Tai's+Journal

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 * visit 1 journal 1**

Makiki stream is an amazing, lush, green tropical-forest-like environment, and is home to many organisms. The first thing you see when you start to near the stream, is a craggly road, and then next to it, it a small gorge, filled with plants, and bugs. If you look closer, you will see many different kinds of reed, and trees. After that, you will notice the thousands of mosquitos annoyingly nipping at your legs. However, with a little bug spray, and some good friends, you can begin to enjoy the beauty of this amazing place. I noticed many different kinds of animal life flourishing there. I saw multiple kinds of plants, varying from little shrubs, to gigantic trees. With the help of my grandma, I confirmed that the huge trees that first caught my eye were mango, kukui, and ficus trees. There were whole compositions of birds singing, and groups of small mynah birds and large chickens and roosters walking down the mountain. We saw mosquitos, ants, and spiders, as well as a ladybug, and some beetles. I even thought I saw a small frog, but I cannot confirm that. Some significant abiotic factors here, are the water, rocks, and humid air. The trickling stream provides a home for fish and the calmer areas of water, give a great breeding ground for mosquitos. There are huge rocks right smack in the middle of the stream, which may prevent the water from going to fast, kind of like speed bumps and they provide a nice place to cross the river. The humid air provides moisture to help plants grow, and nourish them. Without these abiotic factors, Makiki stream would not be as we know it today. I think Makiki Stream is a great place to study for this project because it is conveniently located close to my house, it is bustling with wild life, there is an observation/ nature study headquarters there. There are even ladders that allow you to go right down to the water. It’s not that close to a lot of houses, so there isn’t a lot of traffic coming down the mountain, so it is safe to walk up. You cant really get lost, for there is only 1 road up, and 1 road down, which is good for people like me who get lost extremely easy. I am very happy doing my semester project here, and look forward to coming back again.

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There are many different organisms in the Makiki Stream area, so there for there are many different niches. Many different kinds of niches are present, and many of them aren’t noticeable the first time you go there. One of the more interesting Niches I saw, were the niches of a particular kind of bird. I don’t know what kind of bird it is, but I saw it extremely high up in one of the Northfolk pine trees. They had a small sharp beak, and were not vivantly colores. They most likely used their beak to dig under the bark, and spear insects. These were relatively small birds, so I presume that they did not prey on other birds or mammals. Also a bird, Chickens have a pretty broad niche. Chickens also have relatively small beaks, and they are sharp just like the bird I just mentioned. Chickens are not indigenous to Hawaii, and were originally from Asia. Chickens can eat seeds, insects, and even smaller animals like lizards, and mice. Chickens have to have a broad array of food that they can eat, for they don’t really have a distinct niche. Chickens can live on mountains, on the ground, and there even are a few chickens that I have seen in trees here. There was a very wide niche for the mosquitos. The humid temperatures, stray pools of water found throughout the area, provide perfect breeding areas for them. With a observation center there, there is a constant supply of people coming to the stream, and a constant supply of blood. They are also capable of feeding off of a variety of other animals, in fact, they can feed off of any warm-blooded animal, which enables them no have a pretty much unlimited food source, and without some unpredictable disease, these little guys will probably continue living on this earth for a very long time. With a very wide niche, the ant can eat many different things, and inhabit many different environments. Ants can many biotic materials, and are attracted mainly to sweet, sugary things. Ants can live in colonies underground, in trees, on top of houses, on a mountain, and pretty much everywhere. I think that the ants have the broadest niche in the whole island, thanks to their amazing reproductive, and survival abilities. Ant queens are said to be superorganisms, for they can create a whole colony, where ever she wants. This allows ants to make their own niche, pretty much anywhere.
 * visit 1 journal 2**


