Bree Harrison, Wed. Sept. 30/09, 3/3

What we did

• Reviewed Biomes( specifically terrestrial ecosystems.)
• We marked our worksheet on Biomes handed out 2 days prior.
• Did review questions 6&7 on pg.100.
• Looked into factors affecting terrestrial ecosystems(main factors: Soil,temp.,sunlight, water available.)
• Notes on effects of seasons on lake and pond life.
• Did questions 2,3,4&7 on pg.107 due for Oct.1st

My thoughts

• I thought it was shocking that only 3% of the water on the planet is fresh water, and some of that isn't even available water(frozen in things such as glaciers.)
• When learning about the zones of water Mr.Challoner had tought us an acronym/key to help us study that i found interesting.    

                                   -Litter collect in the litterol zone.
                                   -Swim in limnetic zone.
                                   -No fun in profundal zone (because no light for plants).
                                   -Benthos=bottom layer.

•  Three new terms that I learned in class today are Stagnation which means low oxygen level and not recycling water. And the second word was epilimnion which is the upper layer of the lake. The final word was hypolimnion which is the bottom layer of water in a lake or pond.
• Another simple but interesting point that I learned today was that water doesn't evaporate as fast in cool temperatures.

Above and Beyond

 http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/01590/intro/lake.jpg
The photo attached to this link is a diagram of the water zones that we learned in Biology today.

Review on some definitions:
Littoral Zone: Edge of pond of lake where water is shallow enough to permit the growth of rooted aquatic vegetation.
Limentic Zone:
-Open water.
-Light is present in this part(photosynthesis can occur)
-Phytoplankton
-Zooplankton
Profundal Zone: Region of lake where light cannot penetrate(no photosynthesis.)
Benthos: Bottom of any body of water.

Mr. C, - Mon, Sept 14th, 3/3

What we did today:

• reviewed from last week (E pyramids, laws of t'dynamics, trophic levels), and question 3a. on p32 (E flow calculations)
• introduced concept of biogeochemical cycles (2nd part of mantra)
  
• introduced "bottle biosphere" project (pairs, due Tues Sept 22nd)
• discussed H2O cycle and worked on water T/F Qs worksheet
• dodged having to prepare for food calorimetry lab tomorrow (Mr. C forgot photocopies)

Thoughts about material:
Our discussion made me wonder about the biodome project (why didn't it work?), if there are examples of food chains with more than 5 trophic levels, and just how thick is the biosphere (other than "saran wrap on a basketball"). It's hard to believe that this small region is the only place that life exists in the universe.

Above and Beyond:
According to this site: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/biosphere the average thickness of the biosphere is about 5400m above sea level to 9000m below sea level. That's 14.4km - not very thick (you could walk that far in about an hour and a half!). Note: some organisms have been recorded outside of this range - at least temporarily e.g. Ruppels vulture found at 11,300m! (Mt Everest is 8850m) and some fish found at -8372m! (10,000psi of pressure!). Most organisms at the extremes of the biosphere are simple, single-celled bacteria.
NOTE: this section includes a website reference link, and is paraphrased in MY OWN WORDS.

The picture shows a charming baby octopus found deep in the ocean.