Christian Cabreja Scavenger hunt

The Forest

This a picture of the woods behind my house. This could be considered a part of the Temperate Deciduous Forest biome which contains decomposers, producers, consumers and all levels of predators. This type of ecosystem supports life for about half of the united states.

Jet

This is my dog Jet, he would be a large predator if he was a wild dog. Jet’s taxonomy would be Canis familiaris like all other domestic dogs. He is a mix of two breeds, a great dane and a bull mastiff. Jet is a heterotrophic animal meaning that he must hunt or find his own food because he cannot produce it himself.

Hummingbird

This picture is of a hummingbird outside of my kitchen window. We have nectar feeders around the yard to bring them in and keep them feed. They are also heterotrophic and must find their own food. The hummingbirds taxonomy would be Archilochus colubris because this specific species was a ruby throated hummingbird. Birds are oviparous which means that they can lay eggs and hummingbird eggs are among the smallest.

Butterfly bush

This butterfly bush in my yard is large and always full of various insects, from butterflies to bees, to waps to things i can't even identify. It uses its scent and vibrant color to attract these insects which are necessary for the pollination of the plant. This plant like most is an autotroph meaning that it creates its own food. The food it creates would be glucose, the simplest of sugars, from photosynthesis.

Moth

This is a picture of a moth on my wall. Moths are an insect related to the butterfly that fly and are usually nocturnal. A moth starts out as a caterpillar and when it is ready it creates a protective cocoon around itself to undergo the process of metamorphosis. Many moths are and their larvae are considered invasive species because they can destroy crops and forests. One example would be the gypsy moths that we have around here.

Pond and River

Down a trail near my house lies this river and small pond. This is a perfect example of an aquatic ecosystem. Many fish, plants, insects, reptiles and amphibians live in the pond or around it. It also doubles as place for forest creatures to get water from. The species of fish I have personally seen there would be rainbow trout, yellow perch, brook trout, bluegill, and landlocked salmon.

Blueberries

These blueberries in my fridge are  producers. They produced energy from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water through the process of photosynthesis. The energy they produced goes into me so that I can stay up and running. If these were not picked they would have been eaten by some animal in the wild and then disposed of later to hopefully create a new blueberry bush with the seeds.

Tums

This bottle of Tums is an example of a basic compound which would be used to settle ones stomach. They are considered antacid tablets because the basic ingredients within them will react with acids in your stomach and hopefully bring your body’s pH closer to 7 which would be neutral.

My eye

My eye is an example of genes that myself and my family possess. I have brown eyes and every single member of my family that I have ever seen has brown eyes. This would mean that all of my family has had a dominant brown eye trait that has always shown through.

Vitamins

Here is a picture of a multivitamin that someone in my family takes. These consist of a variety of essential vitamins that help the body maintain functioning normally.

Hydrogen bond

The picture shows ice floating in water because this is the easiest visual of a hydrogen bond. However that simple example is minute in the big picture. Hydrogen bonding is what allows us to be here. The hydrogen bond is what creates the double helix in DNA and even allows DNA to be replicated. Without a hydrogen bond there would be nothing.

Jack

Jack is my crazy cat. He is a carnivore like Jet and a heterotroph meaning he must find food or in this case wait for food to be provided for him. He is a mammal meaning that his species gives birth to live newborns and provides breast milk for babies.

Fluke

This is a fluke that I saw diving. (a new activity of mine) A fluke is a type of flatfish the uses natural camouflage as a defensive measure against ocean predators. They are demersal creatures meaning that they feed and or live near or on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Spider

This spider is common around my area and keeps many of the bothersome insects away. Spiders are arthropods which means jointed foot in latin. Arthropods have an exoskeleton which protects them from most of the elements. Spiders are predators and they trap other insects in the web to be devoured later.

Seagull

Seagulls are always at the beach and that is because they are scavengers. Scavengers are animals that do not hunt and only eat excess food. Like a vulture that finds a dead animal in the desert. It exerted no energy to kill it and gains energy from eating it.

digital scavenger hunt - kyle marquis

Crabs are what are known as arthropods. It has a segmented body and jointed appendages, as well as a hard exoskeleton. In the crabs defense, it has evolved and adapted, growing two claws on its front arms. Arthropods are the most various phylum of the animal kingdom.

tillinghast pond

A lake is a common ecosystem in our region. An ecosystem is a community of living organisms, along with the nonliving factors and components in said environment.  The lake, would normally consist of many species of fish, some predatory birds, beavers, and other small mammals and insects.

