Chernoff Faces

The Chernoff Faces activity we did in class was a really fun way to learn about classification. This is something I'm definitely going to have to remember for when I'm a teacher. The idea of it was to make a face out of different shapes for the head, eyes, pupils, mouth, nose, and ears, with each one having a different meaning to it. For example, on the first face that we did, the shape of our heads meant where we were from. There were 3 different shapes; one for Upper Peninsula, one for Lower Peninsula, and one for Other. From there, our class got divided into 3 groups. We then divided our groups even more by the shapes of our eyes (our major/minor). When we did this a second time, we changed how we would divide ourselves first by what we thought was most important. It was a really cool activity that showed life forms can be classified and grouped up in many different ways. Sometimes the groups will be similar, sometimes they will be different. There is no limit to how you identify yourself as. Below are my two Chernoff Faces, proving that no matter how oddly-shaped my head is or how off-centered my ears are, I belong in more than one group.

The Odyssey

The second essay written by Aldo Leopold that we read was called "The Odyssey". In it, Leopold writes about elements X and Y. Through X, we are shown the biogeochemical process. First, X is marked in stone (geo). X is then pulled up into the roots of a tree (bio), and in this tree X helps make a flower, which becomes an acorn. A deer eats the acorn, and then is eaten by an Indian. The acorn, deer, and Indian all had X within them, and transferred through them. X is transferred then through many other living things and soil. X, then finds itself within another Indian, who passes near a riverbank. The bank collapses, and X, is pulled out to sea. This shows one of the abiotic factors in the cycle. Leopold then talks about Y in terms of its trips through the watershed, and that goes into talking about another element of the abiotic factor of the cycle.

I believe that Leopold was talking about nitrogen and carbon when referencing X and Y. Nitrogen changes into usable forms and are absorbed by plants, which in turn get eaten by animals and the animals get eaten by humans. When the animals and humans die, the nitrogen gets passed back into the Earth. Carbon is similar, except its forms (like carbon dioxide) are used by trees after photosynthesis and respiration. The cycle continues when the trees make glucose out of the carbon and is transferred to animals and humans, and back to the earth. It's a really interesting concept, however it's a little disturbing that most of the foods I eat have parts of them that were from dead people. I'm going to try my hardest to suppress that particular piece information.

Presque Isle

So a few weeks ago, my class met up at Presque Isle to learn how to identify the different kinds of trees that were there. As we were doing that, we also had to keep an eye out for examples of specific things. One of those was parasitism, and that one was pretty easy to figure out right away. Since these the area wasn't that big, and with the water being close by, there were plenty of mosquitoes flying around and sucking blood from animals and people alike.

Another thing we had to look out for was commensalism, and that one was a little difficult to find, due to the few animals seen in the woods. I did manage to see a few squirrels and chipmunks climbing up trees. They use these trees as homes and use their acorns as its primary food source. While this benefits the squirrels and chipmunks, this neither helps or harms the trees.

My group and I managed to find a couple of little frogs hopping around the grass and dirt. It's niche is that it eats mosquitoes and other flies, and they are also one of the food sources for some predators such as snakes and birds.

Prior to going into the woods, there were a few flowers that had bees in them, which demonstrated mutualism. Both the bees and the flowers benefited from this through pollination.

For interspecific competition, it didn't really occur too much with animals since there were too few to be seen. The different kinds of trees, though, are a good example because all of them compete for soil, water, and sunlight. As for intraspecific competition, it was a lot easier to spot. More than once, I saw a couple of chipmunks competing for food.

Rotted logs on the ground were a good example of microhabitats. They were different from the rest of the area because they were dead and no longer growing. It's also darker, more damp, and usually warmer than the surrounding area. On most of those logs, you can find decomposers like termites, ants, bacteria, and fungi.

There were also several examples of biogeochemical cycles at Presque Isle. A couple of the obvious ones are the water cycle and the carbon cycle. We see the water cycle in two ways. The first is the cycle of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The 2nd is the storage of water in Lake Superior and in snow during the winter. As for the carbon cycle, it can be observed in plants during photosynthesis and respiration.

Think Like A Mountain

In "Think Like a Mountain" Aldo Leopold talks about the death of a she-wolf killed by his party during a time when conservationists assumed that elimination of top predators would make game plentiful. At first, I thought I was reading something Stephen King wrote. It was a little dark and a bit weird, but as it went on I began to understand what was going on. It was just like the predator video we watched in class. If you take away the wolves, then the land begins to suffer. Just because the deer population would rise for a little while doesn't justify killing off the environment and every other species that depends on it. It gave me an uncomfortable feeling when reading about when they were shooting at the wolves.

"Think like a mountain" to me means that you should take time to put yourself in the environment's shoes, in a sense. The fact of the matter is that those mountains need the wolves in order to sustain life and keep balance within the animal kingdom. It's pretty easy to think like that. After all, if a bunch of deer were destroying the land around my home I would be very upset. With that being said, I still believe in controlling the wolf population in the Upper Peninsula. I'm not supporting the annihilation of the entire wolf population, though. That would be foolish, considering what that did to Yellowstone all those years ago. I am in favor of the wolf hunt if done correctly and closely monitored, because there's just too many reports of dogs and livestock being killed by them to go unnoticed. I know that there are some cases where families leave there dogs outside at night, but not every case is the same.

Predator Vs. Prey

The video that we watched about releasing and re-releasing predators in certain areas was really interesting. Prior to the video, I wasn't a big fan of wolves. Looking at them now and knowing how they helped control the elk population at Yellowstone, I've grown to appreciate them and respect their place in the food chain. The elk were essentially killing the land by eating all the trees. If they kept that up, then the environment would have been ruined. I understand the need to reintroduce wolves at Yellowstone, and I'm completely with that idea. At first I was upset that the wolves were killing the coyotes, but after learning that they were scavenging the kills that the wolves made while they were still around, I have to side with the wolves. If I went out hunting and shot a dear, and then I saw another hunter about to go steal the dear I shot, I would react in a similar way (not actually kill the hunter, just get angry with him and demand that he give me back my prize).

I'm also for releasing the cougars in Florida into the wild to help control the wild hog population. Wild hogs are nasty animals that dig up the ground for food, destroying farmlands and killing off crops. On top of that, they are mean-spirited animals that are highly aggressive towards humans and dogs. Just like the guy in the video said, humans needed help because there were just too many hogs for them to handle. After studies, the people who released the cougars confirmed that the cougars were hunting the hogs. In fact, half of their diet consisted of the wild hogs.

The bears, however, I was against releasing them. I couldn't help but feel incredibly bad for the beekeeper in the video. Everything he had that he used to make a living was destroyed by a scavenging bear. This happens almost everywhere where there are bears. They are far more likely to be wandering around a town or village than a mountain lion or a wolf. They may be scared of people most times, but when they can smell food and garbage, the fear pretty much goes out the window.

As for wolves in the UP, I personally feel that the population needs to be controlled. Unsuspecting farmers are losing livestock and people are losing their dogs. I understand the argument that dogs shouldn't be kept outside at night, but I wouldn't be able to stick with that idea if my dog was one of the ones reported to have been killed. I'm not saying exterminate them, because they are crucial to the food chain, but their numbers definitely need to be controlled.