Energy Flows Through Ecosystems [ Part 2 ]

1. How does light and nutrients affect productivity in the oceans?

 - Light penetrates only into the uppermost level of the oceans. In high near coastlines and other areas where upwelling brings nutrients to surface, promoting plankton blooms.

2. What factors affect the ability of an ecosystem to support multiple trophic levels?

 - The amount of energy entering the ecosystem, energy loss between trophic levels, and the form, structure, and physiology of organism at each level.

3. Describe the process bioaccumulation, and describe the DDT example.

 - Bioaccumulation is the loss of energy between tropic levels is that contaminants collect in animal tissue.

- DDT built up in eagle and other raptors to levels high enough to affect their reproduction, causing the birds to lay thin- shelled eggs that broke in their nests.

Energy Flows Through Ecosystems

1.) a. Examples of Primary Producers are, and b. how do they get their Energy?

 - Producers: use solar energy to produce organic plant material through photosynthesis.

2.) a. the second trophic level is made up of water creatures and b. from where do they get their energy?

 - Herbivores: They eat only plants.

3.) why do predators make up the third trophic level?

 - It's because they feed at several trophic levels , like for example bears eat berries, honey, salmon, etc.

Animal Habitat Structure

1. How does eelgrass density influence abundance of species in an ecosystem?

My hypothesis: The more dense the eelgrass, the more biodiverse the ecosystem because of the more availability for shelter and food.

Animal Habits of San Diego Bay

1. San Diego Bay is home to a list.of Natural Resources. what are they

- Salt marsh tidal Flats, fish habitats.

2. What is an Invasive Species & How would they have been introduced in SD bay ?

- invasive species are Non native species introduced by fore gin ships.

3. What is an Endangered species? What is being done to protect the species.

- species on the brink of extinction green sea turtles San Diego Bay provides protected foraging habitat.

Sources:  http://goo.gl/JWWNR, http://goo.gl/UlG4r

Intro to San Diego Bay

1. San Diego Bay is..... (location, size, interesting fact)?

- Located in San Diego Country, California

- 12 miles long, 1 to 3 miles wide

- Near the US- Mexico Border

2. What types of activities occur on the Bay?

- Annual fireworks display called the Big Bay Boom is held on the Fourth of July over the waters of the Bay.

- A parade of Lights is a parade of more than 80 small boats with holiday decorations and lights on two Sundays in December.

3. How and where on the bay is salt made?

- The shallow southern end of the bay is used for evaporation ponds to extract salt from the sea water.

4. Where is the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex Located?

- Seal Beach

5. What's the purpose of the San Diego National Wildlife?

- It supports numerous endangered and threatened species of plants and animals.

Ocean Water and Climate Change

1. Which is more dense: ocean water or fresh water, and why?

 - Ocean water is more dense than fresh water because the salt in the seawater makes it denser than the fresh water.

2. How would global warming change water at the poles and the equator?

 - Global warming could affect storm formation by decreasing the temperature difference between the poles and the equator. Warmer temperatures could increase the amount of water vapor that enters the atmosphere. The equator where conditions are already hot and humid, at the poles the air is cold and dry.

Surface Water and Global Temperature

1. Thermal Inertia: San Francisco and Norfolk, Virginia are on the same latitude. Why would Norfolk, compared to San Francisco, have warmer summers and cooler winters?
 - Its because air in San Francisco has moved over the ocean, while air in Norfolk has approached over land, water doesn't warm as much as land in the summer nor cool as much as in water.

2. Describe the different ways temperature are "moderated" on earth. Without moderate temperatures, Earth could not support life as we know it. - Water takes much longer than air to heat up and also longer to cool, because it has a much higher specific heat.

Thermal Characteristics of Water

1) Are heat and temperature same or different? Why?
- Different. Temperature is a physical property that underlies the common notions of hot and cold.

2) What is the heat capacity of water?
- 1GM of water needs 1 calorie of heat to raise its temperature by 1°C.

3) How is the heat capacity of water unique?
- When molecules are heated, they move faster and get more energy. Because the O take e- from the H atoms to gain a stable octet.

4) How does water temperature affect density?
- The warmer the water, the less dense it is. The colder the water, the Morse dense it is.

Chemistry of Water

1) Describe how water molecules are bonded:

- Water molecules are bonded by a covalent chemical bond. Each hydrogen nucleus is bound to the central oxygen atom by a pair of shared electrons.

2) Describe how the positive and negative charges of water are distributed:

- The partially-positive atom on one water molecule is electro statically attracted to the partially-negative oxygen on a close molecule. This is called hydrogen bonding.

3) Describe the chemistry of water that allows an insect to walk on water:

- There is no net force on a molecule surrounded by neighboring molecules in the bulk of the liquid. However, a surface molecule experiences forces sideways and downwards. The difference between the two forces gives the liquid its surface tension.

4) What is unique about water and it's density?

- Water is less dense as a solid than a liquid. Normally, it's reversed and water has a maximum quality of 4 degrees Celsius. Ice is less dense than water.

Collecting Sediments

1. Who is the author and what is she researching?

- Alyson Santoro, and she is researching microbes in the nitrogen cycle.

2. What technique is the researcher using that is especially good at recover

- They drop a morine into the water that takes more than one sample at once, this process is called Multicoring.

3. What happens to the samples after it is loaded onto the ship?

-  They rush the cores to a special lab called a Cold Van, were it's conditioned to be the same temperature as the oceans bottom, 40F, Then they measure the oxygen concentration at different depths of the core, and then they take samples of carbon and nitrogen back home to study.

4. What's the name of the research vessel?

- Melville