Eric G's Blog

Eric Garcia, Alvaro Gonzales

4/29/10

Lab report

 

Shrub Steppe Lab Report

 

Question

Our question was to see if any type of plant helps make more Cryptogamic soil or help it grow faster.

 

We wanted to answer this question because Cryptogamic soil is a benefit to the shrub steppe in a great way and we wanted to see if any plants made more grow so it would be healthier.

 

Hypothesis

We believed that at least 1 type of plant would have more bunches of Cryptogamic soil around the base of it. We believed that one of the plants had something like nutrients that would benefit the growth of the Cryptogamic soil.

 

Procedure

Meter stick

Ruler

Journal

 

1Find a bunch grass plant

2 Record how many bunches of C.S there are (bunch meaning 1 inch circle)

3 Find a sage brush plant

4 same as 2

5 Find some cheat grass

6 Same as 2

7Repeat 1-6 twice 

 

Results

 

Cryptogamic soil count

 

Key = Bunches

Plant	Plot 1	Plot 2	Plot 3	Average
Sagebrush	3	8	6	5.6
Cheat grass	1	0	0	0.3
Bunchgrass	19	6	22	15.66

 

We found out that most of the Cryptogamic soil was found around the Bunchgrass. Also there was some of the soil found around the Sagebrush. The Cheat grass by the way had only one bunch which we thought was going to happen since it provides no nutrients to the surrounding area. Overall Bunchgrass had more soil than Sagebrush and Cheat grass combined.

 

Research

 

From our experiment we learned that more Cryptogamic soil tends to grow around the plant of bunchgrass. Some of it also grows on the Sagebrush to but barely any soil grows around the cheat grass it gives no help to the shrub steppe

 

Conclusions

 

In the end the answer to our experiment was that the plant Bunchgrass helps improve Cryptogamic soil growth.

 

We know by doing our experiment and gathering the evidence shown in the table. It clearly shows that more Cryptogamic soil is near it than sagebrush and cheat grass which are the plants with the highest population there.

 

It was exactly what we were thinking in our hypothesis because it stated that at least one plant would benefit Cryptogamic soil growth and bunchgrass in our case did just that.

 

Reflections

 

In the end we learned that Bunchgrass has something that helps improve

Cryptogamic soil growth the most. Sage helps Cryptogamic soil growth a little bit

and that Cheat grass gives no improvement to Cryptogamic soil growth

 

We are kind of confident since there were a couple of things that could of messed up the data like the size of the plants, the area of the plants, and also it was raining the day of our experiment.

 

What we would have done differently would probably be to do the experiment on day with only sun and check the same size plants that would of made the experiment much more equal.

 

Does Sagebrush or bunch grass benefit anything else in the shrub steppe?

Is there anything else that benefits Cryptogamic soil growth?

1. Why is this species important to its ecosystem?

Pro: The Orinoco croc is important to its ecosystem because it helps stop the over population of other species (like fish, birds, or other species) by eating them.

Con: The croc isn’t important to its ecosystem because it has no help to its environment in any way. It just eats anything it can.

2. What would happen to the ecosystem if it were removed/what has happened to the ecosystem due to its loss.

Pro:  Many of the species that are eaten by the crocodile will be overpopulating the habitat in which they live in.

Con: the animals that were eaten by the croc will not be devoured by that species anymore also crocs have been known to attack people so that will solve that problem.

3. What other organisms does your species affect? How will they be affected if it is removed?

Pro: Organisms that are in the same habitat as the crocodile will be affected because a lot of them are eaten by the croc so if it is gone they will have nothing to eat them and they will over populate their habitat.

Con: The organisms that are eaten by the crocodile will now have a better chance for survival if the crocodile is gone.

4. What is man’s role in causing the animal to go extinct?

Pro: It is man’s fault because of illegal hunting of these crocodiles for their hide which has almost wiped out this entire species.

Con: It might be man’s fault for the population decline of the crocs but who cares? Why do we need these things?

5. What role do national governments play in this debate?

Pro: The governments made hunting for these crocodiles illegal but, many of them are still being hunted.

Con: The government made illegal hunting for the crocs but, they are still being hunted illegally so there was no point for doing that.

6. What should be done to save your species? Should the government step in and enact specific policies to save the species? Why or why not?

Pro: Yes the Orinoco crocodiles should be saved. They are really important to their species. The government should protect these crocodiles from illegal hunting. That is the main cause of the decline in their population.

