IntroductionBiodiversity is the variety of life in a specific location. Biodiversity is important because of the different functions organisms have in an ecosystem. Organisms rely on each other to survive, if the smaller organisms are eliminated, the larger ones will suffer as well. Unfortunately, humans are greatly impacting biodiversity in the ocean. Not only are the impacts of overfishing, dumping, and human traffic affecting the marine life, it is also affected by human activity on land. Pollution from the industry is heating up the environment, and the oceans are acidifying. Another large factor affecting marine life is toxic runoff from storm drains. All of these are detrimental to the biodiversity of the ocean and are killing off various organisms. The ocean life must be preserved. Not only for the sake of the animals lives, but also because biodiversity may be beneficial to human life. Many plants are used in modern medicine, if too many organisms are killed off, humans could possibly kill off an animal before they realize it is a cure to cancer. What I DidI was part of the water team. Before the deployment, my swimming partner and I were tasked with scouting the bay, measuring depth, exposure to sunlight, and texture ground (Mud/Rock) looking for potential spots for the ARMS. After presenting our findings to the class, 5 locations were decided upon. Next we assisted in the planting and anchoring of ARMS. Unfortunately, due to our lack of an oxygen supply, we were limited to about 15-30 seconds below water. For this reason we mostly transported gear from shore to sea and vice versa in addition to photographing and documenting the deployment.
After about two months, the ARMS were ready for retrieval. In order to do this we needed some sort of cage to lift the ARMS and trap all motile creatures within it. Working between school and home I was able to design and build a capable recovery system for under five dollars. The cage was equipped with four clips that locked onto the ARMS and mesh which trapped all motile creatures within the cage. For the recovery of the ARMS I was in charge of the cage I have previously constructed. I started the day by training the divers on how to use the contraption to lock onto the ARMS. After they were proficient, we swam as a group to the various ARMS sites. After the divers came up with the ARMS, my swimming partner and I would make the long voyage swimming back to shore with each of the four 15 lb ARMS. Once on shore we would help the next team unclip the recovery system and return to the divers with the cage. |
Method
Grant Proposal Bay Biodiversity
1) Biodiversity Research:
Biodiversity is the variety of life in a specific location. Biodiversity is important because of the different functions organisms have in an ecosystem. Organisms rely on each other to survive, if the smaller organisms are eliminated, the larger ones will suffer as well. Unfortunately, humans are greatly impacting biodiversity in the ocean. Not only are the impacts of overfishing, dumping, and human traffic affecting the marine life, it is also affected by human activity on land. Pollution from the industry is heating up the environment, and the oceans are acidifying. Another large factor affecting marine life is toxic runoff from storm drains. All of these are detrimental to the biodiversity of the ocean and are killing off various organisms. The ocean life must be preserved. Not only for the sake of the animals lives, but also because biodiversity may be beneficial to human life. Many plants are used in modern medicine, if too many organisms are killed off, humans could possibly kill off an animal before they realize it is a cure to cancer.
Source: Hartman, Aaron. Biodiversity Talk. January 21, 2015
2) Your Independent Variable (the cause):
Comparing reef ecosystem vs. bay ecosystem.
We have chosen these two different environments to see the effects that an ecosystem with a lot of human traffic has compared to a location with not as much human traffic. We predict that the location will contain more biodiversity. If this is true this can show our local community how much humans influence the diversity of life in the bay. Then we can work towards solutions to help restrain human contact with life in the bay.
3) Dependent Variables (the effect):
The best dependent variable to test this would be by listing the total organisms on each of the A.R.M.S.. This would show which ecosystem is more biodiverse, and ultimately richer in life. We will take pictures of the individual plates on the ARMs immediately after we take them out of the water to be able to record the organisms accurately.
4) Controlled Variables (how we are making sure that the other variables are controlled):
Our constant variable will be the depth of the water. We will be looking at an arm in the kelp beds and an arm in the channel which will be at the same depth. Other control variables include water temperature and exposure to sunlight.