This is a picture of common seaweed.  Seaweed is a producer, producers make their own sugars by using the suns natural energy.  The plants can make their own food by using a special cell unique to plants called chloroplasts.

This is a picture of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The process in which a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly is called metamorphosis. This process is when an organism finishes one part of its life cycle and begins another by changing its physical characteristics.

Plants are known as autotrophs and producers, they act as a food supply for many if not all herbivores, and they can create their own food supply by use of the suns energy. Any green plant is essential in the survival of all other organisms that breathe air considering plants produce it as a byproduct of making their food.

                                                                                 

Certain species of bees, like this bumblebee, collect pollen, or nectar, from many species of flowers. What I think is cool about this process is that sometimes, the bee will accidentally germinate a flower with another species pollen, a term known as cross pollination.

                                                                               

Shown above is common moss found on the forest floor.  To my surprise, moss is in fact a producer and does not have the ability to decompose organic or inorganic materials.  I thought this strange because I always saw dead trees with moss growing on them and I believed the moss to be the reason of the trees death.

This is my kitten Farley; she is a particularly playing carnivore. Carnivores are animals that only eat flesh, such as other animals lower on their respective food chain.

                                                                                   
Vitamins are an essential start to every morning, they provide nutrients to help the body function properly throughout the day.

                                                                             

Shown above are apples, which are a fruit.  These apples protect the seeds of the apple tree prior to germination. These fruits also serve as a food source to many different animals.

                                                                                   

This is my little brother Kurt, he is a hominoid, which refers to any ape or human being. They are classified as having larger brains in relation to their body size.

                                                                                   

This is my dog Shemp. He like my kitten is a carnivore, he is an Australian shepherd, and he was bred specially to be a sheep herder. It is believed that all breeds of dogs have their own breed typical behaviors, making it easier to train certain breeds of dogs to perform certain tasks better than other breeds would

                                                                                     

Trees are one of the most successful organisms on the planet, with over 80,000 different species ranging from a few centimeters high to over 360 feet. Trees are very diverse and have evolved from ancestors for over millions of years, adapting to survive on almost every condition on the planet.

                                                                                 

This is a common raccoon. Raccoons are scavengers and eat any food source they can come by to survive.  Not only will they scavenge nuts and fruits from trees but they will also sneak into the food scraps in your trash. They can be found out in the middle of the forest far from any human or living in a hole between your trashcans.

                                                                               
This is a bee’s nest, much like an ant hole, these are populations, in which a whole colony of worker bees live and die building the nest and keeping the queen alive and to further reproduce and keep the hive strong.

Adam Capwell AP Biology Scavengerhunt pictures 8-15

This is a picture of a scallop shell. A scallop is a mollusc which means that it has a soft body and in most cases has a tough shell to protect it. every mollusc has a muscular foot or several legs to transport it as well and a visceral mass which contains all of the organism's vital organs covered by a layer of skin called a mantle (in some molluscs the mantle secretes enzymes that harden into a shell).

This is a picture of a bottle of vitamins which contain some of the seventeen minerals humans require to preform standard functions.Most minerals are obtained through dietary methods and are essential to life. For example calcium can be obtained through drinking milk and humans along with most other vertebrates require a significant level of calcium to repair our skeletons and keep our nerves and muscles in working order.

 

This plant like almost all others has nodes. Nodes are the connecting points between the leaves of a plant and the stem, branches and twigs as well as the trunks of trees also qualify as stems. An internode is a segment of stem between two nodes. These structures are the foundation of the shoot system that allows plants to collect sunlight.

This deer is a ruminant mammal. A ruminant mammal is a mammal with a four chambered stomach containing microorganisms to breakdown cellulose. Other examples include cows and sheep. This picture was taken with a motion activated surveillance camera.  

The weather is an abiotic component of almost every ecosystem. An abiotic component is a non living thing that effects the organisms in a ecosystem, for example the weather in this picture allows for producers to absorb a great deal of sunlight. if the weather was extremely dry for instance many organisms would have difficulty finding water.

