Thursday, March 24, 2011

Blog 8 Your choice talk about something you learned or ask a question about something that is confusing you

Blog #8 Your choice talk about something you learned or ask a question about something that is confusing you

My choice for today's topic will be evolution, my opinions about it. Even though I understand what humans came from and what they evolved from, it seems to confuse me how everything else started. For example, how did it occur for humans to grow brains and rule this world. Why are humans so powerful in this world? Why do we get to go to school? What is the point of everything when all living things-humans are going to die someday?
Additionally, how come elder generations of species didn't decide to invent stuff such as the "lightbulb" like Albert Einstein? If a human is a type of species or an animal, then how come we don't die as easily? For instance, if a dog kills a human, then the dog will be sent to death; aren't humans considered as animals too or is it just because we have total control of this Earth? How come humans get rights or can fight for their rights and if dogs want too, they cannot do what we can do exactly? Why can't humans live a simple life too like what pandas are, just wanting to eat and sleep? If the answer is like no because no humans will do any job for making us food. To be more specific, if no one was working, no one will be processing our food to eat, but how did species long ago survived? They depended on each other for survival (survival of the fittest), maybe that is the reason for the human population growing and not decreasing. This concludes my topic for today:evolution and think about all the questions I posted.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Blog #7 Compare and contrast two biomes describe them in detail include pictures of plants and animals you are liklely to see

Blog #7 Compare and contrast two biomes describe them in detail include pictures of plants and animals you are liklely to see

The two biomes that I will describe, compare, and contrast are the tropical rain forest and the tropical savanna.

The tropical rain forest are habitats to many animals or species. Rainforests contain lots of tall trees in a region of year round warmth. Rain falls 50 to 260 at average, inches a year; therefore, it is a wet climate group where it only covers 6% of Earth's land in the world but it gives us 40% of Earth's oxygen so don't you think we need more tropical rainforests since this world is producing more and more people. Every year it is humid because of all the rainfall; a tropical rainforest gets about 150 centimeter of rain every year. The rain comes from all the hot and wet weather. The hotter the air is, the more water vapor it can hold; therefore, causing a lot of rain. The climate is near the equator meaning that their is more direct sunlight hitting the land and sea causing the water to evaporate into the air and the warm air can hold lots and lots of water vapor.
Scientists estimated that more than half of the animals and plants in the world lives in these forests; it is their habitat. Above the forest floor, there forms a dense covering called a canopy; additionally in the seond layer of shorter trees and vines forms an understory. The organic matter that falles to the canopy decomposes quickly and the nutrients are recycled. Abiotic factors of a tropical rainforest are hot and wet yearlybut also round. In addition, the sils are thin and nutrient poor soils.
The dominant plants are broad-leaved evergreen trees with ferns, large woody vines, climbing plants, orchinds and bromeliads. However, the dominant wildlife contains herbivores such as sloths, tapirs, or capybareas; predators like jaguars, anyeaters, monkeys; birds such as toucans, parrots, and parakeets; insects such as buttterflies, ants and beetles; reptiles such as caymans, boa constrictors, and anacodas; piranhas and also other freshwater fishes. The geographic distribution are parts of South and Central America, Southeast Asia, certain parts of Africa, southern India, and northeastern Australia.

