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.