scrAPES # 15 - "There are sharks living in a volcano, and this is not a drill"

In the article, "There are sharks living in a volcano, and this is not a drill" by Amelia Urry, it talks about an underwater volcano and the species inside it. 60 feet underwater, off the coast of the Solomon Islands, there lies a volcano under the sea. The volcano is named Kavachi. Kavachi is notoriously known for erupting frequently, which worries the group of scientist who want to explore the volcano with an underwater camera. Not only is the volcano frequently erupting, the water is very hot and acidic. Luckily, on this day the volcano was dormant and it was a perfect day to run the experiment. They go to Kavachi, and drop the camera inside the crater. After an hour, the group of scientist come back to grab the camera and see what the camera picked up. The camera picked up small fishes, sting rays, and the most surprising, full grown sharks!

The reason why this article got my attention is because of the title. Not everyday you read there are sharks in a volcano, which can get anyone interested. Not only is it intriguing but it is just really cool. Reading about sharks is interesting to me enough, but now there in a volcano. My imagination went wild when I read the title.

This relates to environmental science because of the specific area that these sharks are in. By studying these animals more extensively we can unlock more mysteries on Earth. Also, by knowing how these animals can live in these conditions, we can use this new information and potentially learn how to put it in our very own lives.

Hw - Aquarium " Save an Animal"

During the aquarium there was a section that showed me these animals that were in need of our help. The giant manta ray caught my eye because they looked the most interesting to me. The giant manta ray is very vulnerable to extinction due to the high demand of manta ray gill rakers.  They use those gill rakers to feed by straining  out the food from the water using sponge-like tissue.  The way these large fish reproduce is between two individuals, a male and a female, by the male putting sperm inside the females cloaca. Even though manta rays are fish, meaning they are born in eggs, the manta rays have the eggs held in them and the babies will hatch there, being born alive.

There have been many programs to help the endangered manta rays, such as (CITES) Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species, (CMS) Convention of Migratory Species, and much more. These groups specifically want the killing of the rays for there gill rakers. They are trying to officially stop the trade legally. What I can do to help is to stay informed about what is happening to the manta rays and spreading the word about these animals being endangered. I am not surprised this is happening to these animals because some humans just do not care. These people conducting these hunts to find and kill these animals just care about the money and not about the actual animal.

Cw - Aquarium "Reflection"

In the aquarium there were a lot of different fishes and marine animals. My favorite part of the trip was witnessing the rock hopper penguin being fed. They have a very distinct look to them. They have sharp yellow and black feathers that adorn its head. These penguins, unlike the rest of the other penguins, hop rather than waddle. These penguins are among the smallest penguins in the world, they stand about 20 inches tall. They have a very distinct look towards them, having red-eyes, a red-orange beak, and pink webbed feet.

Also, one of my favorite parts of the trip was going all the way to the top of the fish tank. There was a presentation talking about the fish tank. The speaker told us a lot about the fish tank. For example, at the time the tank was created it was the biggest in the world. Of course now, it is not the largest but it still is one the biggest. There are about 200,000 gallons of salt water inside the tank. They have over 1,000 species inside the tank. They also have 2 turtles!

All in all this trip to the aquarium was fun and I learned a lot. There was also the touch tank. That was really fun. I got to touch all the different sharks, sting rays, and all the other species of animals. I would love to go back and maybe just stay even longer and explore more of the aquarium.

scrAPES #13 "Milkweed Effort Already Impacting the Monarch Butterfly Population"

In this article, Milkweed Effort Already Impacting the Monarch Butterfly Population by Dawn Papple it talks about how the monarch butterfly have been close to extinction and how certain changes have rebounded there population. Since 1999,  99% of milkweed in corn and soybean fields have been eliminated due to herbicides. This put monarch butterfly population at only one-tenth of its population.  But now, for the milkweed-fostering efforts the population for the monarch butterfly will be estimated to be about 3 times larger than last years population.

What caught my eyes about this article, was the picture. I was looking around and saw this weird thing on a leaf with pretty colors. This intrigued me to know what this mysterious creature was, so I had to read the article. I am pretty happy I did click on this because these butterflies are not just cool looking, but they are very helpful in the environment.

