Kristen's+Journal+Page+930


 * First visit to Sandy’s beach tide pools 10/12/08**

__Free Journal Entry__ In our area there are many animal and plant life. There are hermit crabs that are black or beige in color. Some were really big and others were small and didn’t move that much. There were also some small fish that were beige with black stripes that blended into the sand, rocks, and coral really well. Sometimes it was hard to spot them. There were also a few big black crabs that were there, but we didn’t get see too much of because they were hiding under the rocks most of the time. Some algae were in our tide pool too. The algae were a strange grayish, purplish color. There also was also a lot of coral that was everywhere. The coral was off white, grey, and brown in color.

There were a couple of significant abiotic factors. One factor was the water temperature of the tide pool. I thought that the water would be cool, but it was a comfortable warm temperature. When we went, it was very sunny but there was also a nice breeze there, which created some currents in our tide pool. Because it was so sunny, and there wasn’t a lot of new water filtering the old water, it was a warm temperature. The rocks mostly covered the bottom of the tide pool. There were only a few sections of sand in the tide pool that we selected.

I think that this is a really great place to study. It is very convenient for us to get there. There are also dry rocks that we can sit on as we observe the animal and plant life of our tide pool. It is also very relaxing. We were in no rush to leave because we weren’t supper hot, or tired from the hike, or getting eaten by mosquitoes, or having to put up with a bad smell. It was just the ocean and some small life. It is also good because there are many different forms of life. When we went we got down the obvious life like in the tide pool like the fish, hermit crabs, and the bigger crabs. Then we realized that the algae and coral are also alive. They might not look alive because they aren’t moving supper fast like the crabs, fish, and hermit crabs, but they are alive. So, we have five living organisms in our tide pool.

__Assigned Journal Entry__ For my assigned journal entry I am going to write about the indirect predator –prey relationship of our tide pool. Because we didn’t see any of this really happen, we can only guess that this is what might happen. I think that the big black crabs eat the fish if they can get to them. The hermit crabs and the fish eat the algae. Then, the algae and coral eat the microorganisms that are in the water. I haven’t figured out what exactly eats the crabs, but maybe the birds do. While we were looking at the ocean, we say a couple birds flying above. Maybe when they spot the crabs the swoop down and eat them, which is why the crabs were hiding under the rocks. When we were investigated the tide pool, we also say so crab legs in the edges of the tide pool, so something must have gotten the crabs. There is not one species that has a huge amount except for maybe the hermit crabs. Every organism needs to eat something, and every organism needs to be eaten by something to continue the circle of life. That is the only way to keep everything balanced.


 * Second visit to Sandy's beach 11/2/08**

__Free Journal Entry__ For my journal entry I decided to do the fish in our tide pool. I noticed a lot of fish. Most of the fish were very small. There were a few black fish with beige stripes that were very fast. There were even a few lime green fish. They were very pretty, but I didn’t see many of them. The majority of the fish were sliver or grey. The silver fish were not as fast as the black fish. There were kind of a lot of different silver fish. Some had black dots, black stripes, and just a plain silver color. There were others that blended into the sand very well. And there was this one huge black fish that was at least 5 to 6 inches that was trying to eat the smaller fish.

Why are the black fish so much faster then the silver fish? I think that the black fish are faster because they are easier to spot for the predators like the crabs or the larger fish. The silver fish are harder to spot because they blend into the sand more. Because of natural selection, the black fish are needed to be faster to survive in the tide pool because then they will be harder to catch if they are faster. I think that the silver fish don’t have to be as fast because they blend into the sand so natural selection didn’t need to make them very fast.

In other tide pools there’s not very many fish if any but this tide pool has a lot. I think there might be around 50 fish and about 5 different species at least, why is this? I think that maybe there’s a lot of fish in this tide pool because it’s very close to the ocean. When the tide is really high, and the waves crash against the rocks the fish get deposited into the tide pool. The tide pool is surrounded by big rocks so if the fish are almost trapped inside unless the tide become so high that the fish can swim freely into the ocean. But, other than that, they can’t get to other tide pools unless they can jump out of the water. Why do some fish hide under rocks and others are out in the open? I don’t have an inference for this question. But, it looks like the big fish hides and the smaller ones stay out and swim around carelessly.

