Jason's+Journal

Jason Song, 9:30 Makiki Stream, Visit 1: Free Write Makiki Stream spans from behind the Manoa water pumping station all the way down by Jack-in-the-Box. In the small valley that the stream starts in, it is full of plant life. These plants are mainly invasive species, most have been pulled out in an effort to keep the endemic species alive. The stream is in a small valley. I was able to observe the stream closer when I climbed down the ladder. Down there, the stream had a few leaves from the abundance of trees above the stream and a few organisms. The organisms I saw in the stream include, fishes, frogs, tadpoles, and crayfish. There were a few shrubs around the stream and rocks with moss on top. The rocks separates the stream and create mini waterfalls. Above the stream, on the ground there is an innumerable amount of leaves. There are birds flying around and nesting in the tree tops, mosquitos find Upper Makiki Stream a easy place to lay eggs, because of the excellent environment, and many insects living on the ground and trees. I saw some visible predator-prey relationships at the Upper Makiki Stream. Once in a while you can see mongooses above Makiki Stream. These organisms are related by predator-prey relationships, like birds catching fishes or eating insects. A picture of Upper Makiki Stream, bursting with animal and plant life.

Lower Makiki Stream didn't have many organisms living in it, nor around it. There are a small amount of trees above Lower Makiki Stream, there are many rocks in the stream but these aren't covered with moss like the ones in Upper Makiki Stream are, there are very few organisms in the stream itself, and there are some small plants living in the crevices of the rock barrier. There are birds, pigeons, living around the stream and sometimes a few are in the stream itself. A picture of Lower Makiki Stream, not much to no life around here.

I think that this a is a good place to study for my eco-place project, because I have easy access to it since both parts of the stream is close to Punahou and where I live. The upper stream has an abundance of life, both plant and animal life, there are also lots of noticeable predator-prey relationships, like the birds eating the fish and insects. I think it is also good to study why the Lower Makiki Stream doesn't have much animal or plant life while the Upper Makiki Stream is bursting with life, they're both the same stream, just in different locations.

Assigned Journal Entry Makiki Stream has many different niches, from niches in the water to ones all the way on top of the trees. There are numerous amounts of organisms to occupy these niches.

The first organism I'll talk about are the large number of mosquitos living by the stream. They fly onto other organisms and they then crawl to a favorable spot to feed on. The relationship between mosquitoes and it's prey is parasitism, because the mosquito benefits while the other organism, whether it be a mongoose or us humans suffers. The environment is very warm and they live near the stream, because they need the warm water to lay eggs in. The environment at Makiki Stream is a perfect breeding place for mosquitoes and there are numerous prey from which they get their nutrients from. There is some sunlight that come trough the trees and heats up the whole stream and the area around it, making the area around the stream almost like a marsh and the mosquitoes thrive off that.

The second organism is the frog and it's younger self, the tadpole. The frog has multiple niches it can live in. It can live in the water or some moist land right by the stream, because the frog is amphibious. The frogs eat the numerous insects and mosquitoes for food. The tadpoles have a perfect environment to live in, because they don't have many predators in the murky and warm stream water. There are particles of food that the tadpoles eat for nutrients.

The third organism is the fish that lives with the frogs, tadpoles, and crayfish in Makiki Stream's warm and murky water. The fish are really fast and you have to be quick in order to catch one. The fish hide under leaves and by rocks when birds come over and look for some fish for food. The fishes feed off smaller fish sometimes or particles of food/nutrients in the stream, that's how they can survive.

The fourth and certainly not last organism is the birds that nest in the tree tops. They survive off the fishes, crayfish, and tadpoles in the stream. They don't have any predators at Makiki Stream, there are only some competition between the species of birds at Makiki Stream. They also lived off the insects that live on the trees and on the ground. They get their water from the stream. The birds fly from tree top to tree top to avoid competition, there are also some smaller and some taller trees that provide more niches for the birds.

