitrate is a little high. So we added water to the tank. So we'll check it tomorrow to see if we have to make a water change. 

  10/17 the nitrate did go down. So we don't have to do a water change. The fish are still happy and eating great. 

  10/18 today the fish were super excited to eat today and we're swimming around a lot. The ammonia and nitrite are still at 0.

  
  

  C.) aquatic check of river model

  

V. Conclution:

1. Ammonia- a clear colorless gaseous compound that is suffocating and made from nitrogen and hydrogen gases. Ammonia is not really important, it's bad for fish, but it helps a tank move through the nitrogen cycle. Nitrite- a salt or ester of nitrous acid. It's important for it to get rid of the ammonia through the nitrogen cycle. Temperature- the measure of coolness and hotness with a uniform unit of measure (ferenheit). It's important to know so you can keep the water at a livable temperature for the fish. pH- used to measure the amount of acidity or alkalinity of a solution on a scale of 0-7. It helps the tank keeper be aware if their water is too acidic or has too much alkaline. Conductivity- a property that can conduct electricity, heat or sound. We need to know the conductivity of objects we put in our tank to know if it's safe or unsafe for the fish. Dissolved Oxygen- a measure of oxygen that has been dissolved or is carried through a given medium (like water). Dissolved oxygen is important to have for your fish to survive in your aquarium, if you don't have any, your fish will die. Hardness- the quality in water that deals with dissolved salts and calcium. If you have hardness you'll see white hard stuff built up on the glass and you need to clean it. Alkalinity- the alkaline concentration or quality in water. It's important to know the amount of alkaline in your water for the health of your fish. Chlorine- a greenish-yellow, irritating halogen, that's incompustable, and can combine with almost anything. Used for the purifying of water and cleansing things. Used for cleaning tanks but can position fish and is bad for the respitory.
2. What is the nitrogen cycle and how does it apply to the sustainability aquarium? The nitrogen cycle is the phases of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate that the tanks water undergoes to clean itself. A fish can't breathe in ammonia so use plants or ammonia block to rid ammonia so it can move to nitrite then nitrate so it's healthy.
3. How has your water quality changed over time? My water quality was very bad in the beginning, but after awhile it cleared up fantastically.
4. Why is the oxygen/carbon dioxide cycle important to the aquatice ecosystems? The fish in the tank have to have oxygen to breathe, so when the fish breathe they put out carbon dioxide and plants take it in and produce oxygen for them to breathe. The more oxygen that's converted in our lakes and ponds, the more fish will thrive and fish men have more fish to hook. 
5. What problems did you face when trying to keep the aquarium stable? How did you solve these problems? I was having to clean my tank everyday because the ammonia was always high. Our fish died because of the ammonia, so after awhile of no fish and completely cleaning our tank, the water quality went to perfect.
6. What are the 5 educational concepts did you learn through this project? Disapline, life, how to keep fish alive, nitrogen cycle, and oxygen/carbon dioxide cycle. 
7. What was the most interesting thing that happened during this project? The worst thing that happened? The wierdest thing? All my fish jumping out and dying. Losing all 4 sharks. How all 4 sharks jumped to die.
8. What was your favorite part of this project? Why? Having an aquarium in school. I live being able to play with fish at school and not at home. It's like a class pet that's my own. 
9. What advice would you give next year's students about this project? How would you change this project to make it better? Don't buy expensive fish...they could jump out and die. Make the project last all semester. 

Eurasian Waterfoil

The Eurasian Waterfoil is a problem both in Lewisville and grapevine lake. The problems with this weed is that it's super invasive and aggressive towards native plants, and it reduces plant diversity. It has spread so much and extremely hard to tame. It's most likely impossible to eradicate. You have to use certain pellets to kill them or they'll keep spreading.

My Dichotomous Key

The importance of the key is that it helps directly tell you what water body or bacteria you're trying to identify. They are very helpful in identifying. And this key is one my partner and I made ourselves about 14 different kinds of algae. 

Algae and invertebrates

The algae here is spirogyra. It's a bacteria and it helps filter the water. Some invertebrates I found were clams, snails, baby fish, and scuds. They helps by eating bacteria and filtering water to keep it clean. 

