Blog # 7: Biomes

Compare and contrast two biomes describe them in detail include pictures of plants and animals you are liklely to see
Tropical Rain Forest

• Canopy is formed from the ends of tall trees meeting.
• Under the canopy a second layer of trees and vines form the understory.
• Hot and wet year round
• Nutrient-poor soil
• All forms of greens
• Herbivores, Birds, Insects, Fish, and Reptiles 

 
Tropical Dry Forest

• Rainfall is highly seasonal
• Trees shed their leaves to conserve water during dry seasons
• Warm, alternating wet and dry seasons
• Rich soil that can have erosion take place
• Succulents, orchids, bromeliads, and tall trees that create a canopy during wet seasons
• Tigers, monkeys, large herbivores, insects, many large mammals, birds, and reptiles.             

 

Blog # 8 What is Confusing Me?

Why is it important to know the population density?

Food Pyramid: Blog # 6

I believe that the carbohydrate, or grains, level of the food pyramid is the most important. Carbohydrates give the body all the energy it needs. Without energy humans would not be able to survive. Protein can strengthen the body and give energy but the most energy comes from carbs.

The Cause of Extinction: Humans; Blog # 5

There have been five mass extinctions in the history of the Earth. Most of them where caused by natural climate change. The others are thought to have been caused by either the movement of techonic plates, volcanoe erruptions, or a collition between Earth and a comet. But it is thought that a sixth mass extinction is rapidly headed towards Earth. It is also believed that humans are causing this extiction. The things that humans are doing to upset the ecosystem are transforming landscapes, introducing alien species to enviroments, the overexploitation of species, and polution. These things are quickly changing the Earths climate, and if history is to repeat itself (as it allows does) when the Earth's climate changes quickly a mass extinction is bound to happen.

This Is My Selection (Blog #4)

Describe the three types of selection: directional, stabilizing and disruptive and give an example of each in your own words
Directional, stabilizing, and disruptive selection are the thre types of natural selection.
Directional selection is where a single trait is favored causing the frequency of the trait being dominant greater. The trait maybe recessive but with directional selection the recessive trait is favored so eventually it will become fixed.

             
 An example of directional selection is the fast trait in hunting dogs. Dogs that hunt need to be fast to catch their pray so their genes began to allow them to be faster and faster.

Disruptive selection is where two extreme sides of a trait are favored over the intermediate trait. This means that the differences in the trait are very obvious, which creates two different species that grow in different directions.

An example of disruptive selection is the galapagos finches.

Stabilizing selection is where the diversity of a trait decreases and the species has the same trait.

An example of stabilizing selection is a syberian huskie.

Blog #3

Explain what microevolution is? What are the three ways that variation occurs?
Microevolution is evolution an a small scale within a single population. It cannot always be seen in a species, it sometimes only effects how a species survives.
The three ways the variations occur are through mutation, gene flow, and natural selection.
Mutation is where some genes randomly mutate into different genes.
Gene flow, or migration, is where different genes enter a population through reproduction.
And natural selection is the idea that the strongest survive and the weak genes die off.

Blog #2 Fossils

Fossil records are hard to interpret because no two fossils are the same. Fossils come in many different sizes, shapes, and qualities. Some fossils have many pieces missing, that makes it very hard for scientist to determine what the species was and what its ancestors were. And without the fossils being the same shape or size scientists may not be able to put together that the two species are similar or related. Also if a fossil is small it can be damaged making it hard to interpret.   

http://www.thedarwinpapers.com/oldsite/number5/darwin5.htm