Ecology
The goal of this project was to find a way to help the world by saving a species or environment, and while it wasn't necessary for us to follow through on our full plan to help the worldwide situation, it was required for us to at least make the first steps to try and help raise awareness, even if that awareness is only very small and local. While most groups decided to try and find ways to save dying species, my group decided to help the local environment by looking to Point Reyes National Seashore, and specifically, the invasive Ice Plant that has recently been destroying the balance of the ecosystem, and it then becomes our job to find ways to help get rid of the Ice Plant and bring back the previous biodiversity of Point Reyes.
Concepts
Biodiversity: a quality of an ecosystem that has a wide spread of biotic and abiotic factors
Biotic: the parts of an ecosystem that are alive, or were alive at some point
Abiotic: the parts of an ecosystem that aren't alive, and never were
Climate: the long term environmental conditions of a given area
Weather: the current environmental conditions of a given area
Autotroph: the base level of the food pyramid that produce their own energy
Heterotroph: all other levels of the food pyramid that get their energy from other organisms
Niche: the specialized job or role of a species in an environment
Relationships: the different ways that species interact, based on the benefit of that interaction to each species
Mutualism: both species benefit
Commensalism: one benefits and the other isn't affected
Parasitism/Consumption: one benefits and the other is harmed
Competition: both are negatively affected
Carrying Capacity: how much life a given area can support
Cellular Respiration: produces energy for the organism doing it by using sugar to make ATP, which is utilized as energy
Photosynthesis: uses carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make glucose, which will most commonly be then used for cellular respiration
Biotic: the parts of an ecosystem that are alive, or were alive at some point
Abiotic: the parts of an ecosystem that aren't alive, and never were
Climate: the long term environmental conditions of a given area
Weather: the current environmental conditions of a given area
Autotroph: the base level of the food pyramid that produce their own energy
Heterotroph: all other levels of the food pyramid that get their energy from other organisms
Niche: the specialized job or role of a species in an environment
Relationships: the different ways that species interact, based on the benefit of that interaction to each species
Mutualism: both species benefit
Commensalism: one benefits and the other isn't affected
Parasitism/Consumption: one benefits and the other is harmed
Competition: both are negatively affected
Carrying Capacity: how much life a given area can support
Cellular Respiration: produces energy for the organism doing it by using sugar to make ATP, which is utilized as energy
Photosynthesis: uses carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make glucose, which will most commonly be then used for cellular respiration
Presentation
Reflection
This project was very productive for our group, because we managed to get a lot done every day that we had available to work on our project. We got ahead of our own schedule, which left us sitting very comfortably with extra time to refine our presentation and practice it as well, so productivity was definitely good for us. However, our group did start having issues when trying to find sources for evidence, and since the problem that we were dealing with was a lot smaller scale and a lot more local than what was expected for the project guidelines, so finding good evidence to cite and find for evidence ended up being an issue for our group as a whole. A personal low was my leadership, which was much less prominent during this project than I've ever seen it before. However, this was largely due to the fact that our group was able to divide up our work better, which was another group positive, which, while it left much less room for individual leadership, it led to a much better project overall.