__Makiki Stream, Visit 2: Free Writing__ At first I wanted to do fish or plant life, but Kyle and Geoff are doing them. So I decided to focus on abiotic factors. Some abiotic factors that affect Makiki Stream are temperature of the air, temperature of the water, and the amount of rocks there are. The temperature of the air greatly affects all organisms that live and around Makiki Stream, because if, lets say, that the temperature was too cold, mosquitoes couldn't mate because they need warm enviroments to mate, birds would have to find another place to live because they can't take environments that are too cold, and the insects would quickly die off if the temperature of their environment suddenly changed from warm to something really cold. If the mosquitos were suddenly to dissapear, because of the temperature, the birds would have to rely on bugs, but then if the bugs died off because of the cold temperature too. What would the birds have to do? They would have to find a warmer climate to thrive or compete with one another for the scarce amount of fish and other aquatic animals. This brings me to the temperature of the water. if the water got colder, they would have to move lower down the stream, where it is warmer. The aquatic animals and mosquitos would have to move to warmer waters in order to survive the change in water temperature. The mosquitoes require warm water to lay eggs in and if they can't lay eggs, their entire population would die off sooner or later. The temperature of Makiki Stream has always been relatively warm, so the aquatic animals like fish, crayfish, and frogs have adapted to the warm water. If the temperature of Makiki Stream was to change to a really cold temperature, most of those animals that have adapted to the warm water would not be able to survive in the cold water, because their bodies aren't suited to the cold water. They would most likely die if the aquatic animals all move down to Lower Makiki Stream, they would not be able to survive there because of the scarcity of food and niches in Lower Makiki Stream. A lot of insects that live around Makiki Stream, live in trees and under rocks and leaves. If a flash flood was to wash the rocks into the stream, where would that majority of insects go for shelters? Would they all try and go to the avaliable shelters in the trees? If they did the trees would be over populated with insects and eventually there would be fierce competition or they might just stay out there in the cold and vulernable to diseases and predators. This would be similar to the homeless problems, the shelters become over populated and they are forced to stay out in the cold.

__Makiki Stream, Visit 2: Assigned Writing__ Organisms living in and around Makiki Stream are always being affected by Natural Selection. Whether it be plants becoming smaller or larger, bugs having wings or not having wings, and fish becoming smaller or larger. All these are a result of Natural Selection. Most of the populations around Makiki Stream are being driven into Natural Selection by predatory pressure.

A lot of cockroaches live around Makiki Stream. They live under the leaves and rocks, if you lift up one rock, many of them scurry away. Cockroaches have wings, yet most of the cockroaches rarely fly. Wings take energy and time to make and if most cockroaches don't use them, why do they grow them? Birds hunt for cockroaches under the rocks and leaves, when the cockroaches scurry away, the birds tend to catch them. Even if one cockroach flies the birds usually catches it. I believe that the cockroaches still have their wings, because before their main predator was an animal without wings and when the cockroaches grew wings, their predator could no longer catch them. They still keep them, because if they ever encounter another predator without wings they can easily escape.

Some plants are taller than others and some have have thorns. The taller plants are, the longer it takes for bugs to reach their leaves and maybe that is why some plants are taller than the others, but why don't the shorter plants grow too then? Some plants probably grew thorns to scare off predators that want to nibble at it's leaves, like birds. The birds get punctured by the thorns if they try to eat the plant, once they get poked they fly away in anguish and will probably never try to eat a plant that has thorns again. Humans don't dare to touch a plant with thorns either, because their fingers can get punctured and they might see blood and most humans don't like the sight of blood.

Animals living in Makiki Stream are also changing, some fishes are growing smaller and smaller. Last year when we visited the stream for another project, the fishes were larger, now they're about 9/10ths of the size they were last year. I think they grew smaller, because more and more birds are preying on the fishes for food. This could be benefitcial, but if all the fishes occupy the small niches there could be an over population and then lots of competition would occur and some fishes would just grow larger again to occupy the niches available for large fishes.

