Nov.+24

Free Journal Entry:
This time when we went to our eco-place we decided to go at a different time of the day to see the differences in environment. We decided to go at 4:30 in the afternoon. Last time we chose our assigned roles and I chose the water or current to observe. The last time we went to take observations it was low tide and the tide pools weren’t very active. But at 4:30 in the afternoon it’s high tide and the water current is much stronger. The tide pools that are closer to shore are usually about a quarter full and the water looks as though there hasn’t been any fresh ocean added to it in a while. Right now they’re about half full and the water doesn’t look lie it has been in there all day; it looks a lot fresher. The tide pools that are closer to the crashing waves are almost completely full. And lastly the tide pools that are directly connected to the ocean actually had a current that was consistently moving. The waves outside of the tide pools were crashing over the random rocks that are the farthest points of the tide pool general area. The high tide also affects the plant life, another one of my assigned roles. With fresher water coming into the tide pools it gives the plant life or algae and seaweed in that tide pool cleaner fresher water to grow in. This can result in the plant life thriving more than before. For the rocks that form the open ocean side of the tide pools they get a brutal beating from the waves and if there is any plant life on those rocks, which there is, they can get beat up and “wounded”. While we were sitting near one of the main tide pools we saw two turtles! They both had about a foot and a half shells. They were swimming around in one of the main tide pools eating algae and catching small fish to eat. We didn’t actually see how they got into the tide pool, but my theory is that there is a possibility that they were trying to get into the tide pools and the waves, it being high tide and all, pushed them into the tide pool. They didn’t immediately try to get out because there was food for them to eat there and the waves must’ve been too strong for them to swim against to get back out into the open water. For my hypothesis I was trying to think of a way to include waves and the current into a testable hypothesis. I found this a little difficult because if I wanted to get close to the big tide pools with lots of currents and a little bit of wave action it would be too dangerous. So my three hypothesis are: 1. If the tide pool is shallower then there will be less organisms living in it, 2. If the ocean is calmer then there will be organisms living in the calmer tide pools, and 3. If the tide pool is closer to the choser then the tide pool will be hotter in temperature.

Assigned Journal Entry:
For my assigned journal entry I decided to do an energy pryamid of my eco-place.