Trevin's+Journal

Free Journal #1 10/11/08 Haunama Bay is a protected marine life reserve. It is located on the eastern side of the island near Hawaii Kai. I think that this place would be good to take note of for the rest of the semester because it is full of animal and plant life. There are many interactions between animals as well which is why Haunama Bay would be one of the best places to do my project. Haunama Bay has a protected reef and barely any waves which makes it a great place for marine life. It also has barely any predation since it is a marine life reserve. There is also many mountain ranges near the bay which consists of a variety of different plants and animals.

Assigned Journal 10/11/08 Today I went to Haunama Bay with Sean and I saw much marine and plant life. Near the mountainside and on the sand, I saw many animals including chickens, maina birds, pidgeons, and spotted birds with long legs(which I am unable to identiy). These bird's niches are very similar because they all scavenge for food scraps on the beach. On the beach there is plant life like coconut trees which I think matches the sunny, breezy enviroment of Haunama Bay. These trees and plants are all healthy. Near the mountainside there plants and trees which you would normally find in a forest. There are many dead trees near the mountainside because of the lack of water resources. There is almost no source of water for the trees because they are away from the ocean. Near the mountainside I found large populations of mongoose and cats which I found running in and out of the bushes and digging holes in the ground. The niches of these animals are to stay more near the mountainside in camouflage trying to hide from predators and sneak up on their prey. The mongoose's brown color is to help it camoflauge with the dirt and the mountainside. Mongoose prey on birds which is why they use the bushes to be able to sneak up to them. Even though they do prey on birds, I think that they have a really hard time getting to them because the bird's niche is to stay more near the water, probably to avoid the mongoose.

Free Journal 10/19/08 Today I went to Haunama Bay with Sean and Devin to make observations about our various roles. Some things I found about the weather today was that it was very breezy and sunny which gave off a nice and warm feeling. We went to Haunama Bay at around 3 PM. While walking across the beach I noticed many things like how the birds have different mating calls which they use to attract females. I saw a spotted bird following a female spotted bird trying to call out its mating call. Observing the plant life, I found that the healthier, greener plants lay more near the ocean where all the water is. A majority of the plants near the mountainside were either dead or unhealthy because of lack of water. I found that the mongoose and cats hang around this area where all the bushes and trees are. On the sand, there were many species of birds including finches, maina birds, pidgeons, and spotted birds. I observed most of them hanging near the sand looking for food scraps. The mountainside consists mostly of predation and competition because the mongoose and cats prey on the birds, and the birds compete over food scraps in order to survive. A question I have about today's observations is, Why are plants healthier when they are closer to the ocean, and Why do the kind of plants near the ocean differ from those near the mountainside.

Assigned Journal 10/19/08 Haunama Bay's Mountain environment consists mostly of predation because the birds are being preyed on by all the mongoose and the cats hiding in the bushes. I can see many attempts of the mongoose trying to sneak up on the birds to attack it. I can also see many examples of Symbiosis, because the vana and the different kinds of Coral work together. This is because the Reef provides a place for the sea enenemie to live in while the enenemie provides protection for the reef by harming whatever organism tries to go on it, because of it's sharp black needles that are coming out of it.

Free Journal 11/12/08 Today I went to Haunama Bay and took pictures of some of the various types of plant life there. I don't really see any change in the plant life in Haunama Bay because it stayed the same as it was when I last saw it. I still notice that there are healthier trees and plants near the ocean than there are near the mountainside. An inference I made about this is that there are less healthy plants near the mountainside because sometimes the mountain blocks the plants from getting sunlight and water. When I am standing where the plants are by the mountainside, I can barely feel any sunlight on my skin. When I am standing near the ocean, I can feel a lot of sunlight. I also notice that sometimes water doesn't reach the plants near the mountainside, because the rain water might be blocked by the mountain or the water might not reach the roots of the trees and the grass because the forest is so thick. An inference that I can make about why the plant type differs depending on which area of the bay it's in is, the plants may have adapted to the environment over time. The coconut trees may have grew taller because the ocean waves may have flooded it in the past causing it to die because of over watering. A final inference that I made is that right near the ocean where all the sand is, there are no plants. I think this is because the sand doesn't have any nutrients for a plant to grow, and the waves wash away all the plants that begin to grow by the ocean. A hypothesis that I can create from these inferences is, If plants are closer to the Oceanside, then they are healthier than the plants that are near the mountainside. Another hypothesis that I can make is, If plants are near the mountainside, then they differ from those kinds of plants near the ocean because of different adaptations over time. A final hypothesis that I can make is, If there is sand, then there are barely any plants growing there.

Assigned Journal 11/12/08 Some environmental pressures that are driving natural selection in my ecosystem is the waves that are created by the ocean. I think that this environmental pressure causes the coconut trees to grow taller in order to avoid collecting to much water and also i think that it grew taller in order to avoid being washed away. It grew a longer tree trunk because it is stronger than leaves and supports it well when water comes. Another main environmental pressure that I saw was the lack of water near the mountainside. I think that this caused the plant life near the mountains to adapt so that they don't need that much water or sunlight. I notice this because I observed that the types of plants near the mountains differ from those near the sea.

Free Journal 12/1/08 Today I went to Haunama Bay with Sean and we conducted our seperate experiments. The experiment I did had to do with the number of coconut tree's that grow between the ocean and the mountains. I decided to do this experiment because it had to do with plants and it showed the varying number of trees depending on the amount of space between the mountains and the ocean. Research Question: Are there more coconut trees on the West Side of the Beach or the East side? Hypothesis: If there are more trees, then it is probably on the West Side of the beach because the mountain ranges are farther away from the ocean and there is more sand on the West Side of the Beach Data number of trees West Side- 36 East Side-7 Between(Middle)- 16 I counted the number of trees in each area which was between the ocean and the mountain ranges. I found that more coconut trees grew where there was more area and sand because that's probably the environment that they grow in. A conclusion that I made about the number of trees on each side of the beach was that there were less trees on the East Side of the Beach than the West Side, and there were about 16 trees in the Middle. This shows that the number of coconut trees get smaller as you walk east along the beach. A reason for this is probably the fact that there was less sand on the east side of the beach than the West Side of the Beach. The East Side of the Beach seems to have more mountain ranges and more plants that grow near the mountainside than the Western Side which has mountain ranges that are far away from the ocean and more Ocean-like plants like Coconut trees. I think that less trees grow on the Western Side of the Beach than the Eastern Side because on the Eastern Side the area between the ocean and the mountains are less sandier than the Western Side. This allows more coconut trees to grow there since some mountainside plants can't grow without soil. Assigned Journal- I can see many examples of the Carbon cycle in Haunama Bay. One of the best examples of a carbon example probably is that the fish, mongoose, and birds there breathe out carbon dioxide while the coconut trees, rural plants, and aquatic plants all take in the carbon dioxide through gas exchange and photosynthesis. From there, the plants make carbohydrates for nutrients and release the remaining carbon gases in the form of oxygen to be breathed again by the animals. There is also a great amount of carbon in the sea.