Jack's+Journal


 * Entry # 1**
 * October, 12 2:30pm**

To get to my area you have to drive past the main makapuu parking lot if your coming from the north and into the next parking lot about a mile to the right of the biology study dock thing. Once you park you walk past the naupaka down the hill and there is my area of three tide pools. I visited the tide-pools to the left of the main beach. In my area of observation there were three main connected tidepools that I observed in relation to eachother. There is one main tide-pool about the size of the mosaic in the middle of the quad, it is a rough oval shape. At the top there's an opening about 2 feet wide that allows water to flow in from the ocean. The second pool is about 5 to the right from the bottom right corner of the main pool. The habitat in this pool is quite different from the main pool, because it doesn't get the same amount of water flowing in. This pool is the same shape except significantly smaller, about 3/4 the size maybe. Finally about three feet above that pool and about one foot higher in elevation is a round one. This one is about half the size of the main one and it's habitat is similar to the 2nd pool. This pool had a small waterfall leading to the main pool, and fed it water whenever the waves came. There is not to much plant life in immediate area, except for in the water of the tide pools there is a lot of algae, and back a few yards from the area are a bunch of naupaka bushes. This area will be a very good place to observe because it has a variety of habitats/niches, land, and animal/plant life. There is a whole range of plants, fish, crabs, snails. All these animals interact with eachother in various ways like chasing eachother around or fish feeding off algae covered rocks. This is a very good place to observe because it has something of everything. It has human disturbances, food chains, predators and prey, competition for food, natural selection and adaptation, multiple species of crustaceans and fish and different levels of water creating different niches. That is why this area is a good place to observe because there are many different things to see, and I presume I will not see too much of the same thing each time I go, so it will provide a wide variety of things to observe.
 * __Free Journal Entry #1__**


 * __Assigned Journal Entry #1__**
 * POOL #1**

There are many interesting things that I observed in this pool. The first thing that I observed was that there was a lot of clumps of dark green algae floating around, and I wondered where it came from since there were no plants growing in the pool looked like the algae. After a while I realized that this algae was coming from the opening at the top of the pool, flowing in from the ocean. In the upper region of the pool, I noticed more larger fish than the lower area. These fish most likely fed on the algae and other things coming in from the ocean, because that is most likely why the were hanging around the opening. These fish were fairly plain, there were 2 different species that I noticed, one was a plain gray color, about the size of small flashlight, with a tail-fin and two small fins on its sides. The other type was about the same size, and had pretty much the same features except for that it was black. In the lower area of the pool I noticed a few things. First I saw a small fish about half the size of a pencil. It was very hard to spot because it blended almost //perfectly// into the sand. It had a "V" shaped tail, two small fins on each side and large gills that stuck out. It was colored/striped tan and black to blend into it's environment, and looked almost pixelated. It most like got this way to avoid a certain predator in the pool (natural selection) perhaps the bigger fish. In the bottom right corner I noticed a pretty big rock, that was spotted with large, crater-like holes. In each of these holes were a few small snails of all different types. Their niches probably required a lot less water that the fish in the pool because there was hardly any water in each of these holes. Scattered throughout the holes was a lot of broken glass, and the more broken glass there was in each hole, the less snails there were in that specific hole (human disturbances). I can hypothesize that if people continue to leave broken glass here, these snails will no longer be able to live here. On the floor of the pool I found many urchin spines, but I did not find any urchins throughout the whole pool, this could be an example of a species dying out due to their unfitness to live in that niche.


 * POOL #2**

In this pool, there were not many things to see. The bottom had little sand, and there weren't many living things in this pool. However I saw one type of fish, this fish was small and black with a wispy U shaped tail and two wispy fins, it was about the size of a small pencil. This fish moved very fast and stayed close to the rocks until a wave came. When a wave came, water would flow into the pool from the pool above (3) and the fish would come out most likely to feed on anything that the ocean brought in. There was a bit of green and orange algae growing on the bottom, but other than that the pool was pretty bear.


 * POOL #3**

This pool was higher than the rest of them, and was fed by constant waves coming in, breaking over the rocks. Again there weren't many living things in this pool, most likely due to the constant washing of the waves and the waterfall leading to pool #1. I observed this pool for a while and only saw a few pieces of algae float in now and then, only to be washed into pool #1 for the big fish to eat.

I Will Have Pictures soon...


