Pond Ecosystem Report

Pond Ecosystem Report Free Online Research Papers The experimental pond ecosystem was polluted with oil to see what the effects would be. Every week our team added three drops of Pennzoil 5w/30 to our experimental pond ecosystem. We took a count of living organisms from our control and experimental groups at two different levels to see what effect the oil had on them. The results were dramatic on the upper level of our experimental pond ecosystem. Many if not most of the living organisms were destroyed, while the lower level was somewhat less impacted. The experimental pond ecosystem showed that pollution by oil is mainly limited to the upper portion of the ecosystem itself. The cause for this unusual circumstance is because of the hydrophobic property of the oil. Introduction: The ideas of pollution in our ponds and lakes are all to real in this day and age. Even in Alaska our streams and lakes are polluted to some degree. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (2007) has reported that fecal coli-form bacteria, sediment, and petroleum products are the primary source of pollutants of the surface waters in Alaska. With man made natural disasters such as the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez in 1989, our environment has sustained major damage. This accident alone killed many animals and destroyed the natural ecosystem of the region. Greenpeace (2001) has reported that 250,000 to 500,000 sea animals died immediately, not to mention billions of salmon and herring eggs. The effects of the spill are still being felt with lower birth rates and stunted growth of nearly all of the animals impacted. The University of North Carolina (2002) has found that the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill are lasting longer than expected. The team estimates that some shoreline habitats may take another thirty years to recover. Before we go any further we should learn a little about what a pond ecosystem is. According to Wikipedia (2006), a pond ecosystem is a specific type of fresh water ecosystem that is largely based on autotroph algae which provide the base trophic level for all life in the area. The largest predator in a pond ecosystem will normally be a fish and in between ranges smaller insects and microorganisms. It may have a scale of organisms from small bacteria to larger creatures. Aquatic ecosystems perform many important environmental functions. For example, they recycle nutrients, purify water, ease flooding, and provide habitats for wildlife. Mini Pond (2004) reports that a pond ecosystem degrades when the ecosystem’s ability to absorb stress has been exceeded. A stress on these ecosystems can be the result of physical, chemical, or biological alterations to the environment. Usually in the pond ecosystem there are two types of organisms. The first is called Autotrophic. These organisms are the producers that generate organic compounds from inorganic material. Algae use solar energy to generate biomass from carbon dioxide and are the most important autotrophic organisms in an aquatic environment. The second type of organism is referred to as Heterotrophic. These are the organisms that consume autotrophic organisms and use the organic compounds in their bodies as an energy source. Our group thought it would be interesting as well as educational to see first hand what the effects of motor oil in a pond ecosystem would have. We believe that the motor oil will have a detrimental effect on the pond ecosystem. We also believe that the upper levels consisting of the algae and Cyan bacteria will be most affected since they are near the top and oil has hydrophobic relationship with water. We do not believe that the organisms in the lower portions of the ecosystem will be impacted as much because the oil will have a harder time reaching them. We also believe that given enough time that the ecosystem as a whole will die due to the lack of algae. Materials and Methods: The material we used in this experiment consists of living organisms and their food stuff. First, I will list the organisms, followed by the amount of food. We used half a pipette for the living organisms and the five milliliter rule for the food. They are as follows. Gloetrichia, Oscillatoria, Anabaena, Chilonas, Paramecium Caudatum, Stentor, and a few drops of Amoeba. The addition of food is as follows; 5g Mgso4 solution, 15g KH2PO4 solution, 10g K2HPO4 solution, 2.5g NaCI solution, 2.5g NaNO3 solution and 2.5g CaCI solution. These materials were added to two separate two liter glass containers filled with purified water and a measured scoop of dirt and gravel respectively. We then labeled each of the two glass jars, one control and the other experiment. During the four week period we introduced Pennzoil 5w/30 to our experimental group once a week using three drops from a dropper. We were careful not to disturb the water as we put the oil in because we did not want the oil to mix, but instead stay on top of the ecosystem. After our first week, we started collecting data from our pond ecosystem. We did this by taking samples with a dropper from the