Chris+Len

The area we are studying has a varied species existing in the same environment. There are opae or fresh water shrimp as well as Asian prawns that live in the pool. There are many large rocks that are in and around the section of stream that we have chosen, and many in the stream are covered in algae. The bottom of the stream is covered with a mixture of small pebbles, leaves and dirt, and there are a large amount of insects that are flying around. The mosquitoes there alone are numerous and they do lay their eggs on the edge of the stream. There are many au plants that surround the environment that we have chosen, and we are lucky enough to have one in our chosen spot. Au is poisonous and should not be ingested, even though it looks vey similar to taro. Also the foliage around our chosen environment consists of some random vines, a small grove of banana trees, some California grass, and a guava tree. Inside the water there are swordtail fish, some mosquito fish and a frog. I think that this place will be a good place to study for the rest of the year because it has everything we need to study. There are several species in here that will have different ways of coexisting with each other, from predation to mutualism. Also the area around the spot is not polluted by any human factors nor is the water murky and hard to see into to. Also we can easily access our spot without having to climb or hike to it.

A predator prey relationship I saw in the pool of water was the mosquito larvae and the mosquito fish. The mosquito fish feed on the mosquito larvae in order to survive. This means that they will most likely survive as long as there are mosquitoes. The mosquitoes feed on our blood and then when they do not need any more blood they will lay their eggs in some stagnant water. When the larvae hatch they will swim around for a while, and while in this stage they are predated on by mosquito fish. The mosquito fish are not endemic to this island, which means that they were introduced to help combat the mosquito problem. This means that the mosquito fish have a narrow niche and that they specialize in their form of predation. They have evolved to prey on one food source and that food source is a stable one. The population in makiki stream is secure because there is a large population of mosquitoes, and because the mosquitoes will not die out anytime soon. The mosquito fish in makiki do not have to compete with other animals for food and so as a result are flourishing. The mosquitoes are preying on us, as well as any animal that has blood and lives in their general area. They prey on us and in turn the mosquito fish prey on them. It is a wonderful cycle. The mosquito population will remain stable only as long as animals with blood hold out. Until then the population of mosquito fish in makiki will remain stable and flourish.

Eco-place visit two

Today November 1st 2008 I visited the eco-place for a second time. During this visit I saw tht the water level has gone down somewhat but overall has risen. This is due to the fact that ther was some algae growing on a rock even though the rock was not submerged. This led me to believe that the water level went down a bit. For the most part species in our eco-place did not change nor did they die off.in our eco-place there are still small fresh water shrimp, mosquito fish, and algae covered rocks. The bottom of the pool is covered in a layer of sediment sticks and leaves. The area is surrounded by a number of misc. vines and trees, as well as job steers. The job steer is a tiny bulbous little seed that grows on a stalk. When mature it takes on a white gray coloration. Also around our eco-place is and au and papyrus. What I have noticed is that upstream there is no papyrus or jobsteers, but there is au, while all of the above plants can be found downstream. Also upstream there is hardly any sunlight due to a heavy canopy of trees. In our eco-place there are plenty of rocks tha are covered with algae. These in turn are sued by the fresh water shrimp somehow. The sediment at the bottom opf the pond is a cobination of dirt, sticks, and leaves. The sticks and leaves came fromm the trees that surround our eco-place. One of the many questions that I have are: why is the plant life found in our eco-place only found downstream? Why do the plants in our eco-place need that much sunlight? On the other aspects of our eco-place, I noticed that the mosquito fish would only swim upstream, or against the current. I also estimated the water level to have gone up while we were away, for the deepest section of our eco-place must be at least a foot deep. As for our eco-place the water level and amount of sun seem to be perfect to suppot sertain types of life. Upstream is too shallow so certain types of fish cant live up there. When I watched the fresh water shrimp they seemed to only reside or rest on a srip of algae. The fish and shrimp seemed to like the still, stagnant and slow moving water.

Our eco-place has many different types of pressures weighing on the species coexisting in the environment. There were several types of species that were living in the same area, yet prey on different things. The mosquito fish were the first species. These fish were always facing upstream when faced with a swift moving current. Those fish that cannot cope with these conditions must either be swept downstream, or swim to an area with a slower moving current. I also noticed that certain fish were different colored. The mosquito fish that were a brown to black hue were able to from above, blend in with the sediment and leaves at the bottom of the stream. The other variety of fish were more of a light tan color, and form above these fish can be easily spotted and singled out. Should they have needed to compete for a smaller population of food, we would see the white/tan ones die out fairly quickly. Another thing that I saw was that the fish came in all different sizes. This would probably mean that the juvenile fish could find mosquito larvae fairly quickly and with out competition in harder to reach areas, or that they could access that as adults. What this means is that if they were that size as juveniles they can find food in places where the adults cant go cutting down on competition. Or if these were already adults they could do that without the competition from the larger fish. This allows them to eat in both environments. Finally there are small fresh water shrimp that live inside this eco-place. These tiny little creatures are very tiny and they are kind of transparent but they also have a brownish center. This makes them hard to see against the sediment that lines the bottom of the stream, thus making them much harder to catch. However due to their size they can be preyed upon by anything that is much larger and faster then they are. These fresh water shrimp can be found on rocks covered in algae. I think that this is what they prey on so as long as there is a steady supply of algae, then the population of fresh water shrimp will not dwindle too much. This in turn means that any living creature that feeds solely on these shrimp will have an easy time finding food. This eco-place has many aspects of predatory and heritable pressures.

Eco-place visit three

During this 3rd visit there was a change in habitat. Today due to heavy rain fall the water was a sea of read and brown mud cause by erosion further up the stream. Due to they heavy mud and rain I was unable to observe any life or organisms that reside in the stream. However I was able to look at the plants that are in the water. Majority of them were flattened laying over on their sides as if some giant foot stepped on them. The water level has risen dramatically. It covered the place where we would sit and observe, so the water must have risen about several feet. That is unfortunately all I can say about the ecosystem and its inhabitants due to the change in weather and ecosystem. This change in the ecosystem is a normal change of the seasons and so happens every year when the seasons change. This means that the organisms that live in our stream are there every year. This in turn leads the notion that the organisms in the stream have developed some method of surviving the rise in water level, and the fast moving current. The shrimp probably find a nook or cranny in the rocks that they can cling onto, during one of these season changes. The fish that cannot cling due to the lack or legs and grasping appendages, must find some other way of surviving the change in habitat. Three testable hypotheses I have are: if the water is shallower then there is more algae growing there. If there is a plant down stream than that plant may have a counterpart of the same species living upstream. My third hypothesis is that if the water is warmer there will be more algae than colder water. This visit was very rewarding even though I did not see any organisms. I still learned something about the changing ecosystem we have chosen.

I have observed no community interaction due to fact that the water was more like a river of thick mud.

eco-visit 4

I have noticed that the flood washed the plant life on the sides of the stream away and that although the water was rough and choppy the Au and the papyrus are still in the water. For the most part the only difference is that a majority of the plant life was swept away. As for my experiment I wanted to know whether depth affected the growth of algae or not. What I did find however was not exactly conclusive data. I used a ruler to first measure the depth of the stream. The deepest part of the stream that I used was one foot. The shallowest was 1.5 inches deep. What I then did was measure the surface area of the algae. What I found was that in the deep side there was an area of 6 feet of algae while in the shallow side there was 3 feet. However my data is still inconclusive. This is because although depth may have proved to be a factor in this equation, the actual factor to algae growth is surface area. This is because I did not have a control area, as the rocks in our stream are extremely different. Because of that I have come to the conclusion that surface area is what affects algae growth. Where the algae can grow, it will grow.