 * Entry #2**
 * November 2nd 2:30 pm**


 * __Free Journal Entry #2__**

When I visited the tide pools this time the water level was about 30 % lower than it was on my first visit, and the upper right tide pool had been split into two from lack of water coming in. The pools were a lot stiller, and it was much easier to observe life forms this time. The lower right tide pool had a lot more garbage in it, rusty nails, wood, cement, cups, and I notice hardly any life forms in that pool, most likely due to human disturbances killing them.

For my second visit I chose to observe the fish and crustacean life in my area. Throughout the 3 main pools after an hour or so of observing I found that there were only 5 species of fish in them. Fish #1 **Goby** (a brown and black, pixelated looking fish that blends into the sand very very well), Fish #2 **O'opu alamo'o or Lizardfish** (a blackish gray fish with a long wispy tail about 2/3 of its body and small fins near its rounded head, they swim very eel like they also look like a swimming lizard), Fish #3 (just a simple ><> shaped fish, a very plain silverish gray color), Fish #4 (a very round oval shaped fish with alternating black and yellow stripes), and Fish #5 (a fish similar to fish #3 except slightly rounder and with one large black spot on the dorsal area).

I realized that there were smaller versions of Fish #1 and Fish #2 closer in to the shore and as the tide-pools got smaller, and farther out they got bigger and bigger. Also in the smaller pools there were the smaller fish most likely because the bigger fish needed more water to swim in. Also one other reason could be that there is larger food washing in from the ocean, so the larger fish stay there so they can get the food. Finally it could be because since the water level is higher farther out, there are more/larger underwater hiding places and crevices to hide in for them.

I observed several crustaceans this time. I saw C #1 some type of mollusk (a hard ceramic feeling thing that curled up kind of like a soft serve ice cream. The shell is hollow and has a strange design at the tip) C# 2 (a small crab about the size of ritz cracker, black so it was able to camoflouge into the rocks very well). C #3 (another type of crab but smaller and red, a lot found fried on rocks, in pieces eaten by birds most likely). C #4 (a small hermit crab with a black shell, some were bumpy some smooth, the eyes are a light turquoise color and the body is a black and orange tone)
 * Crustaceans**

I also saw a sea cucumber hiding under the shelf of a rock, covered in sand. It was very squishy, and I saw an empty puka shell which I collected.


 * __Assigned Journal Entry #2__**

I will be talking about the heritable variations that affect Fish #1 (camo fish), Fish #2 (lizardfish) and the C #3 (red crab)

The camo fish blended into the sand so well that it was very hard for me to spot them, and I would have to concentrate very hard to find them in the sand. This was most likely a heritable trait gained through natural selection. There was probably a predator that hunted this fish, and over a long time it adapted so it could blend it and hide from this certaing predator. I know this trait is heritable and not just a mutation because I have seen many fish like this, and larger adult fish like these, who most likely passed down those traits to some of the other smaller fish. This trait favors the camo fish because it allows the fish to hide easily without having to find rocks or cover so that it may avoid predation easier. That is on example of a trait gained through natural selection and then passed down due to heritability.

The lizardfish has a very long and flexible tail, which allows it to maneuver very well and fast. The lizardfish could have obtained this trait through natural selection, if it was preyed upon by a fast predator. I can assume this happened because after a while I kept noticing the more adult silver fish chasing the lizardfish around quite a bit. If I assume that it has always been like this, I can say that the lizardfish gained their tails through natural selection and then passed it to the offspring and so on, so they would be able to escape from the silver fish. This trait is in favor of the lizardfish because it allows them to get away and slip into hiding places away from the silver fish. That is another example of a trait gaiend through natural selection and then passed down to offspring.

The red crab had a hard red shell and white underbelly, and was about the size of a ritz cracker. I found one live crab in the pool and 2 dried up picked apart crabs on rocks. The reason that they could have been dried up like that is they did not have sufficient abilities that allowed them to navigate the rocks. For instance maybe the crabs legs were built for walking on sand not rock and when the crab was washed onto the rock, or got to the rock it could not move around, and since it was not used to the sun, it dried up and then could not protect itself from birds and other predators. This is an example of a trait that was unfavorable for the crab in this habitat because it caused the crabs demise. This is an example of a trait gained through natural selection and then causing a disadvantage to this species because of change in habitat.