upper and lower regions of the control and the experimental groups. We made wet mount slides of each region and looked at them with the microscopes provided by the laboratory. The process we did for counting the organisms was a simple yet affective approach. We used the field of view approach that is noted in our Introductory Biology Lab book (2007). The book states that you have one field of view per slide. Within this field of view there are five points of interest; top left, top right, middle, bottom left, and bottom right. With the microscope set at 45X, we went to each of the points of interest and did a count of all living organisms. We did this weekly for the control group as well as the experimental group. Results: The results of our pond ecosystem experiment did produce some unusual findings. This may be the direct result of contamination that happened during the first week or to other factors that are unknown. The first graph reveals the results of counting the top layer of the control group. As you can see the Chilomonas were very productive after one week of being in the ecosystem. Likewise, the Amoeba’s were proficient in the second week. By the end of the fourth week all organisms excluding the Oscillatoria had declined. The next slide shows the four week results of the bottom level of the control group. All of the organisms in this group seemed to enjoy a steady increase of offspring. The counts during the fourth week indicate that the Paramecium’s were having a population explosion. The next sets of graphs are from the experimental group. If you remember our experimental ecosystem had 3 drops of oil introduced each week after the first week. As you can see the Oscillatoria and Chilomonas seem to have had a strong growth in population, but by week three everything seemed to be dead or greatly reduced. The last graph shows the bottom count for the experimental ecosystem. As you can see, there was dramatic growth in the second week by the Chilomonas as well as the Oscillatoria. This may be due in fact to an incident of contamination that we will discuss later. By the third week, everything seems to have returned to normal except for the rapid growth of the Stentor group. Discussion: Now that the experiment is over I would like to discuss some of the findings our group came up with. By looking at the graph for the experimental upper level versus the control upper level, one can clearly see that the oil had a negative effect on all of the living organisms in this region. Likewise, the experimental bottom level compared to the control bottom level shows a somewhat lesser amount of organisms. This could be caused by two factors, either the oil was penetrating to the lower level or the organisms were running out of food to consume due to the pollution of the oil on the surface of the ecosystem. Either way, it is clear that oil in the pond ecosystem has an overall effect of pollution causing death. One factor that may explain the substantial rise of organisms in our experimental ecosystem during the second week, was the inadvertent addition of Tetra Fauna Reptoman fish food on October 12, 2007 by a participant in another study. The contents of the fish food are as follows: 42.5% crude protein, 8.5% crude fat, 2% fiber, 8% moisture, 1.8% phosphorus, 25mg calcium and 100mg ascorbic acid. One can tell by comparing the charts from the control and experimental groups that the fish food had a rather dramatic effect on some of the organisms causing a population burst of sorts. In the end, the growth spurt was short lived and the oil had an even more profound effect on the experimental ecosystem. After some debate by my colleagues and me we came to the conclusion that our experimental design should have included the mixing of the oil with the water in the experimental ecosystem. We feel that this would be more representative of what would happen in the natural world. I believe this experiment, even with the introduction of the fish food, was a success. The data clearly shows that the introduction of the motor oil had a detrimental effect on the microorganisms that lived in our experimental group, more so on the upper level than the lower level. I would have to conclude that our original hypothesis was correct. : Alaska Department of natural Resources, division of mining, land and water. (2007). Retrieved on 10/05/2007, from http://dnr.state.ak.us. Greenpeace, The Exxon Valdez oil spill fifteen years later. (2004) Retrieved on 10/22/2007, from greenpeace.org. Mini-Ponds. To investigate diversity in a pond water ecosystem. (2004). Retrieved on 10/15/2007, from science-class.net. University of Anchorage Alaska, (2007). Introductory Biology lab book, wet mount micro-slide. Pg. PE4. Wikipedia. (2004) Aquatic Organisms. Retrieved on 11/25/2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ecosystem. Research Papers on Pond Ecosystem ReportGenetic EngineeringBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThe Spring and AutumnDefinition of Export QuotasResearch Process Part OnePETSTEL analysis of IndiaIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married Males

