Hot Spot

Cerrado

1. Location of the hotspot and type of ecosystems found there.

                  South America, Savanna                 

2. Describe at least one endemic plant species and one animal species found there

                 Caryocar brasiliense, blue-eyed ground-dove

3. Describe the socio-economic conditions  (pre-industrial, transitional, industrial, post-industrial)

                   Around 67 percent of the Cerrado ecoregion has been already either completely converted or modified in a major way. In contrast, only 1 percent of the total area of the Cerrado Region is protected in parks or reserves. Most of the large-scale human modification in the Cerrado took place in the last 50 years. With a construction of a new capital of Brazil (Brasília), several highways were built, opening the region to a large process of development. During the 1970's and 1980's, several investment programs financed by multilateral funding agencies together with generous government subsides transformed the Cerrado in a new agricultural frontier. Managed pastures and large-scale plantations of soybeans, corn, and irrigated rice were established. As a result, thousands and thousands of square kilometers of cerrado were removed without any studies on environmental impacts.

4. Human induced and/or natural reasons why species biodiversity is decreasing in that region

                   The biodiversity of cerrado is extraordinary. For instance, for only three orders of insects (Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Isoptera) scientists have recorded 14,425 species, representing at least 47 percent of the species of those orders in Brazil. Biodiversity of cerrado is comprised by at least 10,400 species of vascular plants, 780 of fishes, 180 of reptiles, 113 of amphibians, 837 of birds and 195 of mammals. Most of these species are restricted to cerrado. The percentage of endemic species varies among taxonomic groups, from 4 percent in birds to 50 percent in vascular plants. Cerrado is also a unique evolutionary theater where species from the largest [[South America]n forests (Amazon and Atlantic Forest) and from the largest South American dry habitats (Chaco and Caatinga) intertwine.  Humans are destorying habits to make roads which is causing biodiversity to decrease

1. What is being done to protect this hotspot

The cerrado shrublands represent the largest ecoregion in the Americas, and extend across much of eastern Brazil, and intoParaguay and Bolivia. This ecoregion is host to a number of endemic species. For the Brazilian portion, out linework follows INEGI classifications, from which we lumped the following vegetation types: "open forest cerrado", "dense forest cerrado", "park cerrado", "woody-grass (Gramineae) cerrado", "savanna-seasonal forest transition", and all "secondary vegetation" and "agricultural activities" encompassed by this broader classification. In Bolivia we followed the Ribera et al. classification of "cerrado savanna" and subsequent linework. In Paraguay we referred to UNESCO, who classify this as "medium-tall grassland with broad-leaved evergreen tree synusia (cerrado)". 

6. Any interesting information you found about the area  

                 The animals were really cool and the plants were pretty neat

 

FRQ

Extinction of  a species cam greatly impact the world has a whole. Every species in this world play an important part, and when that part suddenly goes missing the mechanics of an environment can become disrupted. Humans are creating great negative impacts on environments world wide, and in turn actually causing species to go extinct. Habitat destruction, over harvesting, and emerging diseases are all factors that greatly contribute to the extinction of species. Extinction can have a huge environmental impact. Every environment has a complex food web that consists of all the animals in an ecosystem. All the animals are connected to each other and affect each other. When one animal is taken out of that food web because of extinction, all the animals in that ecosystem must find a filler for the empty stop. The economy is a big reason why animals go extinct. Over hunting of an animal because they are valuable can cause many to decrease in population size because they get killed faster than they can repopulate. For example white rhino in Africa are being killed into extinction for their white horns. The governments around the the world are trying to put a stop to the extinction of animals through polices they pass that can put endangered animals into protection.

Plan B

                                                                                    Dan Webber

1. Ecosystem Diversity - the variety of different types of ecosystems

Species Diversity- The variety of different types of species within an ecosystem

Genetic Diversity- the variety of genes within a given species

*Genes form the blueprint of an organism's traits.  The diversity of traits ultimately helps determine the species diversity and ecosystem diversity on Earth.

2. Humans benefit from diversity from agricultural and medicinal. Organisms benefit from stability and genetic reserves.

3. Scientists organize species into categories that indicate how related they are to one another, these branching patterns are called phylogenies. The number of species on Earth range between 5 million and 100 million.  Most agree to an estimate around 10 million.

4. Because there are so many different types of climates and ecosystems

5.  To show the relationship among organisms and they also show patterns of evolution.  

6.  A gene is a physical location on the chromosomes within each cell of an organism and a genotype is the complete set of genes in an individual. 

7.  A random change in the genetic code produced by a mistake in the copying process or environmental factories such as UV exposure can also mutations.

8.  If it brings new combination of  genes that can produce novel traits, this can cause a mutation.

9.  Genotype is the complete set of genes of an individual changes in genotype due to the mutation or recombination can produce changes in an individual's phenotype.  Phenotypes are the actual set of traits expressed in that individual.  An individual's phenotype can be influenced by both the genotype and the environmental factors.