 * Entry #3**
 * November 23, 11:30 am**

__**Free Journal Entry #3**__

Today the weather was very bad. It was raining non-stop for over 2 hours and the sky was very gray. When I got to my area, the waves were very big, they were coming over the rocks and a ways into the pool. The pool was very very disturbed and it was quite hard to see anything under the surface. As you can see it was lot more rough conditions then the last time. In the bottom left corner of the main pool I spotted one black lizardfish, and one brownish. They both were very calm and did not swim away when I came close. I reached down and grabbed them out of the water, and they didn't seem to resist, I made sure to dip them in and out so they would not die, but they seemed to already be dying. I took a few pictures and put them back in the water. I watched as a wave came in and inferred that maybe these fish weren't fit for such rough conditions. I went to the top right where I previously saw a lot of activity and observed. I only saw a few fish, barely peeking out from under a little rocky alcove, they seemed to be hiding, most likely because of the powerful waves. This convinced me that the lizardfish died because of this. I looked at the sandy floor farther back in the pool and saw some algae float past and some fish dart out. I kept watching and they did the same again. They waited for the wave to finish crashing, and then came out. I inferred that they would wait for the waves to bring in algae and other types of food, and then they would dart out to retrieve it. **Hypothesis #1: If the waves bring in algae and other types of food and nutrients from the ocean, then the fish come out to eat whatever the wave brought in, because I noticed them doing this repeatedly.** On the floor of the pool I saw one of the camo fish. I noticed that they were not very affected by the waves, probably because they swam close to the bottom, so they could camouflage better. I walked to the upper right pool and spotted some dark fish. A closer look showed me that they were exactly the same as the camo fish, except black. I looked around the pool and noticed that the floor was made mostly of black rocks. I inferred that the fish were black so they could camoflage into the rocks. **Hypothesis #2: If the bottom of the pool is a certain color then the camo fish in that pool will also be that color, because it needs to blend into it's surroundings to avoid predation.** And finally **Hypothesis #3: If the conditions are more rough and wavy, then there will be less fish because they cannot handle the conditions because of their size.**


 * __Assigned Journal Entry #3__**



Deceber 7, 11:30 AM**
 * Entry #4

Today the climate and weather was much different than before. The sky was very cloudy and the tide was extremely low, the lowest I've ever sen it in my visits. It was so low that the lower right tide pool was completely dried up, with no life inside. The water level was very low, leavin a lot of rocks exposed, and it was a couple feet farther back than the honeycomb rock. For some reason I saw a drastic increase in the number of camoflouged fish, when I first stepped in I saw about 5 darting around the pool. The waves were fairly small, every once in a while a big one would come and wash up over the rocks. In the top right corner in the little alcove that the fish like to hide in, I saw all the types of fish, unlike the previous visits when I only saw a few species in my pool. I saw many of the plain white fish, brownish-black fish with one yellow stripe on the ridge of it's back, the eelfish and the camoflouge fish. I also saw a few crabs to the right of the main pool on the rocks. The experiment that I chose to conduct was comparing the two types of the camoflouge fish. In my previous visit I saw that there were two types of camo fish. There was the lighter tan colored fish that blends into the sand, and there was the darker black colored fish that blends into the rocks. I decided to see why this was and conduct an experiment. I wanted to see if the reason there were two different types was because they adapted to their habitat (their own tidepool, or area in the pool). To figure out if my hypothesis that they adapted to their habitat and that is why they are that color, I decide to count the number of tan and black fish by the more rocky areas, and tan and black fish by in the more sandy areas. This way if I found a signigicantly greater amount of tan fish than black fish in the sand and a significantly greater amount of black fish by the rocks, than I could assume that they adapted to their habitat by changing color to blend in.
 * __Free Journal Entry #4__**

Number of lighter fish in the rocks: 1 **
 * Number of darker fish in the rocks: 6
 * Number of darker fish in the sand: 2**
 * Number of lighter fish in the sand: 8**




 * Assigned Journal Entry #4 **

Classification of five species:

[|Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab OR Hawaiian Reef Hermit Crab OR Left Handed Hermit Crab]

**Kingdom:** Animalia **Phylum:** Arthropod       **Class:** Crustacea       **Order:** Decapoda       **Family:** Diogenidea       **Genus:** Calcinus       **Species:** Laevimanus [|Goby] [|Darker Goby] **Kingdom:** Animalia **Phylum:** Chordata **Class:** Actinopterygii **Order:** Perciformes **Family:** Gobiidae **Genus:** Brachygobius **Species:**  __[|L]izardfish OR O'opu__  [|Black Lizardfish] **Kingdom:** Animalia **Phylum:** Chordata **Class:** Actinopterygii **Order:** Aulopiformes **Family:** Synodonitidae **Genus:** Synodus **Species:** Foetens

__[|U]nknown Fish__ __[|Unknown[[http://bio9dobson.wikispaces.com/file/view/IMG_2895.JPG| Fish 2]]]__ (I looked on the internet and through all our books and could not find this fish!)

[|Crab]