Aquarium Field Trip

New England Aquarium:

        During the field trip to the Boston Aquarium, we took our own initiative to learn about the marine organisms in the sea. We learned about the different locations in which the animals come from all over the world to be protected. We also learned about the other intense creatures living there in the amazon, such as the pythons and the electric eel. All the behaviors of the animals varied depending on the living space they have to live and the foods their provided with. The giant tank was filled with thousands of different marine organisms varying in all shapes and sizes. The largest one in the whole aquarium is myrtle the large green sea turtle. There are several different large organisms but she was the biggest, approximately 500 pounds in weight. I like her the best. Learning about the behavior of the penguins and the little blue penguins were interesting to learn as well. Although the cute little blues didn't do much compared to the others, it was still entertaining. Personally I think the penguins are super cute to look at, but they really don't do all that much to excite. They waddle around, squawk at each other and swim occasionally during feeding time. The little blues didn't even want to eat the fish that was put in front of them.

   Moving on to the touch tanks, the kids were all excited about it, but it wasn't too great to be around. The rays were all mostly scared because of the screaming children and the sharks were stacked up on top of each other hiding in the depth of the branches, nothing too great. Then when one of the actual rays came over to touch, it felt slimy and made me jolt away. It was kind of really gross. They were interesting to watch swim around in the artificial habitat they're living in. I couldn't really learn too much about the sharks, but the rays had a protection all around them. The little touch tank near the New England creatures was my favorite. I liked seeing the starfish and being able to touch them. I also liked the sea anemones. Those were interesting to feel and touch. The shoe crabs were too strange to touch, I ended up walking away at that point because they looked uncomfortable. This was a really great field trip and I really liked being able to focus on the behaviors of the animals.   

Population Plankton: The Plankton that used to live

Reading "Warming Oceans Will Pay Major Role in Less Phytoplankton" was the most interesting article I read out of the ones that I chose. The article was about the effects of warming the waters would do on the plankton. Unfortunately with this task, the phytoplankton would then start to falter and change the whole ecosystem. With that said, the ecosystem would struggle until it could find something that either replaces the Phytoplankton or it would somehow make the animals in danger. Phytoplankton play key roles in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in which regulates the climate controls in the world. The more phytoplankton presented and being made the more carob is being used and that could cause a huge issue in the populations of the world.With phytoplanktonic diversity, the wolds climate will be influenced negatively. 

     The story being told in 2010 was a story about phytoplankton and their populations. It explains that ever since the 1950's the population was dropped abundantly.

    In 2013 the article that was written was about the suffering of plankton in the warm ocean climates. With the warming of the ocean the plankton would be affected a great deal due to being main food source of the marine animals. Scarcity in the plankton would cause problems for fish and other species in the higher level in the food chain. Plankton are important in the oceanic carbon cycle because they remove half of the carbon in the atmosphere during photosynthesis. The carbon then falls deep into the ocean floor and ends up on the sea bed. Then is remains safely isolated from the atmosphere for centuries.  

    The biggest issue with this is the taking over of plankton and taking up too much carbon in the ocean. The warmer the water, the more plankton grows and takes up the ocean. The populations are measured by satellites in which are taken through a collection of data. With the plankton dying their taking most of the carbon and leaving it on the ocean floor. The more carbon down in the ocean floor, the worse off the marine animals are to live. I honestly believe that this is a huge problem and somehow we need to find a result in the matter before its too late and it takes a toll on the marine animals living in the ocean. 

Black, Richard. "Plankton Decline across Oceans as Waters Warm." BBC News. BBC, 28 July 2010.
Web. 12. 2014

Kirby, Alex. "Plankton Will Suffer as Oceans Warm." Climate News Network. Climate News Network, 8 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014

Relationships Among Marine Organisms

      

Marine Food Web:
         During this assignment, my animal was a Penguin. The penguin doesn't really have that many predators, but they eat different organisms to survive. The animal that is it's major predator is the seal. The organisms that the penguins consume are Squids and Anchovies. If the penguins were taken out of the Marine Ecosystem, it perhaps would not change much except more of an abundance of Anchovies and Squids to be eaten by the other organisms. The predator of the penguin also eats different organisms so it most likely would not be a huge deal in the system. The penguins are almost invisible. If the bottom of the food chain organisms were extinct then the other organisms would have a really tough time trying to survive and it would corrupt the entire system. The food chain would crumble and some of the organisms would end up becoming extinct as well. If phytoplankton was to become extinct then the other organisms would be affected majorly because they are the main source of food in the ecosystem. The whole ecosystem would change if some of the organisms were to become extinct.

Phytoplankton:
      This organism is so important to the food web because its the base food supply for most of the organisms in the ecosystem. Each organism has its source of food but most of them root back to the phytoplankton. Organisms would become extinct without it and would mess up the order of the ecosystem. More than 99 percent of the organisms in the ocean are microscopic phytoplankton floating in the upper 100 feet of water. These organisms are made up of thousands of different species in which is known as a diatom. In the neuston system there are zooplankton, meroplankton, and holoplankton.

Diatoms are minerals that depend on sunlight for energy to preform photosynthesis and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Nutrients are brought to the surface during springtime upwellings. These diatoms are seasonal in their variations in distributions and abundances. They easily adapt to life in open waters and they stay at the surfaces in order to collect all the sunlight. Diatoms aren't the only plankton in the sea. Some of them have spines and ragged edges or oil for buoyancy.
      The diatomaceous earth are soils that contain diatoms or their fossils.
      The reflection of light is caused by the silica reflections on sand.
      Diatoms are useful for reflective paint because of their glittery shells and because of their silica.
      Diatoms are useful for pool cleaning- Diatomic Earth