My cat Charlie is a heterotroph. She is incapable of producing her own food molecules without consuming other organisms or their byproducts. Which she breaks down into food molecules she can use.  This also makes her a consumer on the food chain. Charlie is also very unhappy with me in this picture due to the fact that I left my camera's flash on. 

 Fun fact: Charlie was named after Charlie Chaplin because of the rectangular spot on her nose.

 
 

These plants contain a the chemical lignin. Lignin is a chemical found in the cell walls of some plant cells, mostly those in vascular tissues, lignin hardens these cells' cell walls, allowing them to support the plant against the pull of gravity.  

This crab is an arthropod. It has a segmented body and jointed appendages, as well as a hard exoskeleton. in this case the front two appendages are adapted for defense,Arthropods are the most diverse phylum of the animal kingdom and possibly the most successful with an estimated 10 to the 18th individual arthropods on planet Earth.

Brenna McKaig's Digital Scavenger Hunt Part 2 (8 Pictures)

On July 22^nd, I left to go on vacation to visit family in Seattle. Throughout the course of our vacation, we went to many places in Olympic National Park including the Hoh Rainforest, the Hood Canal and Mount Rainier. We also visited the city and went to the Woodland Park Zoo. I typed this introduction because all of the photos in this album were taken over the course of my vacation to Washington.

 

8. This is a picture of a red panda in the Woodland Park Zoo located in Seattle, Washington. Red pandas are considered vulnerable, and are very close to becoming an endangered species. Red pandas are mainly located in India and China, where they have become close to becoming endangered due to deforestation of their habitat. Hunters and poachers also pose a large threat to red pandas located in these areas, as they hunt them for their fur. There are roughly 10,000 red pandas left in the world, and the death rate in the wild is much higher than the reproduction rate.  As a result of the decreasing number of red pandas, numerous attempts at conservation have been launched in both China and India as well as other countries located in Asia.

 

9. This is a picture of the trail in Hoh Rain forest, located in Olympic National Park. Hoh Rainforest is an example of a temperate rainforest as the rainforest maintains a temperature range of around 39-54 degrees Fahrenheit, and receives about 140 to 170 inches of annual precipitation. Although the picture was taken on an uncharacteristically sunny day, the rainforest receives a lot of rain throughout the course of the year and is normally foggy. The Hoh Rainforest also has trees which create a canopy above the ground of the forest and provides for much shade.

 

10. This is a hoary marmot located off a trail on Mount Rainier located in Olympic National Park. Taxonomy is a branch of biology which classifies animals by appointing scientific names starting with kingdom and eventually making the descent to species.

The scientific classification of a marmot is:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Rodentia

Family: Sciuridae

Genus: Marmota

Species: Marmota caligata

 

11. This is another picture from Hoh Rainforest and is of airplants, which are also known as epiphytes. The clusters of these epiphytes consist of lichens and hanging mosses. Lichens then consist of multiple organisms from different kingdoms to form a plant that as a whole lives with multiple symbiotic relationships within itself allowing it to survive as one organism. The main part of the lichen is a fungus which produces food for itself, and provides for most of the visible plant. Sometimes the fungus contains algae cells which provide further nutrition for the lichen plant.

 

12. This picture was taken during a walk on the beach of the Hood Canal. This picture represents the ecosystem of the Hood Canal, as it displays the abiotic and biotic factors which compose the habitat. Abiotic factors are nonliving constituents of the ecosystem, and include the water shown in this picture as well as the air, temperature, and sunlight. Biotic factors displayed in the picture are the two herons, and the grass. The herons contribute to the ecosystem by eating and therefore maintaining the population of the fish and small animals living on the Hood Canal, and the grass contributes by providing nesting areas for birds. All of these factors combined compose an ecosystem.

 

 13. These are two river otters in the Woodland Park Zoo. They exemplify the term consumer as they depend mainly on a diet of fish, crustaceans, plants, amphibians, and insects. Although otters aren’t necessarily the first animal that comes to mind when the term consumer is mentioned, their diet causes them to qualify. River otters are secondary otters because they consume primary consumers. Primary consumers are typically herbivores and therefore only eat plants. River otters are secondary consumers because they depend on a diet consisting of organisms which eat plants, and are primary consumers. Most secondary consumers are either carnivores or omnivores, which describes the diet of a river otter because they consume both plants and other organisms.

