Marine Bio Year Review

This semester in Marine Bio has been a very interesting semester. I have learned a lot about marine life as well as the ocean. I believe it is important to learn about the ocean since it makes up seventy percent of our world. The semester before I took oceanography, so I think it was very helpful to learn about the ocean first then learn about the creatures that live within it. I thought that the unit we did on algae was very interesting and it was fascinating to learn just how important algae is to the planet. Another unit that I enjoyed was the dissection unit. I thought it was interesting to see the inner working of some of these marine animals. My final thing that I enjoyed was the short unit that we did on sharks. Sharks are one of my favorite animals so it was neat that we got to spend some time on them and learn a little bit more about their species. Overall, this was a very good semester class and I am very glad that I was able to take it.

Alternative Assignment

Instead of going on the trip I stayed back at the school and was given an optional assignment to complete. The assignment was to read a bunch of different blogs that were published by the New England Aquarium. One of the blogs that really stuck out to me was the blog on the marine rescue team. It was interesting to see how the aquarium would take in sick animals or injured animals and nurse them back to health. It was also interesting to see all of the different procedures that they would preform on these animals.


Another blog that really interested me was the penguin blog. It was interesting to see how the penguins almost immediately went back to their old ways after being out of their habitat for so long. On the blog it said that the penguins had never been out of the exhibit for so long and they seemed to flow right back into their normal everyday routine.

Tsunami Wall

In class we watched a short video about how Japan is building large sea walls along their ocean to help in case another tsunami occurs. The walls are extremely high and will act as a last ditch effort to save people from a tsunami. A lot of locals are very upset that they are putting these walls up because they feel that it is separating them from the ocean. Many of the towns that the wall is going near depend on the ocean as a way of life. They depend on it for tourism as well as bringing in business to their shops. The walls can also act as a problem for local ecosystems. I personally feel that they should invest more money in tsunami research and invest money in ways to detect the tsunamis sooner. Putting up a wall seems very drastic and I feel there are more ways to deal with this problem than just putting up a massive wall.

Bio-Geo Timeline

In class we worked on a project in class and we were assigned a certain time period. My partner Phil and I were given the Jurassic time period. This time period lasted from about 200 million years ago to 140 million years ago. This time period was the peak of the dinosaur era. There was also a large variation of plants. Since there was 20 percent oxygen in the atmosphere most of the organisms that existed back then grew to very large sizes. Also the landscape of the earth was different back then. Instead of having the seven individual continents like we do today, there was only one major continent called Pangaea. Although there was one big continent there was a little separation between what is now South America and Africa. The Jurassic Period was the height of the dinosaur era and I learned a lot about it by doing this assignment.

Plankton Decline

Yesterday in class I read three articles about the decline of plankton in our oceans. The articles talked of how there used to be an abundance of plankton and now their numbers are slowly shrinking. Many scientist believe that is a part of global warming. Since plankton tend to do worse in warm oceans the change in climate temperature is causing a great deal of harm to their numbers. Plankton are very important because during their photosynthesis, they take in carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen just like plants. With more plankton there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which leads to global warming. Plankton also play a vital role in the ecosystem, since they act as food for many of the larger animals.


Minogue, Kristen. "Critical Ocean Organisms Are Disappearing." science/aaas. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 28 July 2010. Web. 12. Feb. 2014.

University of New South Wales. "Algirith finds missing phytoplankton in Southern Ocean". Algorithm finds missing phytoplankton in southern ocean. PhysOrg, 18 Sept. 2013.Web. 12. Feb. 2014.

Kirby, Alex. "Plankton Will Oceans Suffer as Oceans Warm." Climate news network. Climate news network, 8 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.

Relationships Among Marine Organisms

Marine Food Web In Marine Bio this week our class did a project on a food web of marine life. In this activity i played an anchovy. The anchovy eats other smaller organisms but is mainly food for squid and sharks. If the anchovy was to disappear from the food web then the squid population would shrink a lot, while the organisms that anchovies eat would grow a lot. Phytoplankton In class we also did another assignment where we viewed diatoms through a microscope.By doing this lab we learned a lot about diatoms. We learned that diatoms have a very good reflective quality about them. We also learned that diatoms are used in toothpaste, filters, pesticides. Energy Flow There are different tropic levels and as you go up the food chain you find that there are bigger and bigger animals that are at the top of the food chain. Human Impacts Humans can disturb the marine food web by over hunting. If they over hunt one food item then it could upset the whole balance of the food web and cause one organism to perhaps go extinct. This would cause a collapse in the whole system.If one organism goes extinct then that could cause a massive growth in another population of organisms and then that causes a whole disturbance within the system.

