Wed. 3/4

Blue Ringed Octopus 

Common name: The Greater Blue Ringed Octopus or the Lesser Blue Ringed Octopus 

Scientific name: Hapalochlaena Maculosa 

Adaptations: In the video they talk about how in order to scare away predators, their rings become a bright blue to say "don't eat me, I'm poisonous". A fact not included in the video is that the blue ringed octopus is one of only eight species that uses a rare toxin called Sheumack et al.  As the bacteria and the octopus evolved alongside each other, they developed a unique symbiotic relationship: the octopus gives the bacteria a home, while the bacteria produces a toxin for the octopus.

Hunting strategies: The Octopus eats different crustaceans and mollusks.  It especially uses it's toxin when trying to eat crabs. It wraps them up in its tentacles and gets under there belly, induces the toxin and then uses its strong beak to consume their prey.Something we didn't learn is that it has two poisons, one for defending itself and one for attacking it's prey.

Reproduction: In order to reproduce, the male octopus slips a special tentacle with a packet of sperm on the tip into the mantle of the female, where the sperm then fertilizes her eggs.

Interesting facts:

For one, this species cannot harm its own species with their poisons toxins. 

Another fact is that even though the blue ringed octopus seems unbeatable with no known threats, they only have a 2-3 year life span.

I chose this because I really think it is a very unusual creature and it's sort of pretty in a way.

Tues. 3/5

Sea Grasses

Adaptations:  Sea grasses have adapted most importantly to salt water through developing horizontal stems called rhizomes. They also have flexible blades that bend with little resistance to water movement.
Two ways sea grasses provides food: 
1) The detritus produced by bacteria breaking down dead sea grass plants provides food for worms, sea cucumbers, crabs, and filter feeders.
2) Because some invertebrates are kept healthy by sea grasses, this provides food for birds and fish.
Migrants, Travelers, and Residents of Sea grasses
There are different types of organisms that live in sea grasses like residents, who live in the sea grass full time, migrants, who migrate to the sea grasses daily and frequently, and travelers, who visit seasonally.

  

Monday 3/4

Five Benifits of Sea Grasses


1. Sea Grasses provide a nursury for small animals.

2. Provides energy for a coral reef.

3. Like the mangroves, it helps out the fishing industry.

4.Filters Sediments and toxins from the water.

5. Helps shores from eroding.

Fri. 3/1

VIDEO CLIP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbN161yBBGA (couldn't upload directly)

Fishermen have problems fishing so they go to coral reefs.  Fisheries take large numbers of juveniles like groupers and make it harder for them to reproduce.  Slowly the populations of different fish caught decrease in numbers.  Without different fish populations around the coral reefs, the entire food chain could be effected as well as the reefs.

I chose this because I've always wanted to visit coral reefs and I would rate this video an eight on a scale of 1-10.

Thursday 2/28

Pollution

Plastic and synthetic materials are the most common types of marine debris and cause the

most problems for marine animals and birds. At least 267 different species are known to

have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris including seabirds, turtles,

seals, sea lions, whales and fish.

Marine debris is known to cause entanglement that includes old fishing gear such as

nets and mono-filament lines and also six-pack rings and fishing bait box strapping bands.

This debris can cause death by drowning, suffocation, strangulation, starvation through

reduced feeding efficiency, and injuries

Plastic bags can also be a big threat to marine life by being broken up then swallowed, blocking the digestive tracts of the animal, fills the stomach, resulting in malnutrition, starvation and potentially death.

Discarded or lost fishing nets and pots can continue to trap and catch fish even

when they are no longer in use.This is known as ghost fishing and it can

result in the capture of large quantities of marine organisms. Sadly, it has become

a concern with regard to conservation of fish stocks in some areas and has resulted in 

economic losses for fisheries.

Plastic fragments broken down are called plastic pellets that are the most abundant of hard plastics and post a threat to marine life when it lodges in animals throats or digestive system.

Clearly these different types of pollution affect marine life and ecosystems. Hopefully who ever reads this can understand we need to do more to help out our oceans and support marine life!

Wed. 2/27

Benefits of mangroves


Nursery:
The mangroves create a happy nursery for many young fish which provides protection from outside predators. The Red Mangrove for example has roots that diversely stick in the ground creating small spaces made for smaller fish.

Nutrients:
Nutrient conserving processes in mangroves are well developed and include evergreeness, resorption of nutrients prior to leaf fall and the immobilization of nutrients in leaf litter during decomposition.  It provides detritus for sea grass also.

Sediment: 
The sediment benefits from the mangroves creating a stabler surface. And sometimes it creates a sediment plume which filter and trap dirt as it flows, this filter toxins from the water before it enters the sea.

Toxins:
As said before, the toxins are filtered by the mangroves from the sediment before it enters the sea.  

Buffer system:
The mangroves are also beneficial to wildlife and the residents living behind it because when tropical storms hit or hurricanes strike, they serve as a buffer and take the hard blow of the storm protecting what's behind it.


Ecosystem corridor:  
The mangrove provides an ecosystem by protecting smaller fish to grow and therefore helping fishing industries to catch the big fish as they get older.  

Tues. 2/26

Mangrove adaptations(5)!

1.The red mangrove has developed an adaptation in very unstable soil to develop roots that branch out and prop itself up and stabilize the tree.
2.This type also excludes salts at their roots surface by their leaves extracting salt too.

3. The Black Mangrove has roots that extend upward from the soil that get more oxygen and exchange gases.

4. Both black and white mangroves utilize salt excretion as a balancing mechanism.
5. The black mangrove flowers open at night for bats to feed on its nectar.