Populations

Gray Wolf- Canis Lupus (Canine)

Green Anaconda- Eunectes Murinus (Reptile)

Bald Eagle- Haliaeetus Leococephalus (Bird)

Nile Crocodile- Crocodilus Niloticus (Reptile)

Bobcat- Lynx Rufus (Feline)

Lion- Panthera Leo (Feline)

Monarch Butterfly- Danaus Plexippus (Insect)

Hawksbill Sea Turtle- Eretmochelys Imbricata (Reptile)

European Mantid- Mantis Religiosa (Insect)

Puma- Puma Concolor (Feline)

Ecology Blog 4: Biome

The Boreal forest, also known as Taiga, are dense evergreen forests of coniferous trees. The winters are extremely cold, but the summers tend to be mild and long enough for the ground to thaw. Abiotic factors include moderate precipitation; high humidity; and acidic, nutrient-poor soils. Because of these conditions, the dominant plants are needleleaf coniferous trees such as spruce and fir; some broadleaf deciduous trees; and small, berry-bearing shrubs. Because of the harsh conditions only these plants can thrive.

ECOLOGY Blog 3: Levels of Organization

1. Biosphere - This is where all living things on Earth live. Humans live in a biosphere
2. Biomes - A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat.
3. Ecosystem - A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
4. Community - All the organisms living in a particular area or place: "local communities".
5. Populations - A particular section, group, or type of people or animals living in an area or country.

6. Species - This is the most basic unit of biological organization.

If I was an ecologist, I would study the individual. It seems like it would be more fun to be up close and personal and find more details about each specific animal. I would study this level by using my observations. It is the most logical method because everything about the individual is straight forward and can be seen threw watching its daily life.

Virtual Ecology

Population Genetics
Many things can affect the genetics of a population. Factors may include selection, mating, mutation, migration, genotype frequencies, and the environment. In the simulation with fish, mutation caused more diversity within the population. Population genetics can also be affected by the carrying capacity, birth rates, death rates, immigration, and emmigration of the population.

Population Ecology
Probably the most important thing about population is population density. This is most useful when dealing with endangered species. Finding the exact number of a population is extremely difficult, so scientists estimate the amount. Population grows logistically, meaning that there are sudden burst of change, not just stability.

Community Ecology
There is often always competition within an ecosystem. In the Barnacle simulation, one type of barnacle could grow in a wider range in depth but could be outperformed. Another type of barnacle was limited to only a specific water depth, however they were still strong competitors. In the other simulation, I saw how different species could survive better depending on predators, the environment, etc. Natural selection plays a prominent role in who survives in the community.

Behavioral Ecology
Animals behave differently depending on their environment. In Bee Foraging, environmental conditions were modified to see how the bees would react to it. It affected total nectar collected and the rate of nectar collection. Predators of a species also affects the prey's hunting and foraging schedule, because it causes them to scavenge in a way that avoids the predators.

Conservation Ecology
Conservation Ecology is trying to protect species, habitats, and ecologies from extinction. Pesticides are indirectly affecting animals that associate with those pests. It kills food for the animal's survival and can cause the animals to have defects. Individuals exploiting a common resource will lead to the over exploitation of that material. Species that go over the carrying capacity will affect the ecologic system.

Biodiversity
Biodiversity depends on the environment, island size, distance from mainland, habitat type, and species type. It is the degree of variation of life. Biodiversity also comes from mutations and natural selection. In the simulation, when the fish went down the stream, they were separated. This spreads a species to other parts of the world. The more the fishes spread they create a diversity in the environment.

ECOLOGY Blog 2: Sustainability

If we keep living the way we do, we would not be able to sustain ourselves. Especially in the United States, we tend to misuse and exploit our resources. The birth rates are going down, but so are the death rates. There is a lot of regulation on immigration is being more strict to make sure that the people who are inside the borders can survive. We are nearing our carrying capacity.