These are some variations affected by Natural Selection at Makiki Stream.

Makiki Stream, Visit 3: Free Write In my group, I am in charge of abiotic factors of Makiki Stream, in the stream and around it. In my visits, I have been taking observations on temperature of the stream, the air, and the amount of rocks available as niches. When I went for this visit, I noticed that the water level was higher due to recent downpours and with these higher water levels. I saw an increase in animals living in Makiki Stream. Also, the air seemed cooler and I saw less insects scurrying around than the last time I went, perhaps they don't ike cold weather that much. My first hypothesis is that if the water level is higher in some parts compared to other, then there will be more species living in the higher water level. I decided to form this hypothesis, because when I went on Sunday, after the heavy showers, the water level of the whole stream was higher and it seemed that in places where the water was higher, there were more species living in that part of the stream. My second hypothesis is that if there are more rocks in a part of Makiki Stream, then there would be more organisms living there. I thought of this hypothesis, because I saw that many of the organisms living in Makiki Stream, live around/under the rocks. So, if I find a spot with lots of rocks and a spot with little rocks, I can see how many organisms are living there to test my hypothesis. My third hypothesis is that if the current of the water is faster, then there will be less organisms living in that part of Makiki Stream. To test this hypothesis, I would either need a net or a really good eye to see how many organisms are living in the faster part of Makiki Stream and then I would go to a part of Makiki Stream that has a slower current and see if there are more or less organisms living in that part of Makiki Stream. If I decide to bring a net, I would swoop up somewhere near the shore, count how many fish, shrimps, and/or crayfish are living in the faster current and then do swoop up along the shoreline for a part of Makiki Stream that has a slower current, count the number of organisms I swooped up and compare the two. Then I will try and repeat this a couple of time if I have the time, to get better results. All three of my hypothesis can be easily tested and I will do them in the weekends to come. Makiki Stream, Visit 3: Energy Pyramid Free Journal, Visit #4 This week has been a relatively dry week, with only a few light showers in the two weeks after Visit #3, so the water level was noticeable lower when I went on Saturday. Since the water levels were lower, I saw less organisms living in the water, but I saw an increase in insects, birds, and a few more mongooses living on the dry land around the stream itself. There were still a high amount of shrimps and small fishes in the water, but I rarely saw any crayfishes on this visit. Perhaps the crayfish got washed downstream along with the high water level. In order to perform my experiment I had to find a part of the stream with lots of rocks (in a 5-10ft. area) and a part of Makiki Stream with a bit to a really small amount of rocks (also around a 5-10ft. area). I would double count the amount of rocks I saw and to get even more accurate number, I brought a friend along to count and we would average the number of rocks we counted. I would then use a net and swoop up some organisms in the water and count those. My friend would do the same and we would average the amount of organisms we got and then release them back into the water. Materials I needed for the experiment, two nets, friend (Tyler), Blackberry (to take down results), and a good pair of eyes. Procedure: 1. Find a part of Makiki Stream with lot of rocks in the water. 2. Count the number of rocks in the water, double count, then average with Tyler. 3. Record results. 4. Randomly in that part of the stream, swoop up organisms in the water with net, count 'em, double count 'em, average with Tyler. 5. Record results. 6. Find a part of Makiki Stream with a few rocks in the water. 7. Count the number of rocks in the water, double count, then average with Tyler. 8. Record results. 9. Randomly in that part of the stream, swoop up organisms in the water with net, count 'em, double count 'em, average with Tyler. 10. Record results. At the part of Makiki Stream with lots of rocks, we counted an average of 58 rocks and 15 organisms. At the part of Makiki Stream with a few rocks, we counted an average of about 18 rocks and 5 organisms. So, that means that more organisms live in a part of Makiki Stream with more rocks because there are most likely more niches available to live in. Assigned Journal, Visit #4