__Assigned journal entry__ Environmental pressures are driving natural selection to make the fishes become faster and slowly change different color to make them better fit their surroundings and environment. Most of the fish are silver or grey color. But, there are some black fish and a few green fish that are in the tide pools but the majority of the fish population is the silver fish. I think that over time there won’t be any green fish left because they will die off because they are to easily seen for predators like crabs. I think that the silver and grey fish are the most fit because they blend into the sand and algae the most. The top of the fish is a beige color, which really allows the fish to blend into their surroundings. It’s sometimes hard to spot them until they move. The sides of the fish are a bright silver color, which to me is very pretty. I think that the sides of the fish are due to sexual selection. It is used for attracted mates so they will be able to reproduce more because they are something that is attractive on them. I think that eventually, most of the population will be made up of silver fish.

Another environmental pressures driving natural selection to our Eco-place is the crabs. They are very hard to spot and most of the times you cant see them because they are hiding so well. Of what I did see, their shells and bodies are very black. I think that this is due to natural selection because the rocks where they hide are black and to camouflage them, their shells and bodies slowly became black also. This would help them getting eaten by birds that might spot them and also to sneak attack their prey.

I don’t think that the algae changed because they don’t have much environmental pressures. There are a lot of algae and there are two types of algae. The fish are the ones who mainly eat the algae. The beach is always hot from the direct sunlight and when there’s sunlight, algae will grow. So, every tide pool is full of algae even ones that don’t have fish in them at all they just grow and grow and there isn’t enough fish to eat all of it up.

__Free Journal Entry__ Today when we went to visit sandy’s beach it was very windy and very cold. The sun was hidden behind the clouds most of the time. The tide was extremely high. When we were sitting on the rocks, we would see huge waves coming in toward us so we had to move a couple times to avoid getting soaked. When I looked into the tide pool, I couldn’t see many organisms. I didn’t see any fish in fact. The only life like that I could see was algae. The water was much deeper and had a lot more ripples from the tide coming in. Usually the water is quite warm but today it was pretty cold. Maybe it was because it was so windy, the air-cooled the water temperature.
 * Third visit to Sandy's beach 11/23/08**

My hypothesis. 1. If the tide is high then there will be less fish visible. I think that this hypothesis is true because when the tide is high; the fish that were trapped in the tide pool have a chance to swim free and get out of the tide pool. When we went today, the tide was becoming high tide and when we looked in the tide pool there was no fish inside so I thought that most of them swam out.

2. If the tide pool is closer to the ocean, then there will be a more variety of species. I think this because the tide will push the fish from the ocean into the tide pool. Once they are in the tide pool, it’s hard to get out unless the tide is high because the rocks are blocking it from escaping. When a wave comes and pushes fish into the tide pool I think that the tide pools closer to the ocean will have more because the wave will have direct contact with those tide pools instead of the ones that are further to the shore.

3. If the tide pool has a lot of algae, then there will be more fish there. I think this because algae are the fish’s food. If there were more food to eat for the fish I would think that more fish would be there to consume the algae. I think that there is some competition for the algae because there are many different species of fish in the tide pool and there’s only a limited amount of algae so the fittest fish or group of fish will be able to get the algae.

__Assigned Journal Entry __ **Fourth Visit to Sandy's beach 12/7/08** __Free Journal Entry__ Today when we went to Sandy’s, it was again very windy. The sun was hidden behind the clouds the whole time and it looked like it was going to almost rain. The tide was also high like last time so we had to move a couple of times to avoid getting soaked. When we looked into the tide pool we couldn’t see many fish. I saw a few black fish with beige spots and lines and an eel (I think). The “eel” was a dark brown with yellowish orangeish stripes. I’m not sure if eels camouflage but it looked like this eel was trying because at first I couldn’t see it and then it moved and I saw its stripes. The second time that we visited there was so much fish but now, it seems that there’s not as many species in our tide pool. Today there was a lot more algae then before in some areas. We noticed different algae that we hadn’t seen before. It looked like dead elodea almost that was dark brown. My hypothesis is that if the tide pool is closer to the ocean, then there will be a larger diversity of fish species in that tide pool. To test this experiment, I will estimate the distance from the ocean to the tide pool (I would measure the distance but, the rocks up front look very slippery and wet and I don’t want to fall in) and then look in the tide pool and try to count how many different species of fish there are. From the experiment I can conclude that my hypothesis was right. The further the tide pool is away from the ocean, the less species of fish there are. I think this is because, when the tide pool is closer, then the waves push the fish into the tide pools that are closest because the waves can’t push fish into tide pools closer to shore because there are so many rocks. The closest tide pool to the ocean had about 3 different species of fish. One was black another was silver and the other one was silver with some green stripes on them. The tide pool that was second closest had the black fish and the eel looking fish. The furthest tide pool only had the black fish. I think the black fish is in all of the tide pools because it is very suitable for it’s tide pool because the rocks are black and they blend in easy from predators.