Ecology vocab 2

1. decomposers noun break down dead matter and return nutrients to the soil  think fungi or worms
2. Estuary noun a body of water where freshwater and saltwater ecosystems merge Russian river has an estuary
3. habitat noun the place and surroundings where an organism lives think of estuary being a habitat
4. Herbivores noun an organism that only eats plants think herb being plants
5. host noun a living organism  on which parasitic lives think human with a tapeworm
6.  limiting factor noun something in an environment that keeps the population from increasing as much as it could think mosquito eaters and mosquito
7. Niche noun the habitat that supplies everything needed for a species or an organism to survive think canopy and birds
8. omnivores noun a consumer that eats plants and meats think bears eating people and berries
9. parasite noun an organism that lives in or on an another organism (host) think tapeworm the in human
10. 
    

Fossil Fuels

• formed from plants animasl
• carboniferous period
• swampy time
• started decomposing uderground
• 3 dif types 
• coal from plants hardende due to pressure and heat
• oil from mmore complex life under presure and heat
• natural gas oil with even more prssure and heat
• most dominant energy source
• can be used to make make plastic and medicine
• price and abundance depends on georaphical location
• non renewebal
• takes millions of years to form
• forces companies to extract with more saftey concersn enviromental convcerns and more cost
• leading emmetesrs of co2
• enviromental and human health issues

Water Cycle

materials
6 ml salt
hot water
ice



create sea by adding 6 ml to 500 ml hot water microwaved pour into plastic beaker put small beaker in larger beaker cover with plastic wrap to speed up process and keep heat in (greenhouse effect) ice placed on  to simulate the coldness of high-level sky

large beaker filled with salt water covered by plastic wrap with ice on top with a smaller beaker inside wieght down to the bottom by lead bbs

This models what happens to salty water releases pure water vapor when hot condenses, in this case on plastic, but in the air dust, to eventually peceipitate pure h20
problems

• great valley sinking bc draining aquifers too fast
• salton sea evaporating raise salinity killed of fish lots of dust poses a health risk and loss of place to stop for 400 bird species

New vocab

• sublimation snow to vapor in 1 step dry cold low-pressure
• transpiration water evaporating trough stomata in plant leaves

Water Cycles

Here are 2 visuals taken from a Khan academy article on the water cycle. 

Fig.1 Openstax. Only 2.5 Percent of Water on Earth Is Fresh Water, and Less than 1 Percent of Fresh Water Is Easily Accessible to Living Things. (16 May 2016). Digital Image. Rice University.

Figure 1  shows the percentages of water in different forms. For example, it shows that only .3 % of the 2.5% of earth's entire water is in lakes and rivers. Th biggest point that can be taken from it is that very little of the earth's water is fresh.

Fig.2 Openstax. This graph shows the average residence time for water molecules in the Earth’s water reservoirs.(16 May 2016). Digital Image. Rice University.

Figure 2 shows how long water stays in certain locations/froms. The biggest takeaway her is that water stays in glacies and permafrost for a very long time.

Works Cited

OpenStax. Only 2.5 Percent of Water on Earth Is Fresh Water, and Less than 1 Percent of Fresh Water Is Easily Accessible to Living Things. Digital image. CNx.org. Rice University, 16 May 2016. Web. 8 Mar. 2017.

OpenStax.Openstax. This graph shows the average residence time for water molecules in the Earth’s water reservoirs. Digital image. CNx.org. Rice University, 16 May 2016. Web. 8 Mar. 2017.

Ecology Activity

In class today we divided into groups of 12 and were given a set of instructions that allowed us to create a food web. Each member became a certain part of an environment and determined and represented the relation between these factors by connecting ourselves to each other with pieces

of color coded yarn.

The consumer held the red end of the multi-colored pieces of yarn while the factor being
 consumed held the green end to show the food web connection between the two.
For example, the bunny held the red end of a string connected to the grass to show that in our
ecosystem rabbits eat grass for energy. 

After creating our web we were left with a mess of overlapping yarn that resembled (very vaguely) a spider's web
This showed the immense complexity the food web of an ecosystem can have.

all tangled up after the fact!!!!

Afterward, we removed our identification tabs and labeled them with ecological vocab such as abiotic factor, consumer, and omnivore using only prior knowledge (and a little googling).

They ended up looking like this

ecology vocab 1

Ecology  (noun) The study of how living things inters=act with each other/environment
the professor studied ecology
Ecosystem (noun) all the living and nonliving things in an area and their interactions
With proper planning you can make an isolated ecosystem in a jar
Abiotic Factor (noun) the part of a ecosystem that is not alive and never has been
think geography the sun rocks climate
Biotic Factor (noun) alive part of ecosystem
think moss or algae or fox
Adaptation (noun) a charectoristic that helps an organism survivre in its enviroment
think horns big teeth big ears
Biome (noun) a plant and animal community that covers a large part of earthh
think ocean big
Detritivore (noun) an organism that feeds on dead organic matter
thing worms of fungus
Community (noun) a grpup of living organisms living together in a certain area
how a group of elaphants interact and are
Consumers (noun) an organisim that survives by eating producers or other consumers in its ecosystem
Koalas consume plants
Carnivore (noun) an organism that only eats other consupers
think lion or jaguar
Deforestation (noun)  clearing of trees in lare scale for lumber
lots in jungles and like amazon