Croix's+Journals

=Ecosystem Study= Croix Laconsay __**Free Journal Entry 1**__: Soil: The soil that doesn’t touch the water is very dry, and reddish color. The soil that does touch the water is very dark and is wet. You can see where the water goes during high tide because there is a line between the wet dark soil, and the dry red soil. From what I saw without touching the soil I couldn’t see any life inside the soil, but when we turned over a rock in the wet soil, two black crabs came out. The soil supports a lot of little plants, and ants. But during high tide, crabs live in this soil. The little fish like to live close to the waters edge. They’re usually in groups too. Water: The water her is very murky but fish still live here. We found a couple of crab traps in the water and some small crabs. In the water there are little plants near the land that don’t grow higher than a foot from the water line. The water is very shallow and calm. There isn’t a lot of life except for some insects, birds, and fish. Air: The air is really humid and hot, and everything out of the water is really dry. The trees outside the water are very dried out probably because of the hot, humid weather. There are many green plants except the plants near the water. When we were there, there was no wind at all.


 * __Assigned Journal Entry 1__**:

This time I came at a different time than my partners, at about 4:11 p.m. At this time, it was very low tide and it smelled a lot. The mud was very damp, and the water was exta shallow. If I were to walk in the water it would probably be only ankle high. Now I could really see the life at this time. The first niche I saw was the water. It was shallow so I could see the fish and crabs even better. The water was still really murky but I could see the ripples made by the fish. We still never found any big fish, but I spotted a lot of smaller guppy fish. There were pockets of water in the mud where there were some groups of fishes stuck. The mud was easier to look for life since it was very low tide. It was really damp and I looked under some rocks and I found some more crabs and ants. The third niche where some life could be would be the really green plants near the water. It’s right near the water and could hold life like insects or even provide shade for some of the fish. Last time I was there I saw some fish hanging out near the grass for shade or food. Since it was low tide, I didn’t see any life in there. I think those plants near the water are so green and healthy is because of the shade it gets from the trees above it and the water and wet soil from the body of water. The third niche where I do see some life is in the grass before you get to the body of water. I always see some birds in the grass. Even though it is dry, there are some trees they get shade from. The only predator prey relationship that I could see is the relationship between big fish and little fish. The littler fish are getting eaten by the bigger fish and the little fish get the food from the water. So this is the food chain that is going on in this body of water.
 * __Free Journal Entry 2__**:

I noticed today it was super hot and dry. This time I looked at how the trees differed throughout this environment and which ones survived better. Since it was extra dry I could see the places where the soil was still damp and healthy and where the soil was almost like dirt. As you go away from the water you get the more dry and shorter trees than the trees near the water. I also noticed that the tres near the healthy looking green plants near the water had healthier looking leaves and roots, and the branches looked more close together. The branches away from the soil and that got the most sunlight were a little taller than the other one that didn't get sun, but it had no leaves and the roots were coming out a little from the ground. I saw across the body of water the trees looked a lot more healthy. They had more leaves on them and there was more grass around them. It seemed all the bird calls were coming from the trees across the body of water. The grass on the way to the water today also had a little more life, with mongooses and birds.

__**Assigned Journal Entry 2:**__ There is competition between the birds in the trees across the pond. During the day I always see birds flying in and out of the trees. I think this might be a direct competition between the birds but there is no true evidence that there is fighting going on between the birds. They might be fighting against shelter, or a type of food that the trees contain, so it could also be indirect. There also could be some competition between the guppies and fish in the pond. The probably fight against food.. This could either be direct or indirect, but sometimes I see the fish swimming in a group and it looks like they are fighting over something because of the roughness I see between all the fish. There are always part in the water where I see ripples violently being created, and little sightings of fish. There is also a type of symbioses going between some living things, and a none living rock. We found some days (wet) insects such as cockroaches or ants and potato bugs. But we only see them in low tide because the soil is still wet so the insects hide in there for shelter, or maybe food that lies under the rock. The rock does not benefit though, because it's not living.