Con: No let those crocodiles die. Let hunters take them all out. They are no help to their environment. They just eat everything they can. Its better to let them go extinct

Sources:

Britton, Adam Crocodylius Intermedius (Graves, 1891), Crocodilian Species list, crocodilians, February 23,  2010,     http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/cnhc/csp_cint.htm

Orinoco Crocodile, Animals( animal information center), May 13, 2009, February 23, 2010, http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/animals1/crocodile/orinoco.html

Orinoco Crocoile, Arkive,Wild Screen, February 23 2010,http://www.arkive.org/orinoco-crocodile/crocodylus-intermedius/

 

Orinoco Crocodile

(Crocodylus Intermedius)

 

Crocodiles in the same family: American crocodile, Phillipine crocodile, Nile crocodile, Cuban crocodile

Habitat and Range: The Orinoco crocodile lives in the Orinoco river in the northern part of South America. It prefers to live in freshwater areas but, it can also withstand water with salt content in it.

Adaptations: Some adaptations it may use to survive are like when the water gets to low in its area. It shall dig a burrow so it can still be in the water. Sometimes when the water gets to low it may move to another area with water in it.

Diet: A juvenile Orinoco crocodile’s diet consists of insects, small invertabrets and small fish. Adults on the other hand will eat almost anything like large birds, fish, small mammals, and other amphibians.

Predators: Juvenile crocodiles are eaten by foxes, snakes, and hawks, the Orinoco eggs are eaten by Tengu lizards and vultures.

Population: As of 2009 there are an estimated 250-1500 Orinoco crocodiles left in the wild

Other interesting facts: The length of these crocodiles is mostly in the range of 9.9-16 ft.Males can way up to 837 pounds and females can weigh up to 440 pounds. In 1800  one crocodile was recorded to be up to 22 ft in length. The length of these crocodiles is expected to not go over 16.5 ft in length.

Sources:

Britton, Adam Crocodylius Intermedius (Graves, 1891), Crocodilian Species list, crocodilians, February 23,  2010,     http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/cnhc/csp_cint.htm

Orinoco Crocodile, Animals( animal information center), May 13, 2009, February 23, 2010, http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/animals1/crocodile/orinoco.html

Orinoco Crocoile, Arkive,Wild Screen, February 23 2010,http://www.arkive.org/orinoco-crocodile/crocodylus-intermedius/

 

Some questions i have about the 1918 flu pandemic are:

Was only the US affected by the influenza?

How many people were infected by the flu?

How many people died from this flu?

1. What did you learn about designing an experiment?

I learned that you have to have good information with controlled,manipulated.and responding variables in your experiment. Also a good lab report to show what you have learned and what problems did you have. Also what you want to know and more questions that experiment left you with about your body system.Some tables to show your results and if you want to a graph to also show your results with your data.Finally you will need some conclusions to explain everything you learned about your experiment and results.

2. How did your experiment affect the body system(s) involved? Why did it affect the system this way?

Our experiment affected the body system by increasing the range of vision and the eye muscles which is still a different system but it was affected.The experiment was supposed to affect the eye sight by the exercises increasing the range and that was what happened with our system. We did not know but the muscular system was also affected because when we would do the exercises our eye muscles would be affected in a positive way by the exercises when we did them.

3. If you could have done it differently, how would you change your experiment?

We would have changed our experiment by using an older and a younger person to do the same experiment with a different eye chart.Or just try it again but this time we use two different eye charts so we wont be able to remember the letters in the eye charts.

4. How reliable (good) was your data?

I believe that it was okay because we did have some problems with remembering where the letters were on the eye chart but most of our data was accurate.

5. What problems did you have during your experiment?

How did you address them?One problem we had was that we remembered where most of the letters were on the eye chart so we got more letters correct the second day rather than the first.
6. What new questions do you have based on the results of your experiment?

New questions we have are if eye exercises help a person in any other way other than improving one’s vision and if there are any other ways to improve your vision other than exercising your eyes.

The question Juan and I settled on was if eye excercises help with you’re vision.The system we are using is the Nervous system. This week we learned about vision and how it is affected.

We found and printed an eye chart to help us with our experiment.We also found 5 different eye excercises that we believe will help you with you’re eyesight

This year I learned about steroid uses and the human body. We used animals such as lepoard frogs,bull frogs,stoneflies.The experiments we did about steroid use and we learned that though it does make you stronger,there are a lot of consequences for using steroids. I never new that.I learned that steroid uses result in shorter testies, roid rage, woman parts in a man, extra bodyhair, and many other symptons.