Rating: ★★★

Again, it was interactive and fun to play around with. It was not as informative as I would like and it was hard to find facts and key information.

ECOLOGY Blog 1: Footprint

As a teenager, I have already left a pretty big impact. Living in the United States already makes it more problem. In order to lower one's footprint, try to to things manually and without the use of fossil fuels and processed goods. Instead of driving everywhere, the use of bikes and growing your own garden plants can help lower the footprint left behind, and help make Earth a better environment for everyone.

Rating: ★★★★

It was informative and colorful. I enjoyed it and it was really fun and interactive.

EVOLUTION Blog 1: Fossils

Lucy

1. It is the bones of one of our earliest human ancestors

2. It lived 3.2 milliion years ago

3. It looked like a human

4. It walked upright on two legs

Hadar Skull

1. It is a skull of a primitive human species

2. It lived 3.0 million years ago

3. It looked more apelike than human, and was really old

4. The skull didn't move

Laetoli Footprints

1. Footprints of early human species

2. It lived 3.6 million years ago

3. It was an upright being, like humans, but the prints resembled a tree-dwelling chimp's foot structure

4. The walked on two feet like human beings

First Family

1. It is a collection of early human species

2. It lived 3.2 million years ago

3. The males were  much bigger than their female counterparts

4. They walked like humans with broad heels and long and more straight

Rating: ★★★
It was okay, but not exactly informative. The first page was really confusing and hard to read. This weblab was not very good, but it was sufficient, I guess.

Bird Adaptations

Ring-Necked Pheasant
-The "Fast Take-Off" Wings
-Cracking Beak
-Perching Feet



Great Blue Heron
-The "Slow, Flapping" Wing
-Striking Beak
-Wading Feet


Woodpecker
-The "High-Speed and Maneuverability" Wing
-Drilling Beak
-Climbing Feet

Bald Eagle
-The "Soaring" Wing
-Tearing Beak
-Catching-Prey Feet


White-Faced Ibis
-The "Slow, Flapping" Wing
-Probing Beak
-Wading Feet

EVOLUTION Blog 13: Sex and the Single Guppy

In this web lab, I was able to see how coloration affected predation and mating. Their eccentric colors caught the eyes of predators but also attracted mates. This was really similar to one of the other web labs having to do with genes and alleles. The population of guppies depending on the color of their skins, the environment, and the number of predators.

Rating: ★★★★★
It was really informative and interactive. I had a lot of fun. The only problem is that the words were really small and a bit hard to read but still, it was a good exercise.

EVOLUTION Blog 12: Weblab Dating

Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating technique that uses the decay of carbon-14 to estimate the age of organic materials. This technique was developed in the 1940's by Willard F. Libby and a group of scientists. When C-14 changes into N-14, the Nitrogen is in gas form and escapes. The maximum age that carbon dating is reliable is approximately 52,000 years.

Rating: ★
I didn't like it at all because it was really long and was not really informative. It was all specific to certain things and really confusing. I do not recommend to use this web lab.

EVOLUTION Blog 11: Weblab Phylogenetics

In this weblab, we explored the history of some animals and what common ancestors they had. We learned how to use cladograms and find out what relations certain organisms have with other ones. We also learned that lineages all lead back to one common ancestor. There were five different files that explained each process step by step.

Rating: ★★★★
This was very good and easy to follow, but it was really long. I guess it was good and informative, but it was kind of boring, that's why i gave it only 4 stars.

EVOLUTION Blog 10: Weblab Bio in Motion

In this weblab, we saw how natural selection and survival of the fittest led to evolution, and how certain traits would prevail over others. We could see how evolution was a slow and gradual change and how mutations could be either good or bad. Good mutations could lead to other advantages that helped that organism develop step by step. For example, longer arms meant it was easier to grab food, so it developed from 2 segments to 3. Then having even longer ares let it fly and run away from predators, so it evolved from 3 segments to 4.

