Hannah's+Journal



Hannah's Journal Observations

October 13, 2008

Free Journal 1: Our group is studying Manoa Stream (21°18'53" N, 157°48'22" W, Elevation 55m) I think that the reason Manoa Stream is such an interesting place to study is because of the diversity of life. There are so many different species of plants, insects, fish, and birds that all have to work together and connect to make it an ecosystem. Manoa stream is also close to my house, which makes it easy to get to, but it's full of wildlife; it doesn't feel like you're in somebody's back yard. Another reason our group chose to study Manoa is because not only does it have a land environment, but a water environment as well.

Assigned Journal 1:

Types Of Plants Seen: Elephant Grass? Or some other type of tall grass, Mountain Naupaka, Yellow flowers? Bougainvillea, Coconut Trees, Ginger, Sleeping Grass, Jabongs? Different Species of Trees, Morning Glory? Or other creeping vine species, Taro?

The plants get their water from either the stream, or the abundant supply of rainwater. Having the plants on the edge of the stream prevents the rain from washing dirt into the stream and polluting it. The plants prevent erosion.

Types Of Animals Seen: Guppies and other small fish, Ducks and other birds, Bees, Mosquitoes, Ants, Flies, Blue Bugs?? Other Insects

The animals all have relationships between themselves. The insects eat the plants, and then the birds eat them. The bees pollinate the flowers.

Niches: The niches of the ducks and other birds are to eat the bugs and plants. The birds prevent overpopulation of the bugs, and clean up the dead leaves and twigs for use in their nests. The ducks live in and around the water on the other side of the stream where they lay their eggs in the tall grass. There are many different plants with different niches. I think that the elephant grass serves as like a 'buffer zone' or a guard for the stream. With the tall plants surrounding and protecting, larger predators have a difficult time getting through. The elephant grass is sharp for that same reason, to protect the rest of the ecosystem. All of the plants, especially the ones that grow close to the stream rely on water flowing from the mountains down. The tall grass on the other side of the stream serves as protection for the ducks. The ducks lay their eggs in this grass because it hides them and provides protection. The bees are in the area to help the flowers by spreading pollen.

October 19, 2008

Free Journal 2:

The leaves on the ground have tiny holes in them. Are the bugs eating the leaves, or is it something else, like a disease? There is a lot of this one plant with yellow flowers. Is it invasive? I've noticed that there are a lot of bugs in the area. Why are there so many? What about this very wet environment helps the bugs to survive? If there is an abundance of bugs, shouldn't there be a lot of birds here as well? The area has a lot of basketball- sized rocks around. Are they natural, or did they come from the rock wall that one of the houses have in their backyard? How many of these plants are natural? Invasive? How many of them came from backyards? Have the fact that people live by the stream impacted it at all? There aren't that many houses and the area still looks healthy. How do this many species live together without invading each others' niches?

Assigned Journal Entry 2: One of the community interactions here at the stream is parasitism. There is some kind of creeping vine that looks like Morning Glory growing on a palm tree here. The leaves of the parasitic vine are green and look healthy, it has spread out all over the tree. The palm tree, however, has brittle brown leaves that have started to fall to the ground, and it looks suffocated by the vine. This type of symbiosis is parasitism because the vine gains a place in the sun to live and nutrients from the palm tree, and the palm tree is harmed by the relationship. Another community interaction is predation. The birds in the area are eating the flies and other flying bugs.

Free Journal Entry 3: Duck Observations: Ducks and other, smaller birds are coming out of the tall grass on the other side of the stream. Since there are few trees & ducks nest on the ground, I think this is where they're nesting. Pair- the (male?) had green and blue feathers on the side of its head. The (female?) had plain brown feathers. Group of 5- Four brown and one white. Is the white one a different species or a variation of the same species? Do the white ones and the brown ones ever mate? The ducks turn upstream to eat and drink, and swim downstream. When they fly, they fly very low, about 7 feet off the ground. It doesn't look like they can go very far. The ducks hang out more in the shade than in the sun. The Naupaka doesn't have flowers anymore, it just has berries. There are dead plants underneath the tall elephant grass. Was this the competition/ just leaves or plants that didn't get enough sunlight and were suffocated by the grass. Progression of plants: Near the edge of the stream there is bamboo, then flowers and smaller plants, then large bushes like naupaka and elephant grass. This is how they are all able to maintain separate niches. At the beginning of the visit it was cloudy, almost about to rain and there were very few bees. By the end it was sunny and there were significantly more. I think this is because the bees have instincts that tell them that if they get caught in the rain, they won't be able to fly. The tree with the parasitic vine seems to be healthier, it has more green leaves. The vine is now losing leaves. Can trees fight off the vines?

Assigned Journal Entry 3:

I think that one of the things that is driving natural selection at the stream is the sheer number of plants. The entire area seems overgrown, with every available space covered with green plants. There can be so many because of bountiful water resources, (a stream and lots of rainfall) but they are competing with each other for sunlight, which is necessary for photosynthesis (and therefore life.) If a plant doesn't have the right adaptations to out- compete the other plants, it will die out.

If placed in an environment without another plant, then the Morning glory will die If an area of grass is cut off from the stream, then it will die If we filter an area of the stream so that fish cannot get through, then the ducks won't spend time there

If I take water samples from 3 different areas in the stream, one upstream, one in the middle/downstream area, and one at the bottom (as far down as we can go, anyway) than I think that the water at the bottom will have the highest DO and lowest PH. I think this because as the water flows downstream, it passes by plants, and the plants will raise the DO and lower the PH. The water is also calmer upstream, and more animals (like fish) live there, lowering the DO.

Free Journal 4:

The parasitic vine is looking healthier, while the tree is once again looking less green and leafy. A big frond has recently fallen off, it is at the bottom of the tree. There are many more ducks out when it is sunny, where do they go when it rains? The ducks hang out in areas of the stream where the current isn't as strong, presumably because it takes less energy to stay in the same place, and because it would be easier to find fish in calmer waters. The path down to the calmer part of the stream is more worn out than before, some plants have been uprooted. Possibly because of the Punahou Bio students, so many people have chosen Manoa stream as an ecosystem.

Procedure: I got five identical three- inch tall bottles, and collected water from the stream at five different points, all in direct sunlight. The first three, A1-A3, were far upstream, near where the ducks hang out, and I collected at the two stream banks and in the middle. B was collected about 100 yards downstream from the A point, in the center of the bank. C was collected about 100 yards downstream from B, also in the middle of the stream. There are lots of plants in the A1 area, less in the A2 area, and none in the A3 area. B and C had about the same amount of plants as A2, but I predicted that their DO and PH levels would be higher, because as the water flowed downstream, it would interact with more and more plants, who would raise the DO and PH.

These results show that my hypothesis was correct. Since the DO and pH levels were higher farther down the stream, I think that as the water passed by all of the plants, they raised those levels. The differences between the A levels surprised me, I thought A1 would be higher, but maybe having the most plant life attracted animals like fish and ducks, who would lower the DO and pH.

Assigned Journal Entry 4:

The Carbon Cycle at Manoa Stream

As the organisms in the stream area undergo the process of cellular respiration, they release carbon dioxide into the air. The carbon then gets taken into the plants in the form of carbon dioxide, and it gets turned into glucose when the plants, (elephant grass, mountain naupaka, palm trees, flowers...) photosynthesize. Some of the carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) gets absorbed by the stream itself.