Critical review from an Business Strategy Article Essay

Critical review from an Business Strategy Article - Essay Example Therefore, the concept of core competencies as an application strategy for businesses, require advanced focus and learning the trends and change within an industry, and then identifying one or a few areas of the changing trends that are likely to merge, then working towards producing a product that serves that exact merging point of need (Prahalad & Hamel, 80). Informed by the principle of competitiveness, the strategy of core competencies works on the basis of building a portfolio of competencies, at the expense of a portfolio of businesses, meaning that attaining competiveness for a business organization is no longer about building a chain of related business within an industry, through diversification, but analyzing the specific areas a business can have a competitive advantage, and then capitalizing on that area to build on the competitiveness (Prahalad & Hamel, 81). Nevertheless, while applying the strategy of core competencies, it is paramount that focusing on new areas of busi ness where others have not yet perceived opportunities should not relent, so that an organization can build a stable competitive platform, which makes it difficult for others in the same industry to compete. The main strengths of the article is that it demonstrates the major arguments through the application of real organizational examples, detailing the process of such organizational businesses, and showing how the core competencies strategy made an overall difference. This way, it becomes easy to understand the strategy advocated, since real life examples are applied. A better demonstration is when the information technology industry was evolving in the early 1980s, where GTE was the company poised to take the advantage of the opportunity... Informed by the principle of competitiveness, the strategy of core competencies works on the basis of building a portfolio of competencies, at the expense of a portfolio of businesses, meaning that attaining competiveness for a business organization is no longer about building a chain of related business within an industry, through diversification, but analyzing the specific areas a business can have a competitive advantage, and then capitalizing on that area to build on the competitiveness (Prahalad & Hamel, 81). Nevertheless, while applying the strategy of core competencies, it is paramount that focusing on new areas of business where others have not yet perceived opportunities should not relent, so that an organization can build a stable competitive platform, which makes it difficult for others in the same industry to compete. The main strengths of the article is that it demonstrates the major arguments through the application of real organizational examples, detailing the process of such organizational businesses, and showing how the core competencies strategy made an overall difference. This way, it becomes easy to understand the strategy advocated, since real life examples are applied. A better demonstration is when the information technology industry was evolving in the early 1980s, where GTE was the company poised to take the advantage of the opportunity and see significant growth in its size, sales and revenues, considering that it was already well established in the industry, as opposed to NEC, which was a relatively small company in the industry

Rephrase Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Rephrase - Essay Example This paper aims at establishing a valid relationship between the levels of productivity in UAE’s organisations vis-Ã  -vis the levels of Knowledge Management, Organizational Trust, Creativity and Innovation in those organisations. With the advent of globalisation, the worldwide market has witnessed an increased degree of diversity in terms of products and services. The 21st century has come across a myriad range of the expectations and preferences of the consumers. This diversity has also found a parallel reflection in the workforce of today’s organisations. The modern organisations showcase a widely diverse workforce with respect to age, gender, nationality, education and experience. The knowledge or intellectual capital of the workforce is a powerful and precious asset to the organisation. It is a magical tool not only for maintaining sustainability but also for gaining a competitive advantage. In today’s competitive age, merely the information regarding products or services is not enough to surpass competitors. Such knowledge and information has to be upgraded and enhanced time and again depending upon the market situation. The workforce needs to show flexibility and creativity in the applica tion of their share of knowledge. The organisations need to adapt to the changing market scenario. This is where the role of knowledge management comes in. It assists organisations by helping them in polishing their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses through idea generation and subsequent effective implementation of those ideas. But to lead the competition, knowledge alone is not sufficient. It needs to be complemented by other elements such as interpersonal trust, creativity and innovation in using that knowledge. This paper looks forward to studying the interplay of Knowledge Management, Organizational Trust, Creativity and Innovation and their contribution in the productivity of organizations in UAE. By playing a vital role in the working of all