That's a scud. 

Algae

The algae helps regulate oxygen. And provides another food source for some fish and animals. 

Data chart on 4 bottles (dissolved oxygen)

We leave the bottles in the sunlight all day and in the dark all night. 

Oxygen and CO2 cycle

1. Water + co2 ---> sugar + o2 photosynthesis 

2. Sugar + o2 ---> water + co2 cellular respiration 

O2 levels drop at night because of no sun. 

Animals use o2 at night and make it drop more. 

When the sun comes out photosynthesis begins again. 

The more light, the more o2. 

Diary of my Fishtank

9/17 I have 2 Bala Sharks in my tank. I did have 4, but 2 of then died already. The bigger of the 2 sharks sometimes follows the smaller one. But most of the time the smaller one stays by the decoration, and the bigger one stays within the rocks. Our ammonia is very high, needing a water change.

9/18 the ammonia and nitirite are still high even though we changed it yesterday. The 2 sharks still don't eat much, but they're managing.

9/19  Today we had to do a water change because the ammonia was a 1.0. We've had to clean our tank all week because our ammonia has been so high. And it's almost killed the sharks so we moved them to the other tank and they became okay overnight. 

9/20 We had to do a water change again. Just half a tank though. The sharks seem to be doing well and adapting. And we now have 5 clams and they've been opening their mouths which lead us to think that they can feed (good) in the tank. 

9/26 We had a shark jump out of the tank and die last night. So we have 5 clams and 1 shark left. Our ammonia is again really high, but we didn't have time to change it today. So we'll change it tomorrow. 

9/28 we came into class and we had an empty tank. So we found our last shark on the floor, dead. I guess he jumped out too and died. So now we only have clams left and no fish. I won't get fish until we get our tank clean and livable to fish. 

9/29 today we complelty cleaned our tank too to bottom. So hopefully in the next few days it will be a suitable fish tank.

9/30 today we found out that our tank is finally moving through the nitrogen cycle. The nitrite has gone up, and the ammonia is going down. Our clams have dug down in the gravel so we can't see them. But the big clam is doing good. Our tank seems to be pretty stable. And hopefully I'll get some new different fish soon. 

10/1 the tanks water is still moving through the stages of getting clean. 

10/2 it's still getting there. The clams still dig in the gravel, but open their mouths to feed. 

10/4 the water quality is getting close, so we did a half tank water change to move it faster maybe. 

10/6 were thinking tomorrow or the next day adding fish. I'm not sure if I can buy any, so I'll see if my partner can. But the clams are doing great and so is the tank.

10/8 today out water quality was good today and yesterday. So mrs. Wood let us put in fish finally. We took a grey fish with red too eyes and a small almost goldfish fish. 

10/9 the fish are still alive! We gave our clams to our tank neighbors to have. Our tank is still really clear and is going through the nitrogen cycle. We're finally getting the tank healthy. 

10/10 we have to do a half tank water change. The fish seem to be okay in the water cup. And hopefully the nitrogen will go back down like the ammonia did. 

10/13 the water is getting better, no need for a water change. But we'll keep a close eye one it.

10/15 out tank is finally at 0 on the ammonia and nitrate. I'll check the nitrate tomorrow if I have time. But the 2 new fish are doing great and are eating regularly and seem to live happy together. Not much food has built up on the gravel so that's good. But the filter needs to be cleaned off. 

10/16 our water is still good but our nitrate is a little high. So we added water to the tank. So we'll check it tomorrow to see if we have to make a water change. 

10/17 the nitrate did go down. So we don't have to do a water change. The fish are still happy and eating great. 

10/18 today the fish were super excited to eat today and we're swimming around a lot. The ammonia and nitrite are still at 0. 

Fish Day -Largemouth Bass

Scientific name- Micropterus Salmoides

Reproduction- The Bass like to spawn in the shallow waters of about 1-4ft in depth. The water temperature they thrive in is about 63-58 degrees fahrenheit. 

Habitat- most bass live and thrive in lakes, rivers and creeks. They like warmer waters.

Food- bass usually eat anything that doesn't attempt to eat them. So mostly smaller fish, and bugs.

Predator prey relationship- humans prey on bass, bass prey on smaller fish. 

Interesting facts- 1. The female can lay up to 2000-7000 eggs per pound of her body weight. 2. When the baby fish become 1 inch fry, the dad bass abandons them otherwise he'll eat them. 3. Bass live in Texas, and are in Lake Lewisville and the creeks adjacent to it. 

Nitrogen cycle

The nitrogen cycle works by 

-feeding your fish

-fish poops

-poop turns into ammonia bacteria

-then the plants take in the ammonia and turn it into nitrite

-plants release nitrite bacteria

-nitrite turns into nitrate

-nitrate goes to plants and dissolves

-START ALL OVER! 

Algae finds

Today we looked through clumps of algae to find tiny bacteria and organisms. Me and my partner found a couple different things! We found many Scuds, small and large, many rotifers of many shapes and sizes, and some weird worm looking organism that was super tiny. And also we found a bunch of snails to toss into our tank. Here's a few pictures of the Scuds:

One of our snails on a pebble:

So we added 2 large Scuds, 2 rotifers, 4 snails, and a worm. We didn't notice a difference with our sharks when we added these organisms. But we watched the snails come out and slug around. We also didn't notice our sharks having an interest in anything do nothing got eaten haha. So successful all around! 

pond and river video...??

well we didn't watch a pond and river video on Friday...soooo here's a picture of a pond and a river :)

P O N D


R I V E R

yippie

River model

In our river model we have 4 tubs with different environments in them. on day 1 we started by adding six orange and 20 brown minnows to tub #1 (the one on the bottom right corner). we also added a blue crayfish to tub #3 (the one in the top left corner). But it then quickly moved to tub #4 (bottom left corner). 3 minnows have already died, due to being sucked into the filter. 1 of them were fed to the crayfish. Later that day, 1 ghost shrimp was added to tub #3. And 3 brown minnows have moved to tub #2, and two minnows have found their way all the way to tub #4. There should be 23 minnows, 1 blue crayfish, and 1 ghost shrimp left.

Temperature and Density Demonstration

 In the Temperature and density demonstration, we took 4 mason jars and filled two up with warm water and colored them red, and filled two with cold water and colored it with blue. And in the before picture, we put one of the cold water jars on top of the warm and vise versa. also we have note cards in between to stop the mixing of the 2 waters.

Then in the after picture you can see that the jars that had the cold on top had mixed together when you pulled the cars from in between. And that happened because cold water sinks and warm water rises. so when the cold was sinking, the 2 mixed and created purple water. And in the jars that had the warm on top, obviously didn't mix because warm water rises and cold sinks.

This connects to the environment because like in creeks or lakes most fish like to stay in warm water, so fishermen need to know where there is warmer and shallower water, so they know were to fish. Because if its shallower, there is less room for cold and therefore the fish stay towards the surface, and the fishermen have more luck in catching dinner.

Water Issue

My water issue is 'what is point and non-point pollution'. I chose this because it sounded interesting and a real issue we are facing today, with global warming and such. Yes, I have questions for you, in how to tell what it point and non-point. And what each means. 

I haven't worked on my issue yet, so I have no pictures. Sorry :( so here is a picture of pollution instead.. 

my water property

my water property was Buoyancy. me and my partner did an in class presentation, where we demonstrated how things can float in salt water but sink in distilled and lake water. the connection is to show how boats float better in oceans than lakes. I learned that things float better in oceans because of the salt and minerals.


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.com%2Fscience-fair%2Farticle%2Fdensity-affect-buoyancy-objects%2F&h=0&w=0&sz=1&tbnid=AmEMluIaRUSoqM&tbnh=144&tbnw=349&zoom=1&docid=VbNIHqadcHfKRM&hl=en&ei=kpIjUp7ZDMX22QXNkIHoCg&ved=0CAIQsCU

All about me

My names Megan Nikole Martin and I'm 17 on the verge of 18. I run cross country for Marcus. I have a brother named Brett, and I live with my brother and my mom, Deidra. I have 2 cats named Simba and Nala. I have a boyfriend of 7 months, his name is Jonathan. And I work at Animal Medical Center of Highland Village. I work in the kennels taking care of the cats and dogs in boarding and animal control.