Jazzy's+Journal

=Jazzy's Journal=

Jazzy Kealoha Dobson 830

** __Manoa stream Post 1__ **

1) Our Eco-space is Manoa Stream and even though it is a public place, the area is unmaintained and all natural. We are looking at two different parts of Manoa stream, the main stream and the smaller stream on the side of the park. The species that inhabit the two streams are birds, ducks, fish and plants. Even though there are crayfish in the stream, and insects flying and nesting in the water, we didn’t “fish” in the stream to find crayfish or look for the eggs of insects. The significant abiotic features of this park would be the humidity, wind, rain and over cast. In Manoa it always rains and the sun rarely comes out. These are factors that will affect what plant and animal life live here. If they is too much rain they plants will be overly watered and will drown. But if there isn’t enough rain there could be a drought. Sun also affects plant growth, without sun plants cant go through photosynthesis and they wont have the nutrients to grow. I think that Manoa stream would be a good place to study because it offers many varieties of species of animals and plants; therefore we will be able to study a lot of different things. There are two different species of ducks in the larger stream and there are many more varieties of birds near the banks of both streams. I believe it is the time where baby birds are hatching or going through maturity. Because wind is an abiotic factor it will affect the baby birds will survive, if a baby bird falls out of the tree it as no way to get back into the nest. I saw two dead birds on the bank of the smaller river and this is how I have arrived at that conclusion. The fish that inhabit the stream are small and lurk in the dirt. There aren’t many fish in the smaller stream because most of them have died do to land that covers the stream now. For example, the smaller stream is now like marshland covered in knee high weeds. The plants in this area consist of some endemic flowers such as the Naupaka kuahiwi and some plants brought over from the mainland. The water in the larger stream is very brown do to erosion into the water. There is large amount of trash next to smaller stream because of the human interaction during the weekdays.

2) The niches that I saw between the species in the streams would be between the small fishes, ducks, birds, and plants. The niches of the birds involve high competition because Manoa Park houses many species of birds. But between other animals birds don’t face any predator-prey. They house in the treetops of the many spaces out trees along the riverbank of the smaller stream. Because the treetops aren’t “full” wind can easily sweep through during the night and knock the little babies out of their comfortable nests. There aren’t as many trees next to the larger stream so there aren’t many nest or birds close to stream. The types of birds that inhabit the stream area aren’t the type who basks in the stream. So I doubt they have a problem living in treetops. The duck they are the “predators” of their niche, they feed on the little fish as they swim down the river. And they normally stay in flocks in order to most sufficiently catch the fish. The ducks must have become immune to the water because they don’t show any signs of deformities therefore the bacteria and waste in the stream has become part of what they have adapted to. Because the smaller stream is separated into sections none of the ducks stayed in this area, instead the ducks where either in the large stream or in the sky. There wasn’t a large visible population of fish in either stream, the larger stream was pure brown and the smaller stream is crowded with weeds. The niches of the small fishes are controlled due to the space they are allotted. In the smaller stream, when the grass grew over the water the fishes were divided and were forced to live in smaller sections of the stream. Fishes are the prey for the ducks and the predator for algae and roots of the weeds. Compared to when I used to hang out at Manoa the fish population has gone down hill, while the spread of California grass has shot up. There were bunches of Naupaka kuahiwi near the larger stream and other endemic plants near the large stream but around the smaller stream their was only California grass and a few trees. The niches of the plants are the surroundings and species within the streams. Because of the lack of sun and extra rain plants either survive or die.

__**Manoa stream Post 2**__

1) I visited the Manoa stream for the second time on Sunday, November 2 at 2:10 pm. I chose the role of observing the abiotic factors in our group. For this second visit, I paid a closer attention to how the abiotic factors affected the environment. After observing the eco-place, I had some questions about the sunless environment. When I looked into the sky, it was gray, again, and filled with clouds. Then I looked around the river; the water was still brown, with no visible fishes on the sides. There was nothing to see except some ducks and plants. My question is why does the stream remain brown, even though it hasn’t rained. And when it does rain, is the rain causing dirt run off into the stream? Why are the fishes not visible, is it because their color they are able to hide is the brown water? How deep is the center of the stream, does this affect where the fishes and ducks swim? I would think that fishes would stay closer to the banks because that’s where all the plants and food are. And if the ducks realize they aren’t getting fish where they float why wont they locate a spot where the fish are easy to catch. Do the ducks supply the fish with food, and if so does this make this a mutualistic relationship, the ducks eat some fish, while the fish eat the ducks waste? How come in some areas where the current is low there are fish, but in other areas with the same water level, there aren’t any fish? Why are there two species of ducks in the stream, why does one have elaborate colors and why does the other not? Is the sexual selection in action or are they of two different species. Even though I didn't do much observing of birds, I wondered what their current situation was. How far developed were the baby birds, could they now fly? I assumed they were old enough now to support themselves because I saw no dead birds on the grass. Why are there so few birds in the trees? The only time that I see birds is when they are jumping around in the California grass. But I saw no nest within the trees or large amounts of birds within the tree. How are the plants within the stream area so green if there isn’t much sun, and its always raining? How much sunlight does a plant need to go through photosynthesis?