Rating: ★★★★★
I really liked this, because it was clear and to the point, and there was a demonstration to further explain evolution.

EVOLUTION Blog 8: The Future is Wild

In the future, the global warming will make the Earth a hard place to live. It will become too hot so most of the mammals die out, leaving fishes in the ocean and insects on land. The Earth will become home to insects. This new species of skyhoppers evolves from grasshoppers. Because of too much heat, the grasses the grasshoppers eat die, and they develop their wings, claws, and teeth to be able to eat other insects. They are able to fly around, which make it easier to catch their prey, and the claws and teeth help to catch and eat.

EVOLUTION Blog 9: Diamante Poem

EVOLUTION Blog 5: Weblab Exploring Evolution

This weblab showed us the evolution of whales and how they are one of the few ocean mammals. We saw how they evolved by comparing DNA, fossils, and the anatomy of other mammals. We kept exploring to find out which are the ancestors of whales.

This weblab was very interactive and fun to complete. I'd give it 5 stars. ★★★★★

EVOLUTION Blog 4: Weblab Natural Selection

In the weblab, I changed certain traits and the environment, which would affect the population and the development of the animal. In the butterfly experiment, I changed the color of the butterflies and the amount of predators, but no matter what the colorful butterfly would prevail. This was because, even though they were eaten more, the colorfulness allowed them to reproduce faster than the mortality rate. In the finch experiment, it showed how the finches adapted to their surroundings by changing the size of their beaks. The amount of precipitation changed the size of seeds, which were the finch's food source, so in turn, the finches beaks developed accordingly. In the last experiment, it showed how human interaction with other animal population can affect the traits of that population. Introducing cats to mice brought the mice population down, so when cats were cut off, the population increased. When the cats were reintroduced, only brown mice thrived because they camouflaged with the brown barn, but when the barn was repainted yellow, the yellow mice population rose. 

I enjoyed this weblab and it was easy to follow. I'd give it 5 stars :) ★★★★★

EVOLUTION Blog 6: Conversation

MODERN CONVERSATION BETWEEN MAJOR EVOLUTIONISTS

Lamarck: Yo wassup dawgs. Did you know that acquired traits can be passed down through generations? Like if I get buff, my kids will be buff.

Mendel: Naw foo, only genetic traits can be passed down. Through the genes of the offspring are combinations of the genes of the two parents.

Darwin: Yea dude, Mendel is right. But what he missed was that the good traits, like having a strong body, can be passed down more easily cuz the stronger people would survive more. It's not that the parents become buff and pass it on, but that they have the traits to develop muscle faster. This is the process I like to call survival of the fittest. #NaturalSelection.

Lamarck: Wow, two versus one, that's not cool. You guys have an advantage cuz you came after me.. More technological advances allowed you two to make better observations.

Mendel: Haha, yea man, get with the program. A person can only inherit traits that their parents have, but he can acquire other traits throughout his life, which cannot be passed down. For example, a boy is born with blonde hair, but he dyes it red. When he has a kid with another blonde woman, the kid will be blonde, there is no chance that the kid will be a ginger.

EVOLUTION Blog 3: Saving Endangered Species from Extinction?

I think we should save endangered species. The main reason I believe we should do this is because, even thought extinction is a natural process, we are speeding up this process through mass hunting. Endangered species should become extinct through the slow process of evolution, not through extermination.

EVOLUTION Blog 2: Should creationism be taught in schools?

I think that creationism should be taught in school, because it is good to see all the different perspectives and views on the creation of the world that we live in. Since I am religious, I believe that there is a God, or almighty being, that is in responsible for many of the things that happen in the world. Creationism does not have to be emphasized but instead just taught, so each student will be able to choose which idea they believe in.

EVOLUTION Blog 1: Career Paleontologist

To become a paleontologist, you will need a Ph.D. in paleontology. You will need a strong educational background in the natural sciences, like geology and biology. Another skill that would be great to have is statistical analysis and computers. In the United States, the average salary for this job is $82,500 a year.

