For this project our group had to choose an ecosystem that was experiencing negative human impact. My team chose Point Reyes National Seashore. Humans have introduced several invasive species to the area that are having detrimental effects on the ecosystem. Point Reyes is a local ecosystem so we felt even more connected to this project. We have made an informative website about the problem Point Reyes is facing. If you are interested please go to https://savepointreyes.weebly.com/.
Cellular Respiration: A process where cells take in carbon, water, and oxygen and turning it into water carbon dioxide and usable energy called ATP. Both animals and plant respirate. The rabbits at Point Reyes use cellular respiration to get energy.
Photosynthesis: The process of plants turning water and carbon dioxide into oxygen using light from the sun. The ice plant uses photosynthesis.
ATP: The molecule that is usable energy. It is a product of cellular respiration. All of the organisms in our ecosystem need ATP to survive.
Biotic Factors: Biotic factors are living things. The animals that we researched are biotic factors in the ecosystem.
Abiotic Factors: Abiotic factors are non living things. The rocks and water at Point Reyes are abiotic factors.
Trophic Levels: Categories that group animals based on where they get their energy from. Producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, ....., top consumer, and decomposer. The producers are autotrophs and the consumers are heterotrophs. The dune plants are producers, rabbit are primary consumers, and mountain lions are top consumer. All of these animals are found in Point Reyes.
10% Rule: This states that only 10% of an organism's energy is given to the organism that eats it. If a plant has 1000 energy than the rabbit will only get 100 and the mountain lion only 10.
Autotrophs and Heterotrophs: An autotroph are organism that make their own food. The ice plant is an autotroph. Heterotrophs are organisms that can't make their own food so they take energy from another organism. Butterflies are heterotrophs and they rely on getting energy from the dune plants.
Consumer, Producer, and Decomposer: Consumers eat other organisms to get energy. Based on what organisms they eat, they are primary, secondary, ....., or top consumers. Producers are plants that get energy through photosynthesis. Decomposers get energy from dead organisms by breaking down the organic matter. Rabbits are consumers and ice plants are producers.
Carbon Cycle: The movement of carbon moving around the biosphere. In the atmosphere, carbon is in the form of CO2. Through photosynthesis, it is used by plants. CO2 is released by plant and animal respiration as well as the burning of fossil fuels. Some of the carbon is stored underground in fossil fuels. 85% of carbon is actually in the oceans through ocean uptake. All living things are part of the carbon cycle. However, humans are unbalancing the carbon cycle so that more carbon is being released than is being used and stored. This is one of the many ways humans are affecting ecosystems.
Food Web and Food Chain: A food web shows how energy flows in a ecosystem using multiple organisms or each tropic level. A food chain shows the flow of energy through one organism from each trophic level. We have examples of each on our slide show that sow the relationships in Point Reyes. Carrying Capacity:
Climate: The general atmospheric conditions in a certain region in an extended period of time. There are a few general categories of climate (Polar, Temperate, and Tropic). Point Reyes is located in a Temperate climate. Organisms are adapted to survive in the climate of their habitat. Plants at Point Reyes have to survive with inconsistent rain.
Weather: The atmospheric condition in a certain place at a specific time. The weather in Point Reyes on 5/10/18 at 9:00 is 58 degrees Fahrenheit with Cirrus cloud coverage. Organisms are sometimes unprepared if the weather is unusual for the climate. If Point Reyes all of a sudden had heavy rain for 5 days straight, many of the plants would not be able to survive the flood conditions.
Density Independent and Dependent Factors: A density dependent factor occurs only when the population reaches a certain level. An example is space and food. Space is a large factor in Point Reyes since their are so many organisms trying to survive in a small area. A density independent
Biosphere: The biosphere is the Earth in its entirety. The lithosphere is the ground. The hydrosphere is the water. The atmosphere is the air. Point Reyes uses all of these parts to function.
I really enjoyed this project. It kind of reminded me of the Solve a World Problem project from last year. I enjoy knowing that I am helping a good cause. My team for this project also was really good. One team member and I worked really well together. Although, we did get very ambitious with our plans. The other two team members did not do as much work as we would have liked. It seemed like everyone was distracted and wanting to work on homework or study for an AP Euro test. The project still got done and I am extremely happy with the results. Our time management was surprisingly good and we even finished ahead of schedule with enough time to practice a few times. I hope that we can go through with the plans that we made to help Point Reyes.
This is our slide show presentation. We had a lot of animations that you can't see in this format. Some of the slides (like the first slide) will look weird because of the animations you can't see.
Below is the script for what we said during the presentation.