Saturday, 9 May 2015

Producers and Consumers

Apple seeds are what creates apple, but basically no one would eat apple seeds except for animals, or sometimes we eat it, especially when we're too lazy to throw out the apple seeds from the apples we are eating, but enough about that, I'm gonna talk about the food web for an apple seed, or just basically how the food web works.

One of my producers are apple seeds. Which are eaten by a birds or a humans, but since no one eats humans I choose birds. A bird is one primary consumer of an apple seed. It eats these seeds because it's in one of their food chains, if not then worms. Birds are creatures who have wings for them to use for traveling, migrating. One of it's predators are snakes, they are creatures that eats about almost anything, even their own companions! Snakes are my secondary consumer who eats the birds who eats the apple seeds. Snakes are somehow poisonous, especially when it bites you. Snakes have a lot of enemies in the wild ares, like snakes themselves, bears, alligators, coyotes, or even birds! How the tables are turned. OK, so for my snake, i'll just choose coyotes as it's enemy. Coyotes also have great amount of tertiary consumers, but for one, I know that coyotes hates wolves. So there it goes for my first food web, from apple seeds-birds-snakes-coyotes-wolves.!
















My second producer are dead plants. Dead plants/rotten, are disgusting, they really are, I mean not the others, but the one's who reeks. Dead plants are eaten by a lot of insects, like slugs, worms, or even beetles. But for now, my primary consumer would be worms. Worms are invertebrate animals, with long slender soft bodies and no limbs, ok just typing this down gives me the shudders. But, worms are the primary consumer of dead plants, they sometimes seeps its remaining nutrients and goes off. Worm's secondary consumer would be turtles, their are some other animals or creatures that eats worms, but for now I'm writing down turtles. Turtles are sea creatures who only goes to land for giving birth, one of it's main predator would be an eagle, american eagle? Maybe, but yes an eagle. Eagles are a large bird of prey, with a massive hooked bill and long broad wings. Although most eagles are carnivorous the African Vultinure Fish-Eagle is primarily a vegetarian, feeding on rich oil palm fruits. Eagles don't really have any others predators/enemies but themselves, since they are mostly up high in the air trying to look for their prey.





So, this is my last producer, and it'll be cycads. Cycads are seeds plants typically  characterized by a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. So, for my last producer, I'm going all out! I'm going back to the age of time! Don't know if that makes sense, but yeah. Cycads are eaten by triceratops, yes a dinosaur, I think. But yeah, triceratops are large quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaur living at the end
of the Cretaceous period, having a massive head with two large horns, a smaller horn on the beaked snout, and a bony frill above the neck. While Triceratops are cycads primary consumer, T-rex is triceratops secondary consumer. It eats the triceratops. T-rex or Tyrannosaurus, is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. T-rex doesn't have any tertiary consumer, since T-Rex's are the King of the jungle before. Some other dinosaurs are the same height of the T-rex, but since it's the King, no one dares to challenge it. So that's all I guess, for my food web. Thank you for reading!



Saturday, 2 May 2015

Cellular Respiration

Overview of cellular respiration- Plants use photosynthesis to make their own food. Animals eat other organisms as food, but food is not a direct source of energy. Instead, plants, animals, and other eukaryotes break down molecules from food to produce ATP. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are not true opposites, but you can think about them in that way. The Krebs cycle produces molecules that carry energy to the second part of cellular respiration. The chemical equation of cellular respiration is also basically the reverse of photosynthesis, but the structures of chloroplasts and mitochondria are similar.



Learned- I learned that cellular and photosynthesis are not true opposites. That plants use photosynthesis to make their own food, but it is not the source of energy. As it is said, mitochondria cannot make ATP from food. First food is broken down and turned into glucose, and then glucose breaks down and splits itself into two or three molecule and makes two molecule of ATP. Three carbon molecules are broken down in a cycle of chemical reaction. It is then transferred to the second stage of cellular respiration, and then the energy of it is transferred to a chain of proteins in the inner membrane of the mitochondria. Then a large number of ATP is made.


Cellular respiration- like photosynthesis, is a very complex process, like glucose and oxygen do not react directly with one. Glycolysis is an ongoing process in all cells.. It takes place in the cytoplasm before cellular respiration, and it does not require oxygen. Although glycolysis makes four ATP molecules, recall that two ATP molecules are used to first split the glucose molecule. The electron transport chain takes place in and across the inner membrane of a mitochondrion. As with electron transport in photosynthesis, proteins make up the electron transport chain in cellular respiration.


Learned- I learned that photosynthesis is a very complex process. Cellular respiration makes more ATP molecules than glycolysis does. That the Krebs cycle’s main function is to transfer high energy electrons to molecule that carries them to the electron transport chain and also that this cycle is sometimes called the “citric acid cycle” because the citric acid is the first molecule formed. That photosynthesis stores energy as a chemical energy, while cellular respiration releases stored energy as an ATP and heat. 

Sunday, 26 April 2015

Leaves and Photosynthesis

                                                     Sampaguita/Jasminum sambac
Sampaguita or Jasminum is a sweet scented tropical flower. This flower is mainly used in Philippines and Indonesia. (They are served as National Flower)This beautiful ornamental blooms cover the glossy green leafed bushed type ever bloomer. The Sampaguita is also well known in Asia for its use in teas and religious offerings, symbolizing divine hope. This flower grows on a woody vine or semi-climbing shrub, which reaches a height of 1-2 meters. The leaves are ovate or rounded in shape and 6 to 12 cm long. The leaves and Sampaguita flowers grow on short stalks. This flower blooms either singly or as bundle of blossoms at the top of the branches. Blooming through the year, this flower is pure white, small, dainty, star-shaped blossoms. This flower opens at night and wilt in less than a day. The Sampaguita flower has about 8-10 calyx teeth that are very slender, and 5 to 8 mm long. The Sampaguita;s corolla tube is slender and 1.5 to 2 cm in diameter. The 2 stamens on the Sampaguita are included with a 2 celled ovary.They feed on the nutrients in the soil, and needs a lot of photosynthesis for their growth. The plants are both full sun and shade tolerant. For the flower blooming plants needs a lot of sunlight.