Final Assignment

I had taken oceanography this year to try and learn something new and I was not disappointed. When I first saw that this class was offered it intrigued me because it had been a subject that had interested me for a long time. I wanted to take this class because I wanted to learn about the world around me and learn more about the area in which I live. In oceanography this year I learned a lot of different things that I had not known before. I had learned all about the tides, marine life, explorers, as well as many other things. There are things that I could have worked on however. I have could have applied myself more, especially when it came to doing labs. I could have challenged my abilities more and worked a little bit harder. I would do all the labs and for the most part complete then but I could have put a lot more detail into doing them. Another thing that I could have added to is the blogs. I completed all the blogs but I could have put a lot more detail into them. I also could have added more pictures to my blogs to add a visual element to them. As far as recognizing my individual learning style I prefer to work independently. It is not to say that I do not prefer to work in groups it is just that I like to work by myself even more. When I work by myself I can do things the way that I want to do them and go at my own pace. When I work in a group I feel pressured to keep and I also have to compromise and cannot do things the way that I want to. Another way that I like to learn is by lectures. Although it may seem boring I learn better through lectures than I do by going through book work and taking notes. Overall, I did a good job applying myself and feel that I had a good semester. Communication is another important thing that is involved in this class. It is important to communicate with one another especially in this class. During labs it is usually required to that we work with more than one other person so it is very important that one has the ability to communicate properly and convey ideas to one another. If a person cannot convey their ideas to the other members of the group then it will be very difficult for those people to thrive within in the group. It is also very important to communicate so that everyone in the group will get the same information and the same data. It is also important that my ideas are well organized and clear before I pass them in. In order to get my ideas to be well organized and clear I have to thoughtfully do my work and work well with the other people that are in my class. Overall in this class I have learned a lot about the ocean by doing many assignments and many different worksheets. There were many different worksheets that I did that involved many different aspects of oceanography. One thing that I worked on was a project about explorers. I had to research Chinese exploration and then come up with a presentation on the whole thing. The whole project taught me about early exploration as well as early sea travel. I also believe that I demonstrated a lot of independence by doing this project. It was up to only me to research this topic and then put it into a presentation to show the class. Another assignment that I worked in this class was an assignment where I was given a specific region on the globe and I had to look up what the wind patterns were going into and out of that region. The region that I had was Manchester, England. I learned a lot about how wind patterns and ocean currents effect that area. Overall, I learned a lot about how the ocean effects the world around the world around me and how the ocean works in general. I had always lived near the ocean but it was not till recently that I learned all about. I am very glad that I was able to take this class and I feel that I did a good job with handling this class over the course of the semester.

Moon and Tides Connections

In this activity we had to graph the tides and moon phases over a certain month. People who would need this information would be fishermen, sailors, or even scientist. The phases of the moon are what causes tidal phases to be so extreme. Sea level is the level of the Earth where the see lies. It is higher than Mean Lower Low Water.The tides are aproximately eight hours apart. The morning high tide does occur at the same time it is different by a few minutes each day. It changes due to the position of the moon each day. During springtide the moon is in the full moon phase so its gravity pull is at the fullest. During neap tides the moon is in the new moon phase. The two high tides are not at the same time. For animals and plants the tides fill the estuary and flow out leaving it open for animals.The storm will make the tide effect a lot stronger.It is probably best to go clamming at low tide. That is what I learned from doing this activity.

Tears of an Ocean

In this lab my classmates and I did many test with water with different salinity measurements. It was our job to use a hydrometer and thermometer to determine what the salinity for some of the samples were.

Build a Hydrometer

In class we did a lab that involved building a hydrometer. A hydrometer measures salinity which is the amount of dissolved salt in a body of water. If salt is added to a body of water the hydrometer will float higher because there is more salt within the body of water.The addition of salt adds density to the water therefore things float more. That is why it is easier to float in the ocean rather than a swimming pool because the ocean contains a higher salinity so it is more dense. Density is the amount of mass that a certain object has. Another factor that can effect the salinity of seawater is the temperature. This is because the water heats up and therefore becomes less dense. These are the things that I learned while conducting this lab.

Its All Connected

The reason for the Earth's uneven heating is for the fact that it is tilted on an axis. Heat from the sun hits the Earth in different ways as the Earth tilts. I saw this by doing the experiment where we shined the flash light on the globe and observed how the light hit the globe. The Earth's rotation also affects the air. As the Earth spins the air gets moves around it which creates wind. We did an experiment with this where we put a drop of water on the center of disk and spun it. I observed the water then spun out in a swirl from the center to edge. This represents the coriolis effect and how the Earth rotates underneath the winds. There are also different types of winds. There are trade winds which go from east to west. Then there are westerlies which go from west to east. This is why it is quicker to fly from LA to New York than it is to fly from New York to LA. Wind patterns might change due to global warming because the Earth will now be heated even more than it was before.

Logger Head Island

For the sea turtles, we did not put any major buildings near their nesting site. We also have light restrictions in place so the turtles are not disturbed. We put the fishing pier on its own separate part of the island so the fish will not be disturbed by the rest of the island. One problem is that the golf coarse is too close to the shore. It could be moved closer to the main land. The island would be well preserved and it would be almost self sufficient. Sometimes people can build too close to wildlife and it can harm the natural ecosystems of the island. Also perhaps they build too much on the island. The natural vegetation can help maintain the island because it helps with the ecosystems of the island.We could have used some other form of transportation other than cars. Also We could have taken up less place with the villas. Finally, we could have used an eco-freindly material to build the golf course. Overall, this was a good project and i learned a lot from doing it.