These butterflies are helpful to the environment because they help pollinate. Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from one flower to another. Pollination is very important because not only does it create more plants, but it can grow the fruits we eat.  That is why by almost killing off these pollinators you are essentially hurting not only the environment but also yourselves and everybody around you.

scrAPES #9 "Earth Has Entered First 'Mass Extinction' Since Dinosaurs, Study Warns"

Earth has Entered First 'Mass Extinction Since Dinosaurs, Study Warns by Lydia O'Connor was posted on 6/22/2015. The article is about how the Earth is having its 6th mass extinction phase. Vertebrate animals which includes mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and fish are disappearing. They are disappearing 114 times faster than normal. Scientists say the number of animals going extinct would usually take around 800 - 10,000 years. The scientists say that us humans have a major role in this mass extinction. Our global society is one of the main reason this extinction is happening. Habitat loss, over-exploitation for economic gain, and climate change are one of the main reasons the Earth is going through this mass extinction. These extinctions can very much harm the biodiversity like crop pollination and water purification could disappear in less than 3 life-times, putting the human species in danger.

This article caught my eye because this is a very important topic. This is important to me because being an animal lover hearing about this gets interested about whats happening to the animals and what I can learn to help stop or slow down. Humans are the main reason why there are so many animals going extinct. If we wanted to slow down the rate of the animals going extinct, we would have to start conserving the already threatened animals and ease the pressures on their population.

The environmental science aspect of this article is the animal extinction. The animal extinction plays a huge role on our earth because not only are we killing off beautiful animals, were also killing ourselves, the human species. The more we destroy habitats and pollute the air, we are slowly killing ourselves and other species.

In class today we talked about the population. There are many things that happen to the population. I learned that currently there are almost 7.2 billion people in the world living. In fact that there are so many people living that the world may not be able to support them. Also in the beginning before there were 7 billion people there were almost nobody living. There was a steady pace of when someone dying, there would another being born. But after a while, there were economic advances and the population grew. On the website it said I was 5,989,114,224th person to be born.

Having this many people on Earth kind of scares me. The Earth does not have many resources to hold 7 billion people. There will a point in time where there will be no resources left to keep human existence going. Right now there are already resources we have that are running low; for example fossil fuel, they suspect that we will run out in 2052.

scrAPES #8 "Greenland’s undercut glaciers melting faster than thought"

Greenland's Undercut Glaciers Melting Faster than Thought was published on July 21, 2015 by Alan Buis and Janet Wilson. This article is about Greenland's glaciers melting. Greenland's glaciers are getting below sea level causing ocean water that undercuts the glaciers. This can cause sea levels to rise all around the world and can cause a serious problem. A team of scientist found many glaciers eroding under the surface that could any second melt and collapse.

What caught my eye about this article is the title sounded interesting to me.  Glaciers melting is a serious problem because it can make the sea levels higher, which can cause serious flooding. That is a big problem that will not be good for anyone.

The environmental aspect of this article are the glaciers melting. The glaciers melting, like I said before, can cause serious problems. That is why a group of scientist when to Greenland to observe and analyze the glaciers to see exactly how close these glaciers are from collapsing or melting.

EcoBook #10 - habitat

EcoBook #9 - nonrenewable resources

EcoBook #8 - habitat destruction

EcoBook #7 - pesticide use

EcoBook #6 - water pollution

EcoBook #5 - biodiversity

EcoBook #4 - Native Species

EcoBook #3 - omnivore

EcoBook #2 - land pollution

EcoBook #1 - population

scrAPES #7 "How Landfills Work Podcast"

The podcast How Landfills Work was published on June 23, 2015. This podcast is about how landfills work and how they came to be. Before there were landfills in the US there were these dumps. Dumps were these man made holes in the ground that were being filled with all the trash and were being either burned or getting out into the ocean, both being very bad. So because of this they made this landfill. The first modern sanitary landfill was made in 1937 in Fresno. It was not as popular as it is now. The reason why why had to get landfills were because since the 1960's the trash generation in the US has tripled. This happened because of advent packaging. From 1960 - 1990 packaging waste increased by 80%. So these landfills came into to play to reduce it. The goal of the landfill is not to compost trash not so it wont break down super quickly. Instead its opposite, they want to keep the trash dry and locked into a air tight container. Then they would bury it and lock it away from the world.

This article caught my eye because I was actually interested in how landfills came to be and how they worked. I actually did not know what landfills were until now. I have heard of them before just never really knew how they worked. Also in this podcast I learned a lot of the US. I learned that we are really bad with trash.