Peach trees
Peach trees are originally from China. It states that this fruit was one of the few favorites of the Chinese Emperors. From China, the "Persian Apple" was introduced to the Romans by the Persians (now Iranians) and later was introduced to Alexander the Great. A standard-sized peach tree will  grow to 25 ft tall, just as wide as it is if not pruned. A dwarf peach will grow for about 6 ft tall and wide. For the besst productivity, keep standard peaches pruned to about 15 ft tall. The flowers are produced in early spring before the leaves. they are solitary of paired; 2.5 or 3 cm diameter, pink with five petals. Peach growers strive to produce consistently good yields of high quality fruit. The peach tree's purpose in producing fruit is simply to reproduce, to develop viable seed. This section reviews the growth and reproduction of peach trees and their interaction with the environment. 

Monday, 13 April 2015

Mutations

The Ruby-Throated humming bird is one of the most widespread and common species within the eastern united states. They breed during the summer and migrate south during the winter.

A young flock migrated south to Costa Rica. Though a strange occurrence within the flock was noticed when one of the young hummingbirds couldn't suck the nectar out from multiple flowers. Strange enough the tagged humming bird had a strange beak. It was way shorter than the average Ruby-Throated Humming Bird. The beak was thin, slender, and pointed like one of a Warbler.

This was most likely another process of natural selection that had mutated the gene controlling beak shape and length. Compared to the other humming birds within the flock, it had a difficult time sucking on the nectar within the wild flowers as it's beak was not long and tubular straw like beak that other humming birds have. Yet it did have a higher affinity of picking insects off leaves, twigs, and bark.


As because of this mutation the humming bird would have found it harder to breed within the flock as this mutation would lead to more difficulties within humming birds that find nectar as it's main diet. In the end i'd conclude that this mutation having affected the young humming bird was against it. While it's migration pattern wouldn't have to change that much, it would still have a difficult time adjusting it's diet.

Monday, 23 February 2015

Species

                                          Earth Worms



Family: Lumbricidae
Genus: Lumbricus
Species: Lumbricus terrestris or Lumricus rubella


Some of this examples from other families are:

1. The rosy-tipped worm, Aporrectodea rosea, is awidespread and can be found in the topsoil in most habitats. The typical size of an adult is 5cm. 



   2.  The compost worm, Eisenia veneta, is usually found in garden compost but can also occur in wet, decaying leaf litter, organic-rich soil and manure heaps. It eats rotting vegetables.


 3. The little tree worm, Satchellius mammalis, is widespread in many habitats, from woodlands and field margins to marshy habitats and river banks, but seldom abundant. It lives in leaf litter.




I believe that earthworms were brought onto Saipan from he Europeans when Ferdinand Magellan came to Saipan looking for Spice Island, since then Europeans had been coming in and out of Saipan for supplies and people.
I honestly can't find any information about where it came from, but for all I know that Europeans are the ones that basically brought the earthworms in every places.



REFERENCES:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/897947
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/other-invertebrates/earthworm-slideshow/index.html?utm_source=youtube-earthworms-short-url&utm_medium=youtube-earthworms-short-url&utm_campaign=youtube-earthworms-short-url
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/earthworm.htm
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html


This is a green worm, has a wide distribution and is often the most numerous earthworm in all, but the most acid habitat.




The first earthworms probably arrived with soils and plants brought from Europe. Ships traveling to North America used rocks and soil as ballast which they dumped on shore as they adjusted the ballast weight of the ship. During the late 1800's and early 1900's many European settlers imported European plants that likely had earthworms or earthworm cocoons (egg cases) in their soils. More recently, the widespread use of earthworms as fishing bait has spread them to more remote areas of the state. All common bait worms are non-native species, including those sold as "night crawlers," "Canadian crawlers," "leaf worms," or "angle worms."


That is basically the whole explanation of where earthworms came from.






Friday, 13 February 2015

Site Desciption

Instagram, is a worldwide net where you can share your pictures, videos, and social networking. It's like Facebook, Flick, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Instagram was created on 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The maximum duration for instagram videos are 15 seconds. Instagram was created for a reason, selfies :). The reason why i chose this site is because it's popular and it's easy for me to access. You can find instagram basically anywhere, your friends phones, the television, internet, and even T-shirts, or the easiest way, is just open your Google Chrome and type, Instagram.com. There are a lot of things going on in Instagram. I actually don't know any since I don't have an account, but I sure do know that a lot of people uses it. There are a lot of living things that people posts in instagram, people:), birds, and plants. The non-living things that they post are houses, buildings, and cars, etc. Those are basically the top six things that people posts about, I think. Like I said, no account here, so I don't know anything about it, but if do get one, I'll sure post a lot of creatures. Birds are my favorite winged creature, because it defies their beauty in it. A non-living thing that I would post is a building, because it's pretty. Picture it, edit it, and let's see what kind of beauty relies on it, but we all surely know, that in every picture, it holds its own beauty, it doesn't really need an edit to be beautiful in our eyes.              




MEANING OF INSTAGRAM: When the sentence "do I care" no longer exists. Be yourself, post all what you want, and don't give a thing about what people say, because no matter who you are, you're beautiful in everyone's eyes.