Presque Isle Community Ecology Blog
An example of parasitism would be a mosquito sucking the blood out of somebody walking around Presque Isle.  This is parasitism because the mosquito is benefiting from getting the blood out of the human, and the human as the host is not going to die.  Although most parasites don't cause disease, they may cause discomfort for the host, which is what happens with humans--they leave behind itchy lumps and remain there for a couple of days.  An example of commensalism would be a bird in Presque building a nest in a tree.  Commensalism is when