FORESTS AND GRASSLANDS REACTION PAPER

 International Day of the Forest (3:22) A. Ten ecological services of the forest are supporting energy flow and chemical cycling, reduce soil erosion, absorb and release water, purify water and air, influence local and regional climate, store atmospheric carbon, provide numerous wildlife habitats, provide fresh drinking water, fresh food and help battle against climate change. B. Celebrating this day makes people stop and think about what the forest does for us and makes us appreciate it more. C. Two groups involved in the preservation of forests are IUCN and Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration.  Wild Earth Guardians.  A. Land is considered to be wilderness if there are no roads to travel. It has to remain untouched. B. I was surprised by some of the things they considered when looking into conserving the wilderness such as value of the wildlife habitat and the richness of the species. I would just think that with so many animals facing extinction these days that saving any animal habitat would be expected. C. Two groups on involved in preservation of wilderness are Grand Canyon Trust and Wild Utah Project. D. If you are interested in helping this effort you can donate money to the fund or contact Kevin Mueller for more information on how you can help.  The Land of Mountaintop Removal (2:57) A. The mine can contaminate their air and water causing health issues. Heart, lung, and kidney disease rates are higher. They have also seen a link to birth defects. B. I was actually touched by the video showing the mountains and then quickly showing the mine. It was sad to see all the forest beauty gone. It was also shocking to hear how communities had had to move because the land was bought up for miming. I can’t imagine having your whole community being told to move. C. Ilovemountains.org is a group fighting against mountain top mining and so is The US environmental Protection Agency. D. There are many groups involved in this fight. If you are interested in join them you can search the area you are interested in and contact that agency.  Avatar Grove Making a Stand (7:43) A.. Old growth holds biological importance by destroying large amounts of atmosphere carbon, supporting unique biodiversity and endangered species it also provides clean water for wildlife and people. B. Thinking about how old those trees have been around and hearing they are at risk to being logged was hard to hear. It was surprising to hear that only 20% of the trees are protected. C. Two groups involved in preservation of the Avatar Grove are Ancient Forest Alliance and Port Renfrew Group. D. These groups are asking that you write a letter to Forest Minister Pat Bell and Premier Gordon Campbell asking them to protect this forest.  Climate, Trees, and Legacy (45:23).  A. Assisted migration is a managed migration where colonies of species are forced out of their natural habitat. Connie Barlow is an advocate when it comes to assisted migration. She feels that it is a necessity. B. I found it interesting that it takes a tree about 30 years for a tree to start making seeds to reproduce. I had never thought of the life cycle of a tree. I also thought it was interesting learning about assisted migration. C. Look into the Great March for Action Campaign if you are interested in helping. D. I was unable to get video to load completely.  Importance of Northern Arizona Grasslands A. Five types of grasslands listed were open, restorable, non-native, transitional and historic. Five threats to grasslands are fire, drought, grazing, burrowing animals and soil erosion. B. I was surprised to see Big Chino listed in the grasslands that still need to be studied further. This stood out because I live in Chino. Another thing that stood out to me is that fire was natural and used to keep the bushes down and since we have suppressed fires so much the bushes has been able to grow bigger taking over the grasslands. This stood out to me because of the big fire we had last summer on Williamson Valley. C. Two groups that are working on preserving grasslands are Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program and The land owner incentive program. D. If you are interested you can always visit their websites to see how you can participate in their programs.  E.O. Wilson on Biodiversity and Hotspots A. I couldn’t find the names of the hotspots but, found a map showing where the hotspot was. They are: California Floristic Provence, Brazils Atlantic Forest, Madagascar, Colombia, Cerrado, Japan, Horn of Africa, Indoburma, Sundaland, and Wallacea. B. E.O. Wilson was born in June of 1929 in Alabama. An interesting fact I found was that he was blind in one eye due to a fishing accident as a child. He was interested in nature and science as a young child. He had a nickname “father of sociobiology”. He was an environmental advocate. C. It was interesting to hear that one is in California which is where I grew up. I wish I had been more aware. The other thing that stood out to me in the video is that if everyone chipped in to help out the cost would barely affect anyone. D. Two groups involved in preserving hotspots are MacArthur Foundation and Conservation International.

