Conservation for the People

Notes:

• Animals are being endangered from drugs, such as vultures and wild dogs
• Preserving biodiversity for its own sake is not an effective conservation strategy
• We need to focus on protecting ecosystems, because it can be vital to human health
• Saving sites will preserve biodiversity
• Hot spots are very important to protect because they have high plant and animal diversity
• We need to identify threatened areas with high plant diversity and protect them -the usual tactics are establishing national parks or reserves
• It is key to protect communities and habitats-they typically house endangered species
• many different ecosystems, such as wetlands and mangroves, protects people from lethal storms and weathers
• some governments and the public are increasingly trying to create efforts to preserve biodiversity as elevating the needs of plants and animals
• The hot spot phrase is not succeeded in capturing the public imagination or interest
• A recent survey showed that only 30% of Americans have heard the term biodiversity
• Many of the world’s least diverse regions are proven to be important seasonal homes, migratory stops or nesting sites
• countries with harbor life raft ecosystems are conservation priorities  
• Ecosystem services are provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting
• Critical and endangered habitats need to be protected
• Conservation and human needs need to be aligned to help protect the environment and biodiversity
• Conservation needs principles to guide it
• humans are threatened when ecosystems and natural cycles break down
• our environment will consist mainly of human-influenced systems
• conservation and social issues don’t have many ties so it is hard to get public support to help
• we need to protect the natural water and also wildlife
• Poor farming and logging practices in the vicinity of the condor rejected area because of the new income it had serve and farm animals grazing too close to stream and river channels are the culprits.
• Because our environment will consist mainly of human-influenced systems, biodiversity protection must be pursued in the context of landscapes that include urban centers, intensive agriculture, and managed forests and rivers, not just nature preserves.
• Ironically, protected areas will most likely need to be intensely supervised to retain their “wildness.”
• “DUST from degraded grassland ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa travels far afield in wind, harming coral reefs, tourism and fisheries in the Caribbean.
• Protecting important ecosystems in one part of the world can also help people an ocean away.
• Without a close connection between conservation and social issues, policies that protect biodiversity are unlikely to find much public support.
• areas with a higher rate of poverty are basically more dependent on natural systems and their ecosystem services are severely degrading

New words or terms:

1. harbor life raft
2. hot spot
3. endemic

Summary of the article:

The article was basically about the conservation of the bio-diversities.  The article talked about how scientists look at the conversation. The article discussed some of the different biodiversity and how we were trying to preserve them.  They talked about the different ecosystems and what was important about them, and how the country that they were located in, where trying to preserve them.

Chernobyl Health

Chernobyl Effects Linger On:

1. This article was published on 10 May, 2000.

2. Restrictions on some food will continue in the UK and the Soviet Union for the next 50 years because the environment isn’t cleaning itself as fast as they thought it would.

3. Levels of caesium were detected in fish in Norway and Cambria, and also in terrestrial vegetation.

4. The radioactive caesium’s concentration in food and water decreased in the first 5 years after Chernobyl.

5. The caesium is immobilized in the soil and can be re-released into the environment.

6. Diffusion happens because of a concentration gradient, which leads to a balance in the radioactivity.

7. The sheep will remain out of the food chain for 10-15 years.

8. In the Soviet Union, forest berries, fungi, and fish will remain out of the food chain for half a century.


Chernobyl Children Show DNA Changes:

1. These children were born to parents who cleaned the nuclear reactor.

2. Liquidators are cleanup team members who were sent into the reactor. They received the highest combination of radiation.

3. Scientists are studying the children looking for new fragments using multi-site DNA fingerprinting.

4. The siblings who were conceived before exposure served as control.

5. Scientists found multiple changes in the children’s DNA.

6. The DNA changes could have been caused in the children themselves, not the parents.


Nuclear Health Agency: Health Impact:

1.  At low doses the radiation cell death can be accommodated, the cells in DNA can repair the damage, and organs can heal themselves. Low doses do not produce acute early affects. High doses cause cells to die rapidly, the DNA cells can die also, and organs are more likely to contract cancer.

2. The acute affects in Chernobyl were burns, coronary thrombosis, and radiation sickness.

3. The late/chronic affects of the Chernobyl disaster were cancer, leukemia, and thyroid tumors.

Galapagos Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguanas are very unique creatures. They are the only swimming reptiles in the world that are still alive. They can reach depths of 30ft, but can only stay under for about 10 minutes because they are cold blooded. Their population is somewhere in the hundreds of thousands and they live for 5-12 years. When eating, they intake too much salt, so they use glands on their heads to expel it. They are thought to come from other South American lizards and they adapted for diving.

The Galapagos are special islands because of the diversity they contain. They shift and rotate and many are volcanicly active.

Guppy Simulation

Introduction:
Q: if being flashy and colorful attracts predators, why do you think guppies areas colorful?

Flashy guppies attract mates


Q: After viewing the guppy gallery, what fish are most interesting?
A: The fish I find most interesting are the
Poecillia reticulata
Average size: 1.4 inches
Origin: Peru
Coloration: it is a grey guppy with an array of jewel tones on it's abdomen.

Q: Pick the preadator younfind most interesting.
A: The predator I find most interesting is

Pike cichlid
Crenicichla Alta
Origin: Latin America

Q: What habitat conditions would affect the predator populations?
A: the habitat conditions that would affect predators would be the amount of guppies, water temperature, water flow, environment and food, depth, and dams.