A Beach by Any Other Name Answers

A primary coast is one that is shaped by processes such as glacial erosion where secondary coast are formed from marine processes. In primary coast there are many processes such as glacial erosion, volcanic coast, and diastrophic coast. Secondary coast consist of marine-deposition, coast built by organisms, and coast eroded by waves.A majority of the western coast is primary. This is due to the fact that it is in close proximity to a fault line.Most of the east coast is a secondary coast. As the depth gets deeper the salinity got higher for all three. There are many factors that could influence the circulation of water such as currents and the tides. There is both fresh water and salt water at certain times because an estuary acts as a filter between the ocean and the river. Fish needed to be able to take in both salt water and fresh water while living in an estuary. Estuaries allow for recreational activities, as well as scientific research. They are big with tourist and people who enjoy fishing. Estuaries are also good ecologically because they act as a filter between the ocean and the river. Without the two would mix together and it would be harmful to the sea life. Estuaries seem to be plagued by humans who over build on them and destroy them. Pollution from humans can effect estuaries, as well as fertilizer run off from agricultural areas. It also seems that there is major over population on estuaries from people who are over building.Also the development of housing hurts the natural ecosystems of the estuaries. My research question is, How are different coast formed? I think by doing this activity i have answered this question. My hypothesis was if there are different types of coast, then there are different processes that formed those coast. My hypothesis was supported by my data. My two new questions are, What can we do to protect estuaries? and How can we safely build on an estuary. This activity is very important because it showed how the coast are formed and I learned a lot about my natural surroundings.

Sand Reflection

By doing the sand activity i learned a lot about the formation of different types of sands based on where they are geologically. In this assignment i studied eight different types of sand and found that they all had very different origins. One of the samples that i would like to talk about is my sand sample from Maui. This sand was very fine and it had a black color to it. I knew the reason for this was because Maui is located near volcanoes so the sand is a product of the volcano. I also know that the location of the sand is near a subduction zone, that is another reason why the sand appears the way it does. One other beach that i looked at was the Bahamas. This sand was glossy white and had a lot of organisms in it. Also the sand was well sorted and large. It was much different than the sand in Maui and this is because this sand is located in the Caribbean which is not near a subduction zone. Also i have found two new questions to ask after doing this assignment. One would be, how does the location of the sand effect its appearance? The other question would be, how long does it take a certain area to have just one type of sand? Overall, i learned a lot from this activity and i am glad that i was able to do it.

Sea Floor Analysis

The topography of our surveyed area seemed relatively flat except for some raised lines than ran diagonally that looked almost like mountain ranges. The advantages of using remote sensing over direct observation is that you get a much more accurate depiction of what the sea floor looks like. You are able to see almost exactly what the topography of the sea floor looks like. The advanteges of stretching the y-axis is that it allows us to get a much more accurate idea of what the floor may be like. With out stretching it the floor would seem much more distorted. Overall, that is what I learned from doing this activity.

Dance of the Continents

I learned many things from this activity. One thing that i learned was how all of the continents fit so perfectly together and it is clear that at one point they made up a super continent named Pangaea. I believe that this activity also taught me a lot about the theory of continental drift. It is clear to see why someone would think that the continents drifted apart to where they are now. Also i saw how sea floor spreading could have contributed to moving the continents. Also i learned that many scientist have contributed to all of these different theories. They each come up with a new theory and compare them to the old ones that already exist. Overall, I learned many things from doing this activity. I learned a lot about the Earth and how it has come to what it is today. I also learned about all of the different theories that many scientist believe in about the formation of the earth and its continents. In conclusion, i am glad that i was able to do this activity and i learned a lot.

What Did I Learn?

Jake Cianci October 4, 2013 B Period Friday’s Blog Post Since I did not go on the field trip yesterday, I stayed back in class and worked on the assignment that was left for me to do. It was an assignment where I had to imagine that I was a researcher who was studying the breeding patterns of clams in the Pacific Ocean. It was my job to determine what was needed for this activity. I came to the conclusion that I will need wet suits as well as some sort of a subversive, since some of the locations where the clams were, was very far down. Also the group would only be diving at night since that is when the clams go through their breeding process. It would be a bit of a waste to go down during the day when nothing is happening. Also, there would be a boat that is located overhead where my group mates and I would live for the week. On the boat there would be food and supplies, as well as places to sleep. There would also be large holding tanks to store the clams that we will be studying.The boat would also be helpful in case of an emergency. If we were in trouble while doing a dive, the boat could pull us back up to the surface. Overall, I learned that there is a lot of work that goes into the process of studying this type of animal and I have a lot of respect for the people who do it as their actual job.

I decided that I wanted to take this class because I thought it looked interesting. I had taken all of the other science classes and this looked like a good change of pace. Also the class is based around an interesting subject. I feel it will be a good learning experience. I also think it is important to learn about and understand the world around us.