References:
http://www.academicinvest.com/science-careers/geology-careers/how-to-become-a-paleontologist
http://www.otago.ac.nz/geology/research/paleontology/kairuku.html

Blog 9: Letter to the Editor on Bioenineering

Dear Mr. Editor,
I believe that bio engineering is useful and a necessary technique. It can be used in ways to research human diseases, produce enriched foods, and improve animal health. It can make plants more insect-resistant, yielding more crops and more taste. It can also make animals more disease resistant. All these things benefit life and so there is no reason to be against bio engineering.
Sincerely,
Shoha Tsuchida

Blog 8: Letter to Mendel

Dear Gregor Mendel,
Your genetic discoveries of factors and P1 and F1 can be explained through the structure of DNA and how genetic traits are passed down. DNA is in the form of a double helix and has counterparts that correspond exactly with it's partner, so when it is duplicates, the replica will be the exact same. From there, each half of the DNA gets passed on to the next generation. That is why when the parent generation (P1) have offsprings, the next generation (F1) will have a blend of each parents traits.
Your friend,
Shoha

Blog 6: Dominant and Recessive Alleles

Dominant alleles are "dominant" meaning that it's characteristics would appear in some form no matter what. Recessive alleles are not dominant, so if paired up with the dominant, it's traits would not show, but if it is paired up with itself, only it's characteristics would show. The dominant traits are the ones that are most common, like brown eyes and straight hair. Green and blue eyes are recessive.

Blog 5: If animals were capable of regeneration like a planarian, how do you think it would affect the ecosystem?

If animals were able to regenerate, it would significantly affect the ecosystem. It would be much harder for animals to go extinct because their chances of life would increase by a lot. It is hard to say whether it would be helpful or dangerous to the ecosystem, but it would definitely change it. There would be a lot more animals alive for sure.

Blog 7: Genetically Linked Diseases

In my family, we have a genetic disorder where most of us have high blood pressure or hyper tension. It is caused by genetic variations. It has been evident in my family for the last three generations, and we can easily get headaches, blurred vision, and nosebleeds.

Blog 4: Do you think a community like Gattaca is good or bad? Why?

I don't believe a community like Gattaca is good. It discriminates those who aren't "perfect." I believe that people who work hard enough should get the job and not because of that person's genes. Gattaca makes people believe that hard work is nothing and only the way you were made defines a person. Whoever works hard enough can attain almost anything.

Blog 3: Should we be able to know our genomes?

I honestly don't think we should know our genomes. If people do, then they would say they are superior to others and this world would be a mess. I believe that whatever you get is God's decision and  if you do not like it, you can work to improve yourself. Everyone is beautiful they way they are and doesn't have to know how they are made up of, but just that they are made.

Blog 2: Genetic Counseling

Genetic counseling is a job where you look at the different genes of the parents and determine the risk of an inherited disorder. If your two people are known to have the genes of a certain disease or cancer, it is not a good idea for those to to have a baby because the baby might be born with that disease, so it is up to the counselor to find out these things. The typical salary for these counselors is $65,846 a year. In order to become a genetic counselor, you must have a take training courses in college. You need a masters degree in genetic counseling. Then you must be certified by taking a certification exam by the American Board of Genetic Counseling.

References:
http://www1.salary.com/Genetics-Counselor-Salary.html
http://www.genome.gov/10001156
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_counseling
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/53/Genetic_Counselor#Tab=Requirements

Blog 1: Definition of Reproduction

In reproduction, you need one sperm and one egg to create a baby. Depending on the genotypes, your baby will look and be different than the others. If you get to X chromosomes, you will have a girl, and if you have one X and one Y chromosome, you will get a boy. I was paired up with Melanie, and so with our different genomes our baby looked like both of us. We compared facial traits and the baby shares the dominant traits of each of the parents.