 * visit 2 journal 1**

My group took a while to assign roles, so we eventually just went by who ever was the first to call it, got it. I was the last one to pick, so I got abiotic features. There are some very prominent abiotic features at makiki stream. The most important of the abiotic features, is the air. Obviously, almost everything that lives at Makiki Stream depends on air, and would not be able to live if there was no air. As I mentioned in my previous essay, the air is very humid at most times, which provides ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes. If the air was colder, and drier, than there would be no mosquitos, which would start a chain reaction. With out mosquitos, there may be a higher number of birds, and other warmblooded animals. With the increase of more animals, it would completely throw off the environment. Another very significant abiotic factor, is the temperature. The temperature, is directly related to the sun, and affects organisms almost as much as the air. With the island temperature as it is, many animals are able to breed, and live in harmony. With this tropical temperature, animals do not need to spend the extra energy to grow a winter coat, or eat all of the extra food to prepare to sleep all winter. With out animals eating extra, the amount of food will stay at a more stable level. Another needed abiotic factor, is the water in the stream. Water is an essential part of almost all living organisms. As I have mentioned numerous times, the water provides a great place for mosquitos to breed, and a great place for animals to come and drink from. The water put humidity into the air, which affects plants, and insects. With out the water, a lot of animals would have to live elsewhere, which may throw off the Hawaiian ecosystem. Think of what might happen if all of the birds living in makiki stream went to go live on Maui, and started eating all of the crops. Overall, This journal entry has made me really think about how important abiotic factors are, and I am amazed.

Questions: why were the mosquitos only biting my legs?

why were the trees on the right side of the road (walking up) so much taller

why were the trees on the right side of the road (walking up) more colorful, and stronger looking?


 * visit 2 journal 2**

In the makiki stream area, there are many examples of predator and prey realtionships. The first example I noticed was the relationship between birds, and bugs. When I first walked into the makiki stream area, I noticed many mynah bird, and chickens. After observing them for a little bit, I noticed them form packs, and then hunt for bugs, and maybe other small animals. Right before I left, I noticed a rooster pecking at something on the ground. I went over and looked, and there was a big beetle he was pecking at. This was the first time I had seen a chicken eat a bug, but I googled it, and sure enough- “… chickens are known to consume insects, and small mammals”. Chickens that may have inherited a keener sense of smell or sight, might be able to sniff out or see the worms better when it is raining, or just in usual days. Chickens may need to do this, for worms have become very fit for their environment. Worms bury in the dirt, and barley come out. They don’t need to come up to breathe, and can absorb dissolved oxygen right into their blood stream. Another predator prey relationship is mosquitoes and humans. In this case, the little mosquito can be deadly, even if we are hundreds of times its size. When a mosquitos sticks its needle into you, it also injects you with its saliva. Mosquitos have developed their saliva to be able to fool the human homeostasis system into thinking nothing is wrong, making the blood not clot when it is sucked out of you, and prevents your blood vessels from constricting. These are all some of the reasons is one of the reasons that you can rarely feel when a mosquito bites you. Humans on the other hand, have barely evolved to fight these insects. Mosquitos kill millions of humans a year, so you would think that we would try to fight these parasites, no? I cannot find one source online, or in a book, saying anything about humans developing anti-mosquito traits. The last predator prey relationship I will talk about, is the predator prey relationship between bats and moths. I talked to my grandmother while we were at makiki stream, and she said that during the night, there were tons of bats in the Makiki stream area. Bats are amazing creatures, and can picture things in the dark, with sonar. We watched a video in class, about how bats, and moths cooevolved. I thought this is a perfect place to mention this. Bats developed hightened senses of smell, and hearing. Bats can locate a moth just by listening for its wingflaps. In return, the moth developed a skill to be completely still, which would throw off the bats, so they could not find them. But nature was on bats side, and the bats knew that moths cannot stay still forever. So all the bats have to do is wait until the moth moves to catch its prey. Now there may be some intra-species comepetiton going on here between the bats, for I have seen more than a few kinds of bats here on the island. Maybe there is some competition between the bats with the keenest sense of smell, and the bats with the keenest sense of hearing? I do not know, and I think that may be my experiment for my next journal entries.


