Project Description:
Earth is such a beautiful place from it oceans to its mountains but all of these ecosystems and biomes have one thing in common. They are being destroyed by us. During this project we took a deep dive into the pacific ocean ecosystem to see how it was being negitavily impacted by human activities and what are research could do to fix it. We looked at the different matter cycles of the oceans and how they were being impacted. We looked at certain endangered species in the ecosystem and saw how they were being affected by the negative impacting humans. We looked at food webs and the oceans carrying capacity to see how much life was living in the deep pacific waters. After all of this we came up with a solution to fix all the problems in the declining Pacific ocean. Watch the slide show to find out what we found and what we are going to do to fix it.
Our Slideshow:
Content:
Key Terms:
- Carrying Capacity- The absolute maximum organism that can survive in a ecosystem given water, food and living space.
- Abiotic Factors- All of the nonliving parts of an ecosystem (water, air, dirt)
- Biotic Factors- All of the living parts of an ecosystem (plants, animals, bacteria)
- Carbon Cycle- A cycle of where carbon turns from a solid state like glucose or fossil fuels to a gas. This gas is then either absorbed into the ocean or lives in the atmosphere. Then plants and plankton absorb carbon along with sunlight(energy) and water in the process of photosynthesis to make glucose making a cycle. This glucose is stored in animal tissues and plant tissues if these organisms die rapidly and are immediately covered with sediment then they will fossilize making fossil fuels. Another form of solid state carbon.
- Nitrogen Cycle- the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are inter converted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition
- Water Cycle- the cycle of processes by which water moves between the oceans to atmosphere through evaporation to land through precipitation. The water then runs off the land through streams and rivers or enters the ground water supply.
- Ecology terms:
- Individual- a single living organism
- Population- a group of species that live in the same ecosystem
- Community- all of the populations that interact in the same ecosystem
- Ecosystem- A whole group of biotic and abiotic components that make up an ecosystem.
- Biome- groups of ecosystems that have a similar climate and similar types of communities
- Biosphere- All of the life on earth that is within the range of 8km above and 11km below.
- Ecosphere (living)
- Lithosphere (land)
- Atmosphere (air)
- Hydrosphere (water)
- Symbiosis
- Competition (-/-) - when two organisms compete for the same resource
- Mutualism (+/+) - both organisms benefit
- Parasitism/consumption (+/-) - one organism benefits, the other doesn’t benefit
- Commensalism (+/0) - one organism benefits, the other is unaffected
- Biomass- The total mass of an object that is organic.
- Food Web- a web with multiple paths that can cross that shows the energy flow between Tropic Levels
- Tropic Levels
- Energy from sun goes to producers
- 1st level consumers (herbivores) eat producers
- 2nd level consumers eat 1st level
- Top level consumers eat 2nd level
- Tropic Levels
- Limiting Factors- The factors that limit the population
- Density Dependent Factors
- Resources
- Competition
- Disease
- Population size
- Density Independent Factors
- Human activity
- Natural disasters
- Deadly weather
- Density Dependent Factors
- Biodiversity- how many different type of species that live in an ecosytem the more species the better biodiversity and more likely the ecosystem will survive.
- Photosynthesis- the process in which plants use sun energy to synthesize glucose from carbon dioxide and water
- Equation: 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy = C6 H12 O6 + 6O2
- Light Reaction- Energy in the form of light is absorbed and converted to chemical energy in the form of ATP
- Calvin Cycle- Photosynthesis in the dark in the chloroplasts of plants that involves the fixation of carbon dioxide and the formation of a 6-carbon sugar
- Cellular Respiration- the process in which cells use glucose and oxygen to create usable energy
- Equation: 6C6H12O6 + 6O2 = 6CO2 + 6H2O + ATP
- Glycolysis- Breaking down glucose using enzymes , releasing energy (+2 ATP) and pyruvic acid
- Krebs Cycle- A series of reactions during aerobic resperation that makes +2 ATP
- Electron Transport Chain- Proteins that transfer electrons through a membrane to form a gradient of the proteins that makes 34 ATP
Reflection:
I really liked this project because we learned how to apply what we learned in biology to fix a real problem in our oceans. This aspect of fixing a real problem in our close living pacific ocean allowed my group and myself to have a bigger focus then most projects. This project was also very successful because my team worked very well together. We all shared the work load, and this allowed us to work independently and efficiently.
Something I need to improve in this project was time management. Since every group member worked really hard to do their part, we were able to finish all of our work by the time to present but I think for my time management I was behind a little because I started the project a little easy at first but was scrunched on time in the end so wasn't able to remember my part of the presentation. While I feel that I improved on time management in this project compared to others I felt it wasn't at my peak. Another thing I lacked to work on would be leadership. In this project, I did not take a leading role or become a task manager because other group members were to controlling and would take over parts of the project that I was "lacking in". In this project I should have stepped up more like in other projects and control my own work load.
Some peaks I had in the project was creating quality work and work ethic. My work has drastically improved compared to other projects because I understand the biology more in this unit. This allowed me to put out A+ quality work which a big step up from other projects. Another thing that was good was work ethic. Every day for this project I was able to sit down and finish was to be completed by the end of the day from group project to class activites. This improved work ethic has allowed me to have a better understanding of the work and how to apply it.