Language and reason as ways of knowing Essay Example for Free

Language and reason as ways of knowing Essay Knowledge is also said as ways of knowing. It means information and skills acquired through experience and education. The acquisition of knowledge is done by three main factors; perception, language and reason. In this essay we sought to see the strengths and limitations of those learning approaches. Lets take an example, how do we know that in a bottle, labeled crystal, there is water? We would use this example to explore the three cases. Perception is the way of taking messages and processing it by the brain to obtain meaningful information. Using the example above, we would do anything possible to conclude that what we are consuming from the bottle is water. That is we would observe, smell, taste, etc. We can see that we use our senses to identify the substance. We would observe the bottle, its labeling (name, ingredients etc.), colour of the substance and advertisement on the substance; we would smell the substance and even taste it (this would be last because we fear it might be harmful). All this shows that using our senses, we can identify objects and moving organism; this is the major strength of perception (immense knowledge is gained). Another point would be upon losing one of the senses; we are able to intensify the others, which help us even more in detection but surplus always comes with its difficulties. Subliminal perception is the way trying to identify objects with the memory only, for example a patient may not remember someones name but seems to know that person, and thus that patient tries to associate a name that goes well with that person that he/she declares to be unidentifiable. The problem is that even with our senses, we are limited in perception and its very frustrating to know how little we know. Sometimes our senses may deceive us, we may see the substance transparent but it is not necessarily water but another liquid. We can have perceptual illusions where we believe an object to have a specific shape but actually differs from what we have thought of. We may also have hallucination, we may feel, see, hear, taste and smell something when there is really nothing of such kind. We also tend to conclude on the very first bit of information received as we have been in such situation before (experience). Language is a method of communication which involves a sender, a message and a receiver to express thoughts. It was developed by humans and when using it, the rules were grammar and the symbols were words. The advantage of this method of learning is that its very simple (user-friendly) to use and every person in the world uses it. So communication is easy, thus enriching the ability to acquire knowledge. The greatest advantage is that there are many ways to communicate the thought, therefore enabling people to understand in a way or other. Using the example above, we can give important information, express what we feel and enquire about the substance in the bottle and also in different ways so that all the people involved can understand. There are also seven functions of language, which guides us to where each piece of information acquired can be classified. Despite language having a strong face of learning, it still has its disadvantages. The example above, the bottle of supposedly water, we have used our senses to identify it but without language it is impossible to give the facts, views etc correctly and even harder to communicate the information in different ways; some people uses too many words to explain only a word(can be a different language). Also different people have different views and not all will agree on what one has said about the substance. Reason is a way to justify what we have acquired as knowledge based on previous experiences. If we cannot do so, therefore we have not gained any knowledge. Taking the above example again, we say if that substance is water because its tasteless; we say so because we have heard, read and experimented on water. The strength of reasoning would be the rationality and logic arguments. Rationality is what allows us to say things that do make sense, we will not say that the substance in the bottle is water because of the shape of the bottle; it does not make sense. The rationality of a statement shows how the processing of all the information acquired is done and says whether its good or not (there is really a bad reason as long as a person can justify it). Being logical depends on the argument put forward as example given above. To be logical, the deductive argument must be correct and validate the argument; this differentiates between a good reasoning and bad reasoning, using above example, 1) all liquid that is pH 7 is water and the substance in the bottle is of pH 7, thus the substance in the bottle is water (this a valid deductive argument) . But sometime the arguments may be valid but does not sound, all substances that are colourless are harmless and the substance in the bottle is colourless, therefore its harmless (concentrated hydrochloric acid is also colourless but is very harmful).  To conclude knowledge gained through perception, language and reason is a great advantage to us, human beings but often can be deceptive and invalid. We should be more careful when taking in information, processing, expressing and justifying it. Here again we see that they are all linked!

My Bedroom :: Descriptive Essay Examples, narrative, Observation

My Bedroom    Do you ever wonder why certain places mean so much to certain people? When I think of my bedroom, I realize why some people are touchy about who goes in their room or who has been touching things in their home, it is because those things are important to them and may have some meaning. Places like my bedroom are places where we can relax and be comfortable and I think that is why it is important to people, because we can be ourselves and feel comfortable, we can also just sit down and rest our bones and relax. Another important reason is we can go there when we want privacy, we can just shut our door, maybe even lock it, and tell everyone in our household not to bother us. Also our rooms hold most of our personal belongings and those things are important to us and we do not want anyone else to touch them or in some cases go near them.    Bedrooms are a place where we can be comfortable and we can sit back and relax. When we are tired or not feeling the best we can go to our room, shut our door, and lay down and relax. Maybe even turn on some music or read a book or magazine. My bed is where I like to retreat to when I want to relax. I have a double bed with four pillows and my favorite comforter. It is a Little Mermaid comforter, I know it is childish but it is soft and warm. And of course my Tickle Me Elmo sits on my bed and keeps me company. A lot of times I just lay down and close my eyes and daydream about places I'd like to see or think about things that make me happy. One thing we should not do is think about things we need to get done or anything that makes us feel stressed because then we'll never feel relaxed. I usually try to stay away from these sort of thoughts and it usually works out well.    The reason my bedroom is so important to me is because my room holds all of my personal belongings, which are very important to me. Also my room is a comfortable place to study or just to relax.    I can also have privacy whenever I want it by resorting to my room, this may be hard for some people if they share a room.