 * visit 3 journal 1**

i thought that i had posted this, but apparently i didnt save it. i jsut found this out. so here it is:

When I went to Makiki stream, I saw many of the same things that I have seen in my last 2 visits. One thing that I noticed was that a lot of colder than usual, and there were no chickens. Usually I see a few groups of a rooster and a few chickens. I am assuming that they weren’t as active because of the temperature, and they were trying to conserve their energy by staying closer to their nests. I propose that if it gets colder less animals as will be seen, because many of them don’t want to spend the energy to walk all the way down the mountain to find food. Another thing that I noticed was that there was a noticeably less amount of mosquitoes, and may have been caused by dropping temperature. I saw no beetles, or other insects, which made the trip a little more pleasant. I propose that if the temperature is lower, than we will see many less insects. This probably affects the environment, by opening up new niches. Without the annoyance of mosquitoes, more people may visit, which could mean that there will be more litter in the area, which could kill more animals. I also noticed an usual increase in people there. I saw about 5 cars parked where I don’t usually see them, and I saw many people walking down and up the mountain. I propose that if there is more litter, then we will see less healthy animals. There may have been a party or even going on that day, which made me worried about litter contaminating our experiments. It would be pretty bad for when we start to do our experiments, if the data is altered because of litter left behind by people, then we would have to go back and redo the experiment, after the place is cleaned up. Pertaining to insects, I really didn’t see any at all. No beetles, mosquitoes, spiders, or even ants. I don’t know where they all go during the winter, especially since the winter here is so much milder than it is back New Jersey where I just moved from. Overall, I am interested to see what is going to happen to Makiki Stream as it gets colder, partially because I have never really been in Hawaii for the winter, only in the summer. I hope that there isn’t too great of a change, so that our data will change completely.

visit 3 journal 2

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Visit 4 journal 1 When I visited on Wednesday, Makiki Stream, the temperature was a lot warmer, and noticeably more humid. Right when my partner and I started to near the stream, be stared getting bombarded by mosquitoes. I was sorry that I did not bring my mosquito repellant. When I flipped over a huge log lying there, I found a gigantic wasp, stuck in a crevice there. The wasp must have somehow flown into the crack, and gotten stuck there. This was by far the biggest wasp I have ever seen. Its head was literally the size of my thumb, and I could not see the rest of its body. There were so many mosquitoes, at one point I saw almost a fog of them when I neared the stream. The humid temperatures must have provided a perfect breeding ground for them. The hypothesis that I tested this visit was “I propose that if the temperature is lower, we will see less insects”, and “I propose that with the increase in litter, we will see less small animals.” I tried to get an estimate of how many small insects excluding mosquitoes, were in my general area the last 2 visits. Last visit there were approximately 31 visible small insects on my last visit, and there were 87 visible small insects on my most current visit. Considering mosquitoes, I saw a huge increase in numbers in this visit, compared to my last visit. Since I cannot come close to accurately counting mosquitoes, for they are extremely small, and clear. I estimated that there were around 30 mosquitoes around on my last visit, and there were around 70 mosquitoes on this visit. The temperature on my last two visits were: 3rd visit= 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and my 4th visit= 86 degrees Fahrenheit. With the unpleasant increase in humidity, and temperature, I also saw many more small animals like chickens out. This may have been caused by the lack of people visiting the Makiki stream area. I estimate that I saw around 25 pieces of trash on my last visit, and around 10 pieces on this visit. There were also 21 visible small animals on my last visit, and 37 visible small animals on this visit. Some conclusions I can draw form my data are that: yes, there are far more insects active on warmer days, than colder days. Both of my hypotheses are correct. I have also put the data from both of my hypotheses in graph form, which really shows how the temperature can affect the environment in a multitude of ways.  visit 4 journal 2

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