The environmental science involved in this podcast is the trash and landfills. The trash before the landfills effected the land, water, air, and even humans. They effected us in a negative way and we had to do something about it. So that's why they made landfills to control the trash we have and not just throw them around.

scrAPES #6 " China’s ozone pollution is wafting over and offsetting half the reductions the US has achieved"

China's ozone pollution is wafting and offsetting half the reductions the US has achieved was published by Zheping Huang and Akshat Rathi, on August 12, 2015. This article is about the ozone on Earth. Ozone, like other chemicals, can be both useful and harmful. When its in the planets stratosphere it can protect against harmful UV rays. But if it was any lower it can cause respiratory illness and hurt plant growth. Governments around the world have been trying to tighten laws to control the creation of ozone pollution. In a recent study, China's growth has offset half of the reductions the US has achieved. Winds that blow from wet to east carry ozone and other chemicals. These winds offset almost 43% of the improvements of the air quality.

This article caught my eye because it sounded very interesting. Learning about this kind of stuff is very helpful because it can effect all of us. While reading this I learned that ozone can actually be harmful. I remember learning about the ozone and I thought they were only a good thing by blocking out the rays.

The environmental science involved in this article is the ozone pollution. The US has reduced there ozone pollution down 21% while China's grew. Also the winds that carry the ozone and other chemicals to the US is very harmful. It offsets the reductions that the US has already made and it can effect all of us.

scrAPES #5 " Baby Tortoises Found On Galapagos Island For First Time In Over 100 Years "

Baby Tortoises Found On Galapagos Island For The First Time In Over 100 Years was published by Stephen Messanger, on January 25, 2015. This article is about baby tortoises being found on the Galapagos Island. Tortoises have been very close to being extinct. In fact there was only 100 tortoises remaining in the 1960's. This happened because of human activity. In the mid 18th century, when sailors first landed on Pinzon Island, they carried rats on their ships. These rats ate and killed all the hatchlings that in the following decades not a single tortoise offspring survived. Any unhatched eggs that were found were carefully taken and then incubated for 5 years before being released back on Pinzon Island. in 2012, biologist dropped a certain type of poison, that only attracts rats, onto the island. Pinzon Island was now rat free. After killing all the rats on Pinzon island, 10 new baby tortoises were found on the island that were bred in the wild.

This article caught my eye because I have read about the tortoises on the Galapagos Island being very close to extinct. So when reading the title I was very shocked that baby tortoises were now roaming the islands. Even though there was only 10 baby tortoises found, that's just only the beginning. From only having 100 tortoises in he 1960's, there might now be 500 on the island. 500 is still a little but its a sure sign that the tortoises are coming back, and that makes me really happy.

The environmental aspect of the article is the tortoises. The tortoises are a living animal that was on the brink of extinction. The effort that scientist put into the tortoises gave there species more time to breed and not go extinct. Now the tortoises can live on Pinzon Island with out any problems and can now expand there species.

'scrAPES #4 "A Giant Glob of Deadly Algae Is Floating off the West Coast"

A Giant Glob of Deadly Algae Is Floating off the West Coast was published by Gregory Barber, on Aug. 15, 2015. This article is al abot small little algae called pseudo - nitzschia. These pseudo - nitzschia are a subset to almost 50 percent of the worlds oxygen through photosynthesis. Scientist are not sure why they have been staying for a while, but may have a clearer idea due to the past years. Nate Mantua, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center has said that these past years have been very weird in the northeast Pacific. These pseudo - nitzschia contain a toxin most commonly known as amnesic shellfish poisoning. Shellfish and small fish eat these algae and the toxins concentrates into the eaters flesh. When going up the food-chain,birds and sea lion who are eating these shellfish can cause them to have brain damage. When the birds or sea lion eat the shellfish and small fish the toxins seep into there bloodstream and eventually to the brain. This algae will most probably not kill you if you end up having it. The illness is now very rare now since the shut downs of recreational shellfish harvesting.

This article has caught my eye because from reading the title it really sounded interesting. While reading this I learned a lot. I learned that something so helpful to humans can be also very deadly to other animals. Also it's really scary that this algae has the potential to kill you, even if its a small percentage. It may be unlikely but it still is a scary thought.