1) Biodiversity Research:
Biodiversity is the variety of life in a specific location. Biodiversity is important because of the different functions organisms have in an ecosystem. Organisms rely on each other to survive, if the smaller organisms are eliminated, the larger ones will suffer as well. Unfortunately, humans are greatly impacting biodiversity in the ocean. Not only are the impacts of overfishing, dumping, and human traffic affecting the marine life, it is also affected by human activity on land. Pollution from the industry is heating up the environment, and the oceans are acidifying. Another large factor affecting marine life is toxic runoff from storm drains. All of these are detrimental to the biodiversity of the ocean and are killing off various organisms. The ocean life must be preserved. Not only for the sake of the animals lives, but also because biodiversity may be beneficial to human life. Many plants are used in modern medicine, if too many organisms are killed off, humans could possibly kill off an animal before they realize it is a cure to cancer.
Source: Hartman, Aaron. Biodiversity Talk. January 21, 2015
2) Your Independent Variable (the cause):
Comparing reef ecosystem vs. bay ecosystem.
We have chosen these two different environments to see the effects that an ecosystem with a lot of human traffic has compared to a location with not as much human traffic. We predict that the location will contain more biodiversity. If this is true this can show our local community how much humans influence the diversity of life in the bay. Then we can work towards solutions to help restrain human contact with life in the bay.
3) Dependent Variables (the effect):
The best dependent variable to test this would be by listing the total organisms on each of the A.R.M.S.. This would show which ecosystem is more biodiverse, and ultimately richer in life. We will take pictures of the individual plates on the ARMs immediately after we take them out of the water to be able to record the organisms accurately.
4) Controlled Variables (how we are making sure that the other variables are controlled):
Our constant variable will be the depth of the water. We will be looking at an arm in the kelp beds and an arm in the channel which will be at the same depth. Other control variables include water temperature and exposure to sunlight.
Back up Question
Unfortunately, one of the realities of science is that things go wrong. My partner and I chose to study the difference between an ARM in the bay and and ARM on the ocean reef, off La Jolla Cove. All of the ARMs in the bay were found, but someone stole the one anchored on the reef. When we discovered this we were forced to move to our backup plan. Our backup research question was: Are there more organisms living near an underwater structure (bridge) than there is in the muddy ecosystem?
For our new experiment we studied ARMs A&C. ARM A was located in the muddy ecosystem in the middle of the channel at about 13 feet deep. ARM C was located next to one of the supports for the bridge at about 17 feet deep. We hypothesized that ARM C would have more life because the bridge acted as an artificial reef. |
Results
ARM A, Mud Ecosystem:
Fig.1 shows the top side of plate #1. Functional groups labeled by numbers include, tunicates, bryozoa, mollusks, and porifera. Roughly 67 organisms found.
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ARM C, Bridge Ecosystem
Fig.2 shows the top side of plate #1. Functional groups labeled by numbers include, tunicates, mollusks, annelids, and urochorda. Roughly 87 organisms found.
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Conclusion
From examining the plates we found our hypothesis to be correct. ARM A had more variety in species, but as we predicted ARM C had much more life on it. Tunacates, the white jelly looking worms, need a solid structure to fasten themselves to. The muddy ecosystem does not offer a lot in terms solid structures. The bridge on the other hand provides a very solid structure and an ideal habitat for tunacates. As for the the lack of variety on ARM C that ARM A has, I have a few conclusions. First, although visibility in the bay is very bad, sunlight still gets through. ARM C, covered for most of the day by the bridge receives less sunlight than ARM A. Sunlight is crucial to plant life which might explain the larger range in variety on ARM A. Secondly, there were an overwhelming amount of tunacates on ARM C, the tunacates probably smothered smaller, weaker organisms. With the lack of tunacates on ARM A, smaller organisms had a better chance of survival.