 

 

14. Slugs are detrivores, or decomposers. This slug was found on one of the many trails that we hiked throughout our vacation, and they were everywhere…Detrivores are organisms that maintain a diet consisting of organic waste such as dead leaves, or for worms, soil.  

15. This is a picture of trees growing on top of a dead tree, which is an example of detritus. Detritus is dead organic matter, and the trees are growing on top of the dead tree because when the trees were seedlings, the forest floor was not an accommodating surface. Seedlings were more able to thrive on top of the dead tree (detritus) because the trunk provided minerals, moisture and heat. Over time, the trees growing on top of the supporting tree, referred to as a nurselog, overpower the dead tree and reach the ground.

 

 

Katelin Kuyoth's Scavenger Hunt #2

Although I did not take this picture I found it to be very interesting. This is known as a frost flower which forms in the Autumn but conditions have to be perfect. This flower is an example of a  physical change going from a liquid to a solid. In order for this flower to form the temperature has to just reach freezing or just under. However the ground has to still be warm. The stems of plants continuously draw up water and in the freezing the stems split and the liquid water is able to leak out. As the water seeps out of the cracks from the stem it freezes forming the petals of a beautiful flower. 

Here is a picture of my old rabbit Luna taken last year (as you can see she has a little dirt on her nose from digging). An interesting fact about rabbits is that they can't produce  amino acids. These are needed in every living organism in order to acquire the necessary proteins, as they are essential for the structure of the cell and preform many functions. Along with the structure of a cell, proteins regulate chemical reactions within the cell. They also act as defensive proteins and storage proteins. Without these proteins the organism will be impacted and not be able to function accordingly. In order to get the necessary proteins a rabbit needs to acquire them through their diet.

Here is a picture of a white birch tree. All plants including trees have  nonliving portion known as a xylem. The xylem helps transport xylem sap all the way from the plants roots to their leaves. This sap carries any nutrients and minerals the tree or any plant may need. The xylem sap is not carried through out the plant by gravity but by transpiration. Transpiration is when water is lost from the leaves their is a pulling force that brings the xylem sap from the roots through the shoot and to the leaves.  

 The beach sand pictured here resembles a heterogeneous mixture. Unlike a homogeneous mixture you can see all of the substances that create this mixture. If you look closely you can see all of the pebbles and rocks that combine to form what we all know and love, sand.

Pictured here is the shell from a cicada. When the cicada completes each phase of their life cycle they go through a molt and undertake what is known as metamorphosis. Metamorphosis when an insect completes each stage of their life starting from an egg, larva, pupa, nymph and finally the adult stage. Between each stage the insect (in this case the cicada) molts their outer shell as they grow and gradually reach adult hood.

Here is the Cicada in the adult stage

Here is a picture of a grasshopper. Grasshoppers are herbivores and are primary consumers. Herbivore meaning they eat the producers and primary consumer meaning they are on the second level of the food web. Their main diet consists of grass and leaves. Because they only eat the plants they are primary consumers where as the secondary consumers will not only feast on the plants but other organisms as well.

 This seaweed I found in the ocean is a producer. Producers are at the bottom of the food chain, they use the suns energy to crate their own food, sugar.Plants are the only organisms that can produce their own food because of a special organelle in their cells known as the chloroplast.Animal cells do not contain a chloroplast therefore relieing on plants and other organisms for their meal. For the process of photosynthesis to acquire a plant uses the chlorophyll produced in the chloroplast. Along with the chlorophyll plants use the suns energy, carbon dioxide and water in order to create the sugar.

Here is a picture of a dragonfly I found by a pond.These insects are classified as odonatas along with the damselflies.These insects have transparent wings as well as compound eyes. They have small bodies and even though they have six legs they cannot walk. Because of the dragonflies compound eyes they have great vision. There eyes are constructed with many optical lenses known as ommatidia. These lenses are light sensitive allowing the dragonflies to see colors that humans could not see including ultraviolet lights.