Electrochemical cell lab Aim Essay

Aim :- To find out the feasibility of a redox reaction by looking at the cell potential of the reaction . Quantitative observation The table below shows the values of cell potential that were recorded when the experiment was performed Reaction Cell potential (ÂÂ ±0.01V) CuSO4 and ZnSO4 0.99V CuSO4 and AgNO3 0.64V Ag 1.39V Qualitative Observation Reaction Obsevrations CuSO4 and ZnSO4 Copper sulphate turns from clear to blue , whereas zinc sulphate remains colorless CuSO4 and AgNO3 Copper sulphate is blue in color , silver nitrate is colorless Ag Data processing Experiment 1 Zn(s) -> Zn2+ (aq) + 2e- (aq) Cu2+ (aq) + 2e- (aq) -> Cu (s) Cu2+ (aq) + Zn(s) -> Cu(s) + Zn2+ (aq) Experiment 2 Cu(s) -> Cu2+ (aq)+ 2e- (aq) Ag+(aq) + e- (aq) -> Ag(s) Cu(s) + 2Ag+ (aq) -> Cu2+ (Aq) + 2Ag (s) Experiment 3 Zn(s) -> Zn2+ (aq) + 2e- (aq) Ag+ (aq) + e- (aq)-> Ag(s) Zn(s) + 2Ag+ (aq) -> Zn2+ (aq) + 2Ag (s) The table below shows the literature values for the respective cell potential Reaction Cell potential (ÂÂ ±0.01V) CuSO4 and ZnSO4 0.34V CuSO4 and AgNO3 0.46 V. Ag 1.10 V Error percentage = (|difference between the literature and experimental value|)/(the literature value )x100 = (|0.34V – 0.99V|)/(0.34V) x100 = 191.17% We can similarly find the error percentages for other cell potentials also The table below shows the respective error percentages of each of the cell potential Reaction Error percentage CuSO4 and ZnSO4 191.17% CuSO4 and AgNO3 39.13% Ag 16.36% Theory Electrochemical cells In an electrochemical cell, electricity is produced through chemical reactions. There consist two electrodes: – the negative electrode and the positive electrode. At the negative electrode

Energy Is The Best Option - 2071 Words

Energy. It is what drives our world. Humans have been producing energy for their own use for thousands of years. In the past century, the use of fossil fuels has become a key component of how America is fueled. While the use of fossil fuels has changed the landscape of the U.S.A., it is time to change the country’s energy orientation. Wind energy is the best option to begin to change electricity production for the future. Fossil fuel is quickly becoming more negative than positive. Many of its impacts, from causing climate change to polluting water supplies can be removed by transitioning to being powered by wind. Because of its longterm sustainability, lower negative environmental impact, and ability to benefit America’s economy, wind†¦show more content†¦As time goes on, and the wind keeps Ludtke 2 blowing, the ability that humans have to effectively capture this power is going to do nothing but increase. In the 1990s, this trend was especially strong with a 25.7% annual increase in wind energy production (â€Å"Wind Energy†). Growing the capacity to capture wind is key to its future as a viable energy source. Much of fossil fuel’s attraction is our immensely efficient ability to capture its energy. However, the energy efficiency of wind energy by itself, along with our increased future ability to capture its energy, legitimizes the claim that using wind for power in America is viable down the road. Looking ahead, America’s needs for energy are going to go up, while the availability of fossil fuels is going to go down. Conflicts over price and distribution of this fuel will grow. Even today, one can see price swings for petroleum and oil seemingly based purely on the whims of those producing it. If this energy was coming from the wind, a free and unending source of energy, foreign leaders and oil moguls would not be the ones dictating where energy comes from and how expensive it is. Instead, energy would be a much more stable, conflictfree point (â€Å"Renewable Energy Use†). This stability benefits everyone from governments to large corporations to individual fuel consumers. Governments rely less on imports and are better able to predict accurately energy needs and prices in the