Brenna McKaig's AP Biology Digital Scavenger Hunt Album-Set #1

1. This picture is of a strip which when dipped into our pool, allows us to determine the pH of the pool and whether chemicals need to be added to adjust the pH. The pH of the pool is shown in the top box which is an orange color. The pH scale is the measure of either the acidity or basicity in a substance. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 0 being the most acidic to 14 being the most basic. 7 is neutral, as it is right in the middle and is neither basic nor acidic. Evidently, the pH of the pool is about a 6.2, which is considered low, as the pH should be between a 7.2 and a 7.8. At a 6.2, the pool is currently acidic and in order to become basic, it is necessary to add a basic solution containing hydroxide ions in order to increase the basicity.

2. This is a picture of a honey bee pollinating a coreopsis flower in my mom’s garden. There are three types of symbiotic relationship: commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism. The symbiotic relationship demonstrated by the bee and the flower is mutualism as both organisms benefit from the relationship. Bees gather nectar from the flowers from nutrients and in the process of gathering their food, pollen sticks to their bodies and causes them to pollinate flowers in the process of landing on flowers and getting nectar. This is a mutualistic relationship as the bees receive the necessary nutrients and at the same time, enable flowers to reproduce.

 3. This is my cat Muffin, and he is an example of a eukaryotic animal. A eukaryote is an organism which possesses eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells are cells which contain membrane enclosed nuclei, as opposed to prokaryotic cells which don’t have nuclei. Eukaryotic cells also have membrane enclosed organelles. Eukaryotic organisms belong to the domain Eukarya which consists of eukaryotes, thereby including protists, plants, fungi, and animals such as Muffin.

  

4. These flowers are petunias in my mom’s garden and possess genes which code for the flowers to be red. If red is the dominant allele, then the genotype is RR. However, the physical quality of being the color red is called the phenotype. The phenotype is the specific characteristic coded for by the genotype, and in this case, the phenotype for the color of the petunias is red.

 

5. This a picture of a plum. Everyday fruit has likely undergone artificial selection as farmers want to ensure that the produce being sold possesses the best genetic qualities and through this process can cause more produce to be yielded. While natural selection allows the organism to pass down traits which will allow the organism to thrive in its particular environment, artificial selection is commonly used to choose desirable traits for whatever is being produced. In the process of artificial selection, the person choosing the plants which produce these fruits makes decisions to breed two plants with desirable qualities, such as the ability to produce more fruit or even larger fruit.

 

 

 6. Although it isn’t apparent, the picture is of rain falling in my backyard. I was curious as to what the pH of the rain was, as I wanted to know whether the rain falling in my backyard had a pH similar to that of acid precipitation. Acid precipitation is any form of precipitation with a pH of 5.6 or less. After the rain had finished, I went out to the pool yard and I dipped a pH strip into a float which had collected rain water. The pH was about a 5.8-6.0. On the pH scale (0-14) 0 is the most acidic, 14 the most basic, and 7 is considered neutral. Although the rain isn’t considered acid precipitation until the pH is 5.6 or below, it was interesting to determine the pH of the rain and how close the rain water was to being truly acidic.

 

7. This is a snail present in my salt water fish tank. Snails are helpful additions to fish tanks as they are scavengers whom eat the algae present within the tank. This is the snail’s role in the ecosystem of the tank; or its niche. They contribute to the ecosystem by maintaining its cleanliness through feeding on the algae and wastes of the fish present in the sand.