Random Sampling

Random Sampling Data Actual Data Grid Segment (number and letter) Number of Sunflowers Total number of Sunflowers _228_____ (count by hand) Average number of Sunflowers (divide total by 10) Per grid __22.8___ C8 2 J8 0 D10 2 C9 2 G7 3 G6 1 D2 2 F9 3 G1 3 D10 2 Total Number of Sunflowers 20 Average (divide total by 10) 2 Total number of plants in meadow (multiply average by 100) 200 8. Now count all the sunflower plants actually shown in the meadow. Record this number in the data table. Divide this figure by 100 to calculate the average number of sunflower plants per each grid. Analysis 1. Compare the total number you got for sunflowers from the SAMPLING to the ACTUAL count. How close are they? I estimated that there were 200 sunflowers in the meadow. The actual count was 228. I would say for an estimate this is close enough given a margin of error. 2. Why was the paper-slip method used to select the grid segments? The paper slip method was used because it keeps it random. There is no way to skew the results when you are pulling random numbers or letters out of a bowl. 3. A lazy ecologist collects data from the same field, but he stops just on the side of the road and just counts the ten segments near the road. These ten segments are located at J, 1-10. When she submits her report, how many sunflowers will she estimate are in the field? There are 7 sunflowers in that row. With her estimation the meadow would only have 70 sunflowers in it which is extremely off count. 4. Suggest a reason why her estimation differs from your estimation. Many times the outskirts of a meadow are thinner than the inside. By taking it only from the outskirts it is no longer random and is a focused study. 5. Population sampling is usually more effective when the population has an even dispersion pattern. Clumped dispersion patterns are the least effective. Explain why this would be the case. Random sampling won’t work well if there is a clumped dispersion because it throws of the count and is hard to get an average per grid. 6. Describe how you would use sampling to determine the population of dandelions in your yard. I would use this same technique. I would form a grid on my yard and then use the paper slip method to count certain areas in my yard. 7. In an area that measures five miles by five miles, a sample was taken to count the number of desert willow trees. The number of trees counted in the grid is shown below. The grids where the survey was taken were chosen randomly. Determine how desert willow trees are in this forest using the random sampling technique. Show your calculations. 35 divided by 5 = 7 trees per grid divide that by 35 = 5 x 35= 175 trees in the meadow 7 3 5 11 9 Reference Biology Corner. Random Sampling. 2014 Apr 6. Web.

Fearsome Frogs

I actually found the bullfrog video interesting to watch. From the beginning it started sharing facts that I found interesting. I never knew that bullfrogs were brought into Arizona as a sport for cowboys. The bull frogs were introduced into our habitat for the cowboys to hunt for sportsmanship and to provide food for them. The thought of eating frogs is not appealing at all. I am a hunter and into hunting my food and putting it on the table for my family. But, it would take an awful lot of bullfrogs to provide a meal for my family and fill up my belly with the average bullfrog only being 1 pound 8 ounces. I also found in interesting that they are able to eat just about anything: tarantulas, scorpions, snakes and even other frogs, to the point the native leopard species of frogs is gone in Arizona. I can understand what the scientist is hoping to achieve by building a fence to keep the two species separated but, I do not feel that this will solve the issue. I think that the bull frog would find a way to get around the fence. The only way this would work would require a cage to hold and protect the leopard frog. In order to control the bull frogs in Arizona lakes and ponds I think that they would need to bring in known predators to the bull frog to help control the population. The video showed pelicans so I am not sure if this is something that could be brought into Arizona lakes and ponds. The video also showed frog festivals taking place and mentioned that that helped to control the bullfrogs from taking over. I do not see frog eating festivals becoming popular here like they are in other states that help them to keep their population in control. The National Geographic Fearsome Frogs retrieved from http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/fearsome-frogs/?ar_a=1

The Stearn's Dam

The Stearns Dam was built back in 1911 to irrigate the Stearn Ranch from water in the Crooked River. In 1934 the dam had to be constructed even stronger to prevent it from being washed down the hill. Eventually anglers became concerned that the dam would prevent the migration of the native fish. In October 2013 they decided to remove the dam. The concerns were that it was built so long ago that nobody knew what to expect when they tore it apart. The Crooked River runs with the Deshutes River in Grant County, Oregon. It is part of the Grasslands biome community. The river is fed off of Snow Mountain and Funny Butte runoff draining into the rivers. The Crooked River once housed Chinook Salmon and Redband Trout. Unfortunately the Salmon did not survive the dam. Since the dam has been taken down they have tried to place hatchery fish back in the river to see if they can bring up the population again. The river used to be full of waist high grasses and willow trees. Animals that lived there were beavers and rattlesnake. Currently the Crooked River is used for irrigation diversions during the summer months. The biggest struggle right now is trying to get native fish back into the water there and get vegetation up on the river bank to keep it from sliding into the river. Weeds are trying to take over. Another struggle is trying to keep cattle from crossing over the river onto the highways. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_River_%28Oregon%29 http://www.bendbulletin.com/home/1574596-151/stearns-dam-completely-gone-from-crooked-river http://portlandtribune.com/ceo/162-news/198386-stearns-dam-removal-gets-under-way http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2011/12/crooked_river_grassland_is_no.html

Lab 8 part 2

I have been trying to do this all day. I wasn't able to figure out the concept map. So this is the closest I could get.

Lab 8 Part 1

I live in Chino Valley, Arizona.  According to Google Earth the biotic community that my home resides in is Grassland (plains and great basin grassland).  A common plant found in grasslands is Indian Grass.  Indian Grass grows well in full sun and dry soil making it able to tolerate the warm summers in the grasslands.