Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pale Blue Dot


Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer and author, once said that if you saw Earth from far away in space, what you would see is a pale blue dot. Our planet appears this way because 70% of it is covered in water. Every living thing on this planet owes its existence to that miraculous molecule.
In the next two weeks, we will be studying Earth's water systems and we will analyze water in our local ecosystems.
Blogwork
Tell a story about a body of water that you visited (lake, river, ocean, etc). Describe the ecosystem that existed there. What types of plants and animals did you notice? Was the ecosystem healthy, in your opinion? Why or why not?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Over the summer i went 40 feet down in a scuba suit. I saw a coral reef and many organisms. one of the strangest was the sea cucumber, which was pretty much a 1 1/2 foot fat worm with a lot of little tentacles. I also saw a whit tipped shark, hundreds of fish, and strange plants.

Anonymous said...

I go to the beach every summer in Sea Isle City. I see a lot of sand and water. A lot of shells which organisms lived previously. There are Crabs, Hermit Crabs, and many Muscles. It is very inhabitant. Human impact may be bad for the environment. But the beach does seem healthy.

Anonymous said...

One time, I went to the beach. There were many shells washed up on the shore. I found a sand crab and a dead moon jelly. Jellyfish aren't good indicator species because they are very adaptable. The beach was clean enough to be a healthy ecosystem.

Anonymous said...

2 summers ago, i went 2 jersey shore like usual. every summer i used 2 go there and walk along the tide. but this time, there was more than just shells, seagulls, and the occasional crab. there were horse flys. it was horrible. there were so many of them that they were resistent 2 bug spray. i know that the reason that they were so bad that year because they are attracted 2 warm weather. and that is part of global warming.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother has a beach in her backyard and its probably the only lake I’ve ever swam in. It’s about twenty-five feet deep and has a greenish color to it. Algae grows on the top and bottom. There are also some grasses at one end that I have seen a few heron-like birds from time to time. Plenty of ducks live in the lake as well as a few snapping turtles. There are many houses on the lake and I suppose some recreational boating activity. I suppose the lake isn’t as healthy as it was before the human development, but the animal activity and plentiful plant life makes me think it’s doing pretty good.

Anonymous said...

A year ago I went to the east coast in Virginia. There were lots of seaweed and shells on the ocean shore. I even saw a crab that almost pinched my toes. I believe that this ecosystem was healthy, because I didn't see that much trash on the ground.

Anonymous said...

i used to live next to a large pond and i used to play by it all the time. i never swam in it because the water was a really dark color and no one knew what was in it. i usede to fish in it though and the fish seemed happy. Not to mention every summer there would be hundreds of tadpoles born from the frogs that hopped around on the small lilypads. There were also crickets a plenty of every color and size (withen reason) and there were cattails and dragonflys everywhere. It had a few pieces of trash on the shore but not a lot. It seemed like a very healthy ecosystem and a great place to play.

Anonymous said...

I was fishing at dawn in a small river. It seemed like as soon as the sun started to set the river came to life. Ther were to bevar swimming about five feet away from me. Then a blue herin swooped in and grabbed a fish from the waterand gulped it down. Then it went over to the other side of the river to sit on a stump. I was watching it when I saw a red blur in the wood bushs And relized ther ere to foxs sneaking up on the herin. When they were about ten feet away from him he relized they were ther and flew off.Ther were some trees and bushs growing at the water line and lots of alge and pan fish in the water also some catfish and an ocasonal carp.

Anonymous said...

A while ago I was at the Chesapeake Bay for the weekend and I saw saw many different amazing organisms. At one point, me and my friend were canoing through the lake and we saw 2 huge osprey on a nest on a small little perch in the middle. If we even got a little close to them, the osprey would freak out and scream at the top of their lungs. When we got even closer, they got off their perch and started to come near us. We got so scared and quickly got away. Also, later that night we saw a lunamoth. This creature was amazing; it was a big, light green, glow in the dark type insect that was crawling along the ground. Also, when we went fishing there, we caught sever perch and bass.

Anonymous said...

When I went to the Bahamas I looked over the balcany at the ocean. It was bluish-green and looked like it had alot of organisms living there.

Anonymous said...

instead of just seeing the blue, wouldn't you see some white which would be the clouds

Anonymous said...

I go to puerto rico every year and i have an house that is very near the beach. But my story is not about the beach. My story is being to a byoluminesent bay while we were on vacation. it first starts with meeting a group of people u knew most of them then we partnered up. My partner was my cousin. Then it got dark and i got scared i was only 11 i didnt think it was safe. But then the most amazing thing happened i stuck my paddle in the water and the water all of a sudden turned into a glowing neon blue. i almost thought i was dreamin it was the most beutiful thing. then i saw an Iguana swimmining and with every stroke it would make a beutiful blue glowing color. then we stopped. The life gaurd told me that i had to wear a life jacket cause their was sharks. But he was just playing with me. I jumped in opened my eyes i was under water. it was pitch black outside but because of the blue glowing color i was able to see everything. Even the slightest movement of ones hang you would eable to see it. then we went back. When we got out we were able to ask questions. one of the questions was is it always going to be this beuatiful. the answer was no. i was greatly dissapointed. He said the worries that the people had was that the fisherman would come around in there boats and the oil from their motors kill the plankton which create the glowing blue.

Anonymous said...

Eutrophication is a strict enlargement in chemical nutrients--common compounds that contains nitrogen or phosphorus in an environment. It might happen on land or in water. The term is however mostly used to mean the resultant rise in the environments primary or most important productivity—in other meanings excessive plant growth and decay—and even further impacts, including lack of oxygen and terrible reductions in water quality and in water quality and in fish and other animal popuations.

Anonymous said...

last year at my old school i went to arizona for a trip. we went river rapping in the san jaun river it was very fun camping out in the navjo nation and meeting a navjo indian it was fun rapping up the river. the very last day we river rapped the wave went up to about 12feet. i would say that the san jaun river is both healthy and unhealth because one their weren't any trash on the ground and two the water was very dirty cause people were peing in the water.

Anonymous said...

I remember once going to Rohobath,Delaware and riding bikes with my mom through a marsh. It smelled of sulfur and there was scum floating in it. I don't think the swamp was healthy because it was going through eutrophication.

Anonymous said...

I remember going to Lake Beach. There weren’t any shells, crabs, star fish or anything like that on the beach because there was no ocean. But there were small fish in groups in the water near the shore. There was a lot of nasty mucky seaweed. My friends thought it was ells under the water so they ran for the shore except for me. It was safe since no sharks lived in lakes. This happened when I was at summer amp during the summer. That was a interesting experience.

Anonymous said...

The Hudson River is one of the many bodies of water that I have been to but this was the most unique to me. The Hudson River is the river that separates New York from New Jersey. The Hudson is heavily polluted body of water because on both sides of the Hudson are cities. When I visited there the only animals I saw were seagulls but in the water all you could see was green muck. It was no way you could see what was living there in the water but I doubt that they’re way even any marine life living. In my opinion the river was not healthy or the environment wasn’t healthy from all the pollution from the buildings, cars, busses, and subways but most of all from the people.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.