The environmental aspect of this article is the algae and the interactions it has. The algae on its own is an organism. The algae produces its own compound called domoic acid. There is not as much of anything we can do to prevent the algae but wait for storms to spread the algae around and not let them sit on the coast.

scrAPES #3 "New Guinea Flatworm, one of the Worst Known Invasive Species, Found in US"

New Guinea Flatworm, one of the Worst Known Invasive Species, Found in US by Aamna Mohdin was published on June 23, 2015. This article is about one of the worst invasive alien species. The New Guinea Flatworm has been founded in 22 counties or territories including the U.S. The New Guinea Flatworm is a huge problem for biodiversity. The flatworm is a predator of land snails and of many other soil invertebrate. The flatworm was only found in Florida in the whole U.S. Yet because of its nature to spread it can cause a huge problem in the mainland of the U.S. Most adult flatworms can survive in pots or on plants and can be easily spread through moving soil, roots, garden waste and more. Up until it was found in Florida, the flatworm has only infected islands but the spread between islands has been limited.  

This article caught my eye because I have always been interested in animals, insects and living things in general. So when I read the title my first thought was "I have never heard of a New Guinea Flatworm." So in knowing myself i wanted to learn about them. Now, that I know what they are and what they could do it kind of scares me. Not just by the looks of it but the fact they can spread around the U.S. very easily. 

The Environmental Science involved in this article is the New Guinea Flatworm. The flatworm can be very bad for biodiversity and to soil invertebrate. They target one of the most important component in our ecosystems, which is the land snail. The flatworm also has the highest rates of extinctions.

scrAPES #2 "Plastic in the Ocean Podcast"

The podcast I listened to was all about the plastic problem in the world. Almost 8 million metric tons of waste ends up in the ocean every year. 80% of the waste are coming from land and the other 20% is coming from cargo-ships and containers. There is so much waste and plastic in the ocean that there is a huge area called the Great Pacific garbage patch. In the middle of the Pacific ocean the water currents go around in a circular formation which causes the all the waste to go to the middle. In 10 years there will be equal to 1 ton of plastic to 3 tons of fin fish (Fish with fins). From the 8 million tons of waste 50% of the waste comes from 5 rapidly developing countries in Asia and Southeast Asia. The United States is also in the top 20 for most generated waste. We need to be more like Sweden! Sweden produces 1/5 of the waste

The most interesting about this podcast to me was all the metric tons of waste that ends up in the ocean. Also, what interested me about this podcast was that 20% of the waste came from ships and the big containers on those ships. A connection I am making is when I heard about the trash problem we had but I did not know how serious it was.

This podcast is very important to environmental science because the plastic affects all of our resources. The plastics can affect our food and water resources. I think what we can do is while having trash bins on every block and street can reduce the waste but also having a recycling bin next to them. This helps reduce the waste go down and it will be a lot more convenient.

"ScRAPES #1- " The Last 3 Of The World's Rarest Rhinos Are Unable To Breed " -

The Last 3 of the World's Rarest Rhinos Are Unable To Breed by Tisha Wardlow was published on 19 March 2015. This article was about the last three northern white rhinos living on this Earth. Many scientist have tried to breed the rhinos but it just could not work. The female rhino, Najin (25y), is very weak and can not endure the breeding attempts while the male rhino, Sudan (38y), has weak sperm and can not provide enough. The other rhino, Fatu (14y), is infertile meaning these three northern white rhinos are the last to roam the lands of earth.

This article caught my eye because I love animals. When reading the title it interested me to read more of these soon to be extinct rhinos. I wonder why now that there is only three left of the WORLD'S RAREST rhinos that we now want to do something about it. Now there to old to even breed and we are gonna watch them go extinct which really saddens me.

The Environmental Science involved in this article are the animals involved. The northern white rhino was very sought after from humans. Humans have slaughtered these rhinos to the point of no return. Humans have slaughtered these rhinos to extinction and I think its something to be ashamed of.

"My Connection to Nature" Reflection

 I think nature is the environment around us. The trees, plants, grass, animals around are all apart of nature. I feel that I connect to nature but not as much as I should. Over the summer and this school year i have worked with a program that tries and helps to better the environment  and neighborhood. Some past activities for example, we helped plant plants and put new mulch on the the places that needed them. I think connecting with nature should include helping the environment by planting trees and plants and not littering. I feel that you should never feel like you should connect less to the environment but to connect more than you you do now.  I wish I could do more to help the environment rather than just sit home and do nothing.

I think its very important to connect to your environment because what we are doing and not doing is all affecting the Earth. I worry that people don't contribute enough to the environment to make it better. I hope for the future of nature that there will be more trees and plants and more people interested in their environment.