The other biome is the tropical savanna or it can be called tropical grassland. The tropical savanna has a similar weather as the tropical rainforest because the temperature is warm but there are seasonal rainfall, compact soil, and frequent fires set by lightning. However, the tropical savanna receives less seasonal rainfall than the tropical rainforests.  Savannas are seen by the isolated trees thereare and small groves of trees and shrubs or bushes. Compact soils, fairly frequent fire, and the action of large animals such as rhinoceroses stop some savanna areas from turning it into a dry forest. During the summertime, there are lots of rain days; an average of fifteen to twenty-five inches of rain falls which gets really humid and hot . Every single day, the hot, humid air will rise off the ground and collide with cooler air above and eventually will turn into rain.
Most of the animals in savannas have long legs or wings to be able to go on long migrations. Some animals are predators such as lions, leopoards, cheetahs, hyenas, and jackals. There are also animals such as elephants, giraffes, antelopes, zebras, baboons, birds such as eagles, ostriches, weaver birds, and storks; insects such as termites. The dominant plants are mostly tall, perennial grasses and sometimes drought-tolerant and fire-resistant trees or shrubs. Almost every animal and plant help each other to keep the enviroment balanced.
Every year savannas are lost to the Sahara desert because of overgrazing and farming; people had started using these savannas as a place to graze their cattle and goastsl they don't move around and soon the grasses are completely eaten up. With no vegetation, savannas just turn into a desert, dry and a place where vegetables are spotted.
These savannas are in large parts of eastern Afirca, southern Brazil, and nothern Australia.


How are tropical rainforests and tropical savannas the same? They are similar because of the weather; these places both have warm temperatures; however, the weather is different because savannas are not humid, but tropical rainforests are. Therefore, animals that are mostly like on the grass or land running or using their legs are mainly those that live in the savannas because animals that live in the rainforests are usually animals that climb on trees or the sky because the place is easier to adapt for them. Plants are also different because savanna plants are spreaded all around everywhere, but rainforests are very close together. Rainforests and savannas are also found in both northeastern Australia.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Blog #6 Which level of a food pyramid is the most important? Support your answer

Blog #6 Which level of a food pyramid is the most important? Support your answer

The most important level of a food pyramid is the bread, cereal, rice and pasta group, or it can be called the grain group. One of the reasons why is because more servings of the grain group are needed for your daily life. Every person should eat six to eleven servings of grain per day whereas the other groups are mostly three to five servings per day stating that the grain group is the most important meal of each day when you eat foods.

The grain group can be eaten anytime of the day such as cereal, rice, or bread. However, fruits are most likely not wanted to be eaten for breakfast because a stomach ache may happen.

The grain group helps fuels up your energy faster and faster for your body. It also has provides many benificial for health; it helps your body to reduce the risk of heart disease and your cholesterol if you have any. It also helps you with the weight management and reducing the incidence of constipation. Because grains are rich in fiber, it can prevent diarrhea and help you live a longer life. Eating grain foods or fiber can help you loose weight because it stays in your stomach for a longer amount of time than other foods, it is also lower in calories and fat, and it also causes you to chew more, which makes you end up eating slower.

Another reason is because grain foods can contain other good kinds of food groups. When you get a grain food, it could have some fruits, vegetables, or even dairy inside. For instance, if you eat cereal, you can add milk and bananas; therefore, having three types of servings from your food pyramid group already. Even schools mostly sell grain foods for lunch such as rice, sandwich, etc as the main food.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Blog #5 There have been 5 major extinction events throughout history, are humans impacting the 6th? Why or why not?

There have been 5 major extinction events throughout history, are humans impacting the 6th? Why or why not?

Since there are already 5 major extinctions throughout history, humans are going to have an impact to the 6th because humans are ruling this world currently, not animals, not mystical creatures, but humans. Humans together gather ideas of what to do in the future or right now, such as doing the captive breeding program-keeping animals from wildlife so they don't become extinct, but also keeping them in "jail." In addition, humans use electricity a lot; therefore, affecting the earth/environment in many ways. It is also why people are spreading the words to: Go Green and also reuse, recycle, and reduce. Apply it to yourself too! We can also see the world is changing because of the weather. For instance, during christmas time it was pretty hot and I thought winter was suppose to be cold. 

However, some incidents don't happen because of humans, but because of world changes. For example, we can't control when earthquakes stop, when hurricanes come, when a meteor crashes to earth or even when lava erupts; we have to face it and unfortunately, some animals or species may extinct by this. Because of mother nature, we simply cannot stop a meteor with our own hands like we can when there is a can being thrown at you.