10.  A change in the genetic composition of a population over time as a result of the environment determining which individuals are most likely to survive and reproduce.  Some examples are dogs and agriculture .

11.  Not all offspring can survive 

Individuals differ in their traits

Individuals produce an excess of offspring

Differences in traits are associated with differences in the ability to survive and reproduce.

Differences in traits can be passed on from parents to offspring.

12.  Mutation - is a permanent change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal genetic element.

Genetic Drift - is the change in the frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a population due to random sampling

Bottle Neck Effect - is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events (such as earthquakes, floods, fires, or droughts) or human activities (such as genocide).

Founder effect - is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population.

13.  Snapping shrimp off the Isthmus of Panama 

14.  Rate means that the species needs to evolve fast enough to survive.

15. Because it is used to being in a chronic lineage in its lifetime.  Racoon and Kola bear.

There are so many different kinds of plants and animals because they can change over time.

Evolution is when animals and plants change over time.

Something has evolved when it changes over time by adapting to its environment.

Yes anything can evolve however, it takes a period of hundred of years to evolve. 

Bean lab

1. Our estimates came to 51.18 which was only slightly higher than the actual size
2. We only did 10 trials. The more we do the closer to 50 the number would be
3. They would've even able to control a certain area other than an estimation system like we did.

Big 4

Big 4

Human impact-
Humans have relied heavily on the ocean through out our entire existence. For food, waste dump, or recreation; humans have always been heavily involved with the ocean. Even though the ocean has been positively helping humans, humans aren't helping the ocean.  Over fishing and pollution of the oceans are major concerns today, and if we don't change the way we live, these concerns could have great negative impacts on the planet. We must change the way we live if we want to preserve the oceans.

Environmental impact-
The environmental consequences are becoming increasing bad. Over fishing is draining ecosystems from key parts in their complex cycles, and pollution from factories or oil spills is causing bioaccumulation which affects almost every organism in an environment. Bioaccumulation is where levels of poisonous chemicals in organisms increase as they consume each other at each successive level in the food web.

Economic impact-
To prevent pollution, many businesses have made a serious effort to "go green" by using machinery that produces less pollution or recycling more materials. These two things might not sound like much, but they can greatly reduce pollution and waste in the long run. Even though going green sounds great, it can cost businesses and great amount of money, which discourages companies that have less money to join the movement. 

Government legislation-
The government had noticed the need to preserve the planet, and have set many laws into laws to do this. Laws have even passed that limit the amount of fishing that can go on which can prevent over fishing. Also some animals are permanently protected by law such as sea turtles.  The land is also protected by laws the prohibit littering.

Checkpoint

1. Weather is the current state of the environment and atmosphere, while the climate is long term patterns of weather.

2. The earth rotates and causes the wind patterns to flow unevenly, this is called the Coriolis effect. The ocean currents is caused by a similar effect.

3. They both go east to west near the equator. Ocean currents vary more in temperature while wind currents are always warmer the closer they are to the equator

Hadley cells

1. What air rises, cold or hot?
Hot
2. Does the air experience adiabatic or diabatic?
Adiabatic
3. When the air falls back of the earth is it cold or hot?
Hot

The Lorax

1. The Lorax is the protector of the trees and wild life.
2. Roosevelt and Pinchot understood the necessity of the forest and that it must be protected so that it won't be destroyed forever. Once-ler knew there was money in the forest, but instead of slowly harvesting it and replanting it as he went, he cut down the entire forest all at once.
3. The Lorax shared the views of Muir in that wildlife should be protected. These views are controversial today because most of the time the needs of humans out weigh the needs of wildlife. For example when an entire forest gets mowed down to construct much needed houses to accommodate the rise in population
4. The factories and cars produced huge amounts of smog and negatively affected the environment
5. The little animals would have to find another home and mostly push an other animal out of its environment would could cause a domino effect.  The air smog will also cause a global effect and water pollution.
6. If a town suddenly experiences a huge population explosion, and then number of numbers exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment, food shortages are bound to happen which will result in civil up rest and riots.
7. Factories in a developed country and a developing country would be radically different. In developed  country, chances are all of the raw materials would have already been harvested so the country would have to get them from other countries, however if they did have raw materials in their country they will have the equipment necessary to extract the materials. The developing countries will mostly have raw materials in their country but lack the equipment to extract them. Waste disposal will be a lot cleaner in developed countries versus developing counties. And worker rights would be a lot better in developed counties versus developing.
8. Unless is a word of hope
9. If the Lorax had a defined sense do his property than the whole thneed problem would have never happened

Who am I

My name is Daniel Webber and this is my last year in high school. I play football and I am in the National Honor Society. Over the summer the majority of my time went into football work outs and 7 on 7 games, however I did take a two week vacation and went to Hawaii which was awesome. I would have to say that was the best vacation and I had a blast. My plans over I graduate high school is to go to the Air Force academy and become a fighter pilot. Something unique about myself is that I can do a cool pencil trick where I spin it around my thumb.