Endler's Discovery and Variation of guppies in pools:

Q: Who is John Endler?
A: John Endler was an evolutionary biologist who studies guppies. He studied guppies living in pools for changes in coloration and how it affected them.

Pool 1: Brightly multi-colored with large spots
Pool 2: Medium coloration on body and tail, with medium sized spots
Pool 3: Drab coloration, very small spots concentrated by tail.

Hypothesis: Guppies are developing more brightly colored with the environment for mates, but the drab population is also growing due to preadators targeting the bright guppies.


Guppy Simulation:

     

Summary:

Q:Describe how predators influence guppy coloration
A: the more predators there are, the less bright and brightest guppies there are because the predators prey on the most colorful guppies before the more drab guppies.

Q: Was your hypothesis correct?
A: My hypothesis was correct because they brightest guppies thrived in populations with little amounts of predators, being at 58% during only having 30 predators, and bright being at 83% with 60 predators. The drab guppies thrived in the large amounts of predators situation, being at 100% for 90 predators.

Q: What does it mean that "male guppies live in a crossfire between their enemies and their potential mates?
A: It means that the bright guppies have to choose which way to go because it won't work both ways, they either are brightly colored to attract mates and are vulnerable to predators or less vulnerable to predators but have a less chance at getting a mate.

Q: Why do you think guppies in different areas have different coloration?
A: There are factors of how many predators are in the area, in shallower water there is a better chance for bright guppies because there won't be as many predators.

Q: What would happen to mostly drab guppies that were placed in a stream with very few predators?
A: The guppies would be overrun by bright guppies that would reproduce factors.


Q: What would happen to brightly colored guppies that were placed in a stream with many predators?
A: The guppies would be overrun by drab guppies because the bright guppies would be prey for the predators.

How can protecting biodiversity at a local level affect worldwide?
If you protect your local ecosystem it could have species that scientists need to study for medicinal purposes or to research lifespan or discover new species. Biodiversity helps protect food supplies to all animals, even in a large area.

How do habitat destruction and loss of species affect ore than one area?
Species in one area can be dependent off of species far away for food through the chain. When habitats and biodiversity are destroyed, illness can spread from organism to organism.

How does preserving biodiversity enhance the lives of people?
It enhances peoples lives by helping keep the economy alive and not having to spend time and money to restore it, ie cutting down forests and contaminating water would have to have people clean up when they could be moving forward. It also helps because medicine research for diseases come from some of the ecosystems. It also keeps fresh oxygen and water so we have a constant supply, and keeps the plants and animals we eat alive and healthy.


http://www.greenfacts.org/en/biodiversity/l-2/2-biodiversity-synthesis-report.htm#3

Gases and Climate Change

Combustion:

Hypothesis:
If the rubbing alcohol is evaporating and filling the bottle with gas, and the alcohol is flammmable, then it will combust.

Observation: When Miss Leland exposed the flame to the gas and alcohol in the bottle, the alcohol produced a great blue flame and launched about 8 feet sideways. The bottle showed traces of soot and the condensation of the alcohol.

The environment and humans both are responsible for creating greenhouse gases. The amount given off by the environment is normal, but increased human activity pushes the levels higher than the natural balance. Factories, cars and other transportation, trash, etc. produces the greenhouse gases. In addition to making more of the greenhouse gases that exist and are made by nature, we are creating new ones also. When all of the gases rise into the atmosphere, the gases get trapped in the air.


Air Pressure:
Hypothesis: If the pressure in the soda can is high enough, then when it immersed in water it will burst.

Observation: When the can with the open top was put in the ice water, nothing happened.


Hypothesis: If the pressure in the can will be greater when air is not allowed to escape, then when it is immersed into the water it will burst.

Observation: After the water evaporated and filled the can with air, the can was quickly immersed in the water, top facing down. When the air couldn't escape, the can exploded.

Changes in air pressure can have large affects on climate change. Air pressure controls the atmosphere's circulation, therefore affecting how moisture moves, and can control rain, storms, and wind. The air pressure over the United States has increased in the last 50 years. If air pressure continues to change our winters could grow colder or milder, and summer could be drier or wetter. Air pressure has control of our weather, and significant changes in weather patterns could change the climate.


Hydrogen Gas:

Hypothesis: If the hydrogen gas will be produced by separating the elements and then will be ignited, then it will produce a source of power and fuel.

Observation: When the zinc was added to the hydrochloric acid, the hydrogen gas was released into the air. When the flame was lit, there was a small explosion and the hydrogen began burning. When the flame died off about 30 seconds later, the solid zinc was gone and the hydrochloric acid was still giving off hydrogen.

Hydrogen is an energy carrier, and a potential energy storing method. Most of the worlds hydrogen is produced using a non-clean source, still releasing CO2. There is potential for it being a clean energy source. There are also other forms of clean energy, such as water, solar, air, geothermal,



CO2 gas:

Hypothesis:
If the Baking Soda and Vingegar creates co2 and that gas is released into the flame, then it will ignite.

Observation:
The baking soda and vinegar created co2 and the co2 coated the flame and put it out, because the flame needs oxygen to live.

Chornobyl Questions

1. Will the area ever loose it's radiation, and if so, will it ever be inhabitable by humans?

2. Are there still long term affects and illnesses from the disaster 20 years ago?

3. How clean is the area currently?

4. How far from the actual plant did the disaster spread?

5. Have other nuclear power plants melted down? If not, do you think this will help other plants to be extra careful?