Today, it was low tide again and I went around four o’clock in the afternoon. It smelled really bad like manure again. It wasn’t as hot as last time but everything was still dry. I noticed some more movement in the water today. We still haven’t found any animals except for fish, crabs, birds, and mongoose. It’s more of just a water pond, than a place for turtles, or ducks to live. The water was still calm, and everything looked almost exactly the same as the last two times we came here. I wonder how it is here at night, and what kind of animals wonder around here when it’s dark. I also want to try to fish here and see what other animals live in the murky water. Some inferences about this body of water: • The water from the mountains by looking at the pipes • There aren’t many big fish, just small fish because the ripples aren’t that large, and we’ve only have seen little fish near the shore • There are many birds across the lake because of the sounds and the size of the trees • The water must be warm because it’s shallow • The smell comes from the highway above, and the soil by the water If we came at night, the I think we would see some different animals come out If we fished or crabbed here, then we would be able to analyse what kind of animals live in the ocean, and we can determine if it is fresh water or salt. If we tested the temperature for the whole day, we would find it’s hot here everyday and all day.
 * __Free Journaling 3__**:

__**Assigned Journal Entry 3:**__ Some pressures the organisms and plants must face are the heat and humidity, tides, and sometimes predator prey relationships. It is always hot at our ecosystem, and that can explain why there so many dry plants and little animals that thrive in this area. But there still could be some natural selection going on in this area. The fish and organisms like mongoose or insects may die because of they can't handle the heat. I also noticed the plants in the pond. They are tall only because of natural selection. They needed sun and water, and they couldn't live on shore because it was too dry so the ones who lived closer to the water lived, and the ones who lived on shore died off. They ended up living in the pond because of the past plants natural selection. They also are tall because the smaller ones probably died off because of getting not enough sun. Some fish probably died off if they were too small and couldn't support themselves so the toughest and strongest fishes live in the pond now. There could also be some artificial selection that goes on because of the people that fish here, and crab here. But since only a couple groups of organims live in this area, only a small amount of natural selection probably goes on here.

__**Free Journal Entry 4**__: Today was cooler than normal. There were lots of mud, and more fishes and insects around. It was still humid, but there was a lot clouds. I went during high tide, so I could compare what it was like instead of low tide. The water was calm, but the fishes were all over the place. I think fishes during cooler weather like to hang out in by the shore and during the hotter days, hang out where it is cool in the deeper part of the pond. I noticed there were more birds not in there trees and in the grass. I predict that this was so because they like the cooler weather to play in, and the hotter weather to hang in the trees. It was muddier than most days, but this was because there was no sun and heat to evaporate the water that this mud contained. So today was a different day than the other days it was cooler. The Aiea area’s temperatures we predict are usually hot, but they can go as low as mid 70s Fahrenheit, and cooler in the night. It could probably get as hot as high nineties on extremely hot days. The average we think for Aiea is 81-86 degrees Fahrenheit. If the weather and temperature in our ecosystem is higher, then there will be less visible life. If the weather and temperature in our ecosystem in lower than normal, there will be more visible life. For three I went to our ecosystem and took readings of the water and air temperature. I went at the ecosystem site and went at different times to get different temperatures during the days. After I took the readings, I counted the number of visible organisms in a period of time of 20 minutes. I looked both in the water, at the trees, and around the grass area. Data Table (Weather affects on visible life)
 * Hypothesis**:
 * Procedure**:
 * DAY || Water Temperature || Air Temperature || # Of Organisms Counted ||
 * 1 || 81°F || 85°F || 12 ||
 * 2 || 79°F || 82°F || 17 ||
 * 3 || 75°F || 79°F || 22 ||

The first day I went and it was very hot and very humid, and it was low tide. The second there were clouds, and I went in the afternoon so it wasn’t as hot as midday. It was like the other days I went; it was humid but sort of hot. The third day I went in the morning, and it was cool. There were no clouds and it was high tide and not humid. I saw a lot of life that day.

After doing this experiment, I know know that the cooler the water, and temperature affect the visible organisms. I saw how they react to the weather, and they seem to like the cooler weather. This abiotic factor has an effect on the organisms behavior in our ecosystem. Only the organisms in our organism like the cooler weather, maybe some other organisms around the island would like the hotter weather just as much.
 * Conclusion:**

There are many things in our ecosystem that have an effect on the carbon cycle. Such as, the plants, water, trees, fish and birds, insects, plant decay, and the freeway cars. The plants of course use photosynthesis and take a good amount of carbon dioxide out of the air. The trees may take in some, but it looks like they aren’t going to grow more. The insects and animals such as birds and fish respire and give off oxygen. The water takes in, and gives off, and the cars on the freeway give off, and can have a bad impact on the carbon cycle. The plants there hardly get water from rain, so it’s hard for them to live so some are dried up. Overall, I think our ecosystem represents an average ecosystem in this modern day.
 * __Assigned Journal Entry 4__**: