Predator Invasion

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/wild-predator-invasion.html


Above is a link to a PBS film we were shown about reintroducing predators into different areas of the country. The first and most prevalent topic are the wolves put back into Yellowstone National Park. Biologist D Smith put wolves into Yellowstone to help decrease the elk population enabling the vegetation to grow again. For 70 years Yellowstone had no wolves in the park. In 1995 they brought in 14 wolves into a fenced area of the north part of the park (the part with the least vegetation) to keep them from going back to where they were from. After a while they released the wolves from the fenced areas and observed what was changing. There were some negative effects of the wolves being reintroduced. One being the 90% decline in the coyote population. Since Coyotes are scavengers they would feed off of the wolves kill because they thought the wolves were done with it. The wolves never strayed far from their kills though and would kill the coyotes to show dominance and to keep their food. That is an example of intraspecific competition. There were also many positives that came from bringing the wolves back. One was the increased growth of vegetation around the creek and in the northern area of the park. Also, because of the vegetation, the beavers were back! These effects give us an example of the trophic pyramid levels. The Trophic Pyramid is a diagram showing the different levels of consumers, or what eats what. On the very bottom level there is the producers (plants). Above the producers there is the Primary Consumers ( things that eat plants, i.e. humans, elk, herbivores). Things that eat Primary Consumers are the Secondary Consumers (carnivores). Finally, at the top of the Trophic Pyramid is the Tertiary Consumers (eats the Secondary Consumers).

We were also taught about the different classifications of animals. For example a predator is an animal that kills to eat, a Prey is the animal that is killed and eaten, and a scavenger is an animal that eats anything it can find to survive. Technically humans are scavengers because we eat what others kill (beef from a cow, deer, turkey, ham, etc.)

My feelings on the wolves in the UP is to let them be. Obviously eliminating a species from an area is unhealthy for the environment and causes imbalance in the food chain. Now if there are too many and they are starting to kill people or diminish another species their numbers should be controlled. Humans are right in reintroducing animals or controlling their population if they are doing it to revitalize the land and bring things back to a balanced state. However, I am not pleased with people who enter a wild animal's home just to trap, tame, or kill it for pleasure.  

 

I Dont See Skies of Blue (New Celebration)

My favorite season may be summer, but a couple of days ago I found myself enjoying the rain. For about three days we experienced rain and thunder storms. I was in my home listening to the rain pounding on the roof and lightning was shining through our windows as if cars were going by The thunder was shaking the ground it was so loud. Don't get me wrong I am an active person, I love the outdoors and going hiking and such. However, that day looking out and seeing everything blurred together through the rain I figured out my new celebration. The sun and heat is what I prefer, but sometimes you just need some storms, a cup of hot tea and a good movie!

The Bog Blog...

Marquette has some very unique attractions that a lot of people do not know about, or have not been to. I personally, had heard of the Bog Walk but had never experienced it. Our class took advantage of one of the last warm days of the season and I finally got my experience. One by one we walked the path that led us to multiple signs, some new, and some old. Apparently there had been a flood that took some signs away and so many were replaced. Lucky for us though because those signs gave us the most information about what a Bog really is, how it is made, and what we can find in one. So, following my packet page by page I started with observations and reading the signs. I found out that a Bog is basically a swamp. However, it is a wet acidic habitat of spongy mosses. All around was tall grass and weeds along with some flowers. I also had the experience of learning about a "Pitcher plants". These were unable to be found about 2-3 years after the flood i mentioned earlier, but now they grow a plenty and they are interesting. We noticed their yellow and orange color that separated them from the surrounding greens and browns. Now you may think because we were in a swamp like habitat that they smell would be something fowl. My nose did not sense that we were in a swamp though. To me it seemed like we were in a normal field and i could breath deeply without scrunching my face and thinking to myself  "what is that awful smell?"
 Besides the plants and special trees, there was also wildlife and I caught a glimpse of many frog species that played around below the docks and on the edge of the pond areas. There were also many dragonflies and the unbearable grasshopper. It may sound strange to many people but I have an intense fear of grasshoppers and I will walk to completely opposite direction, even if it is miles out of my way, to be away from those ugly things! The Bog was really something enchanting and for a second I forgot I was there because I had to. I plan on going back, hopefully on another warm day, to see if any changes have happened since our last visit.

It's a Mystery

We were handed an opaque container with out the permission to open it. Troubling i know! Our curiosity kept building the longer we had to examine it and ask as many questions as we could. My group came up with 37 questions about what could be inside the container. It rattled a little bit but was big enough to take up most of the space it had. We asked questions that pertained to all of the senses and then some that not everyone would ask. The class has realized that the more questions you ask the easier it will be to narrow down your choices of what could be in the container. Finally we got a hint about the mystery objects by getting a plastic container full of the items that could be in the container. So we started a guess-and-check process by filling a seperate container exactly like the other one with the objects given to us. At the end of the hour we were given permission to open it! Unfortunately we were one object away from knowing what was in our mystery container. Our senses were off that day but now we know a piece of what scientists really do! The key to all science is to ask questions!

Inquiry Wheel

So this past two weeks I have learned that the Scientific Method is not the way to go about a secience experiment. We learned instead, the Inquiry Wheel. It is the Scientific Method for experiments but it does not give you a set guideline on how to go about things. "Science is messy" is the phrase that has stuck in my mind since we started this lesson and after being assigned our projects I realize that is going to be a lot more work and there will be a lot more questions to ask. My group has chosen to look at the effects of organic honey and processed honey on mold. Of course we are starting to research kinds of honey and mold and starting to find out it is going to be a lot harder than we expected. But the more we research the more we are able to narrow done our questions to the ONE BIG QUESTION! Then we will start getting together materials to experiment, and ask all new questions. Wish us luck!

What's Alive?

How do you determine what is alive? If it walks, talks, breathes, or eats? Well we came up with a list that we believe characterizes all living things. But we did learn the official "working definition of life". Number one is growth; number two is reproduction, number three is homeostasis (the ability of keeping internal balance), number four is sensory and response to stimuli, and finally number five is the ability to obtain and use energy. Now what I have just listed is what we are aware of as life on earth! Could there be other life forms that do not require water or food or air, sure. But we just do not know!There are questions that make you really ponder the idea of life. For example, If you die and your still beating heart is given to a transplant patient, are you still alive, or are you dead? In my opinion once you are pronounced dead, you are dead. There is no brain activity and no ability to do the five things i listed earlier, therefore I believe you are dead and your heart now belongs to someone else. Enough of the morbid talk though, life is beautiful and asking if you are alive is a different question than if you are living!

Danger: DHMO

"Everyone look out DHMO is everywhere and can cause a lot of damage."
 These are the words we began with before we watched a video about DHMO. We were convinced that it was a dangerous thing to have around our campus and in our homes. After the video, and what seemed like valid reasoning coming from our professor, the class chose to ban DHMO from campus. What is DHMO you might ask? It is in fact, water. Without knowing what DHMO really stood for and without enough information we decided to ban water. Of course all of us felt foolish and realized that from now on we need to get the whole story. I learned to ask more questions and get all the facts before making an assumption. You shouldn't trust everything you hear from your professor, the news, TV, social media, etc.