April Plot Reflection

Yesterday we went to the plots. I was very excited to see all the changes that happened since we were last there. The ground of the plot was very dry and the leaf litter had gone down probably due to decomposition. As the arborist I noticed that a lot of the small trees that had disappeared during the winter still hadn't come back. The larger sapling sized white pines had only grown a little bit in width. Two of these white pines had vines twisted around them which at the top of the trees sprouted into small green leave. This vine also snaked across the ground of the plot. We also found a single odd looking purple leaf that had sprouted up from the ground with a smaller one a few inches away. The back the leaf was green with strange dark spots. What kind of leaf is this? Could the spots be a growth/fungus or are they part of the leaf its self? Another thing we found that was interesting was 4 small shallow holes at the base of one tree. Could it be a small mammal? Or possibly something used for reproduction for an insect?  Finally, the moss that we had found earlier this school year seemed to be dying. We think that this could be because of the cold snaps we have been having right after bursts of warm weather. I really hope to find out even more about the plot next month since it will be one of the last times we are going. 

January Plot

As we walked onto the plot for the first time in around 2 months we noticed that our plot was very different. Even more of the baby trees had disappeared, but the young pines had grown. Due to the fact that it was a VERY rainy day the ground was wet and there were puddles every where, the temperature of the soil to be low.The leaf litter height has grow, but the pH has stayed the same from the last time we were there.  While we were at the plot we noticed that the 2 different kinds of mosses were still thriving as well as many ferns. We also notices some foam at the base of one of our trees; could this be from the rain or maybe an insect? In one of the grown trees on our plot there was a hole in which it seemed some type of fungus was growing, but we were unable to reach it. One thing that we found that was particularly interesting was a chirping sound coming from under some leaves. We were unable to find any birds but think it might have been a hidden nest. We also found a frog that Simi caught; it was dark green/brown and was probably a result of the rain. I look forward to seeing once again how this plot has changed, but hopefully in dry weather.

Scientist Research

Andre W. Visser is a Professor of Physical Oceanography in Denmark, at the Technical University of Denmark. I chose this scientist because I have always been interested in marine biology and I had never heard of biomixing( the action  of swimming organisms in mixing the worlds oceans) and it caught my eye.

The journal I read was debating biomixing the oceans with small organism. It is contemplating if small organisms are exerting enough energy to make up for the heat they are putting off. The article also posses the question that if the small amount of mechanical energy can substantially mix the water. It tells that biomixing is controlled by "the scale at which turbulent kinetic energy is imparted to the flow", "equivalent to the rate of work done",and "a measure of the stratification of the water column" and how each of these factor into the equation. The article concludes in saying that small organism do not have great enough efficiency to sufficiently mix the oceans.

I have many questions about the article including: What made you want to research biomixing? What type of tests have you done on this? Is there a substantial difference between different small organisms? Have you tested this with larger organisms? and finally Do you think that it would be harder to get larger organisms to swim at a consistent rate?

Fred's Journey

 There is a molecule, let’s call him Fred. Fred could not be created or destroyed. Fred was a carbon molecule and was very important as a vital part in every organism’s body and can be in many states in the abiotic world.

 Well Fred one day realized that he could not move as if he was solid, suddenly he felt very hot like he was being burned then he was free. He could go anywhere he wanted now; he was part of the air, he was in Co2, a gas with two oxygen molecules. He enjoyed being able to fly around and liked being a gas.

 A plant then absorbed Fred and he is put into the Calvin Cycle of photosynthesis and came out as part of C6H12O6 as a solid with a lot of hydrogen and a bunch of oxygen. Soon after, he is transferred to Glycolysis (in Cellular Respiration) inside the plant. After going through a very strange process with a lot of moving he is put into some pyruvate. The pyruvate is transferred to the Krebs cycle as acetyl co a. He is kicked out of Krebs cycle as CO2 and leaves the plant.

Glad to be out of the plant, Fred is suddenly absorbed into the next plant over. He goes through photosynthesis again. He again teams up with the hydrogen and oxygen, but before he is transferred to cellular respiration the plant is eaten by a human. And Fred goes with it!

After entering the human’s body the plant is broken up. Fred finds himself in an odd structure though all surrounded by many other different molecules. Fred is in a cell in the palm of the human’s hand going once again through cellular respiration! He decided he would like to stay here for a while but what freed doesn’t know is that he will not be here for too long before he goes through the cycle again!

November Plot Reflection

Today we went out into the woods to go check up on our plot for the first time since we marked it. I thought that the plot was going to be the same as it was last time, and I was surprised to find out how wrong I was. The plot looked much different, the leaves on the trees had all changed or fallen off and there was much more ground cover. Many of the smaller trees seemed to have disappeared. I assume they have either died from the cold or are hidden under the excessive ground cover. The site was very damp due to the fact that it had rained for the past two days. Being the arborist I measured all of the trees again, and it seemed that some of the saplings that were still visible had grown. I noticed on the corner of our plot that there were 3 types of moss as well as many broken acorns and nuts showing that there are possibly small mammals living in a tree. In the coming months I expect to see more ground cover as trees continue to shed their leaves as well as more growth in saplings. I wonder how the saplings will react as it gets colder as well as if we will continue to see the broken acorns.

Cells-R-Us

In the giant cell that our class made there were many organelles and mine was the chloroplast. The chloroplast is only in plant cells and are the organelles that carry out photosynthesis. The real size of my cell is 2x5 um and when magnified it is 8 by 20 cm. Our giant class cell was a plant cell because it had both chloroplasts and a central vacuole, both of which are only in plant cells. The largest organelle was the central vacuole and the smallest was the ribosomes. I think that based on the size of the organelles in the giant cell that when looking under a microscope the nucleus, central vacuole, and chloroplasts would be most visible. For the most part the shape and size of the organelles did not surprise me except the ribosome which were a lot smaller and complex than I had thought. Over all I liked seeing and being in the giant cell.

Enzymes!!!!

In our experiment we tested whether tempature affected how enzymes work. Our hypothesis was that it would affect the enzymes. To do this we heated one potato in boiling water for two minutes  one in ice water for two minutes, and one we did nothing to. We then put then in test tube and poured 7 cm of hydrogen peroxide on them and waited for two minutes. After the two minutes we measured the foam. On the one that was in nothing the foam measured 3 cm  the one that was in ice water the foam was 1/2 cm, and the one that was in the boiling water did not foam at all. This showed that our hypothesis was correct. In the future we could be more exact in all of our measurements. This can be applied to real world situations in the way that your body changes tempature when you are sick and that can affect how the enzymes in your body work.