2) Ducks - Sexual selection o The colors of the male ducks would are a heritable variation because of sexual selection. Like peacocks, the male ducks are decorated with beautiful feathers on their body in a variety of colors that attract the attention of the females. Studies show that females choose the most vibrant colored males to reproduce with. Females choose the most vibrant colored ducks because it shows that the males are healthy enough to exert extra energy into making them look nice. Because of natural selection the next generation of ducks will be healthy. The females of the species are unattractive compared to the males, but that doesn’t matter because the females are the ones that make the decision of who they mate with. - Heritable Variation o The color of the ducks bottom could be a heritable variation because the darker the bottom of the duck is the harder it is for the fish to see the duck. Since the ducks with the darker bottoms would be able to camouflage in the brown water, this allows them to surprise fish. Having more food allows for more reproduction and when natural selection occurs next generations will have dark bottoms. The ducks with the darker bottoms would have a better chance surviving because they would have an easier time catching the passing fish. If there were two ducks, the one with a brightly colored bottom wouldn’t have an easy time hiding from fish apposed to a duck with the dark bottom that is easily hidden in the brown water. The duck with the big claws would be more fit because it would have an easier time hunting for the small fish. Fish - Heritable variation o The color of the fishes and speed of the fish is a heritable variation due to the ducks the stream. Since the ducks float on top of the water they are able to see everything under them, and if the color of the fish is brown with speckles of black, and fishes with maximum speed would be best fit to live in the environment. Being a dull colored fish and fast would help the fish escape from ducks floating on the surface. Because if there were bright colored fish it would be easier for the ducks to spot and if you were a slow fish it would be easier to be caught. Therefore the faster and dull colored fish would survive. And when they reproduce there would be more fast and dull colored fish in the next generation because of Natural Selection.

__**Manoa stream Post 3**__

Today when I visited Manoa Stream it was POURING rain. Emphasis on pouring, Manoa’s scenery never seems to change because on the last visit I remember saying, “When I looked into the sky, it was gray, again, and filled with clouds. Then I looked around the river; the water was still brown, with no visible fishes on the sides. Nothing to see except some ducks and plants.” The only difference between that observation and today’s observations would be that it was finally raining instead of only having a cloudy overcast. The stream was flowing at a heavy fast pace and looked darker than usual. The grass was so wet that it was difficult and nasty to walk around in. I couldn’t get a close look into the stream to see where the fishes where because it was raining so hard and I was afraid the dirt bank with crumble beneath me and send me into the leptospirosis stream. But I assumed that they weren’t affected and if they were they would’ve only drifted down the stream a little. I also knew that the water level rose drastically because all the rocks that normally outline the stream just before the dirt were covered in the dark brown water. I didn’t see many birds, and I didn’t really bother trying to look for them, that’s how badly it was raining. There was a bunch of debris floating around in the river from the storm and the stream was free from ducks. Because of my observations in the past three visits I think my three testable hypotheses should be; if the water level in the stream is higher then the amount of animal life in the stream would be abundant. This would be an easy hypothesis to test because I would only need a ruler to check the water level and my eyes to count the animals, maybe I could be more specific and break up the animal kingdom. Hypothesis two would be, if the temperature of the air were cool then the temperature inside the stream will be warmer. That hypothesis would also be easy to test because I wouldn’t need two thermometers that would tell me the temperature of both the air and the water. For my last hypothesis I chose to ask if the speed of the stream where flowing at a constant fast paced speed then the water would be murkier. This would be a hard hypothesis to test because I have no idea what tool could be used to find the speed of the stream flow, but to test the murkiness I could gather samples of the water to see the turbidity.



__**Manoa stream Post 4**__ Honestly, I don’t think much has changed about the environment since the very first visit. Even though the third visit caused some drastic things at the time, all the damage was fixed. Manoa stream was normal, meaning nothing was out of the ordinary. The stream was steady flowing and was a dark brown color. Ducks still inhabited the stream and because there wasn’t much rain since the last storm the banks where safe to walk on and I saw the little fishes clinging to the algae. If the temperature of the air is cool then the temperature of the water will be warmer.  -  Two thermometers  -  Computer to record data  -  Three day time span 1.  Check the temperature of the air 2.  Record your collected data 3.  Check the temperature of the stream 4.  Record the collected data and take observations 5.  Repeat steps 1-4 for two more days 6.  Compare the data 7.  Make final inferences 8.  Go home to look and make sense of your data 9.  Make data table 10.   Draw conclusions based on the results
 * __Hypothesis__**
 * __Material__**
 * __Procedure__**
 * || Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 ||
 * Air (degrees C) || 81 || 80 || 76 ||
 * Water, Stream (degrees C) || 79 || 79 || 71 ||

**__Temperature Data Table__** From this data, I’ve concluded that the air’s temperature doesn’t affect the warmth of water. Instead, I’ve concluded that the air’s temperature depending on how drastic the change, affects how cool the water is. According to the graph the unless there isn’t a drastic change to the air temperature, the water temperature wont change. The outlier in this experiment it definitely on day 3. I believe this could’ve happened because it was in the morning when I took this day’s data; therefore causing the variable of the sun. If I were to do this experiment again I would have made sure on the third day I went to the stream at the same time as the other two days. I liked this experiment because I wanted to know if my hypothesis was a true statement, and I found out that its not.
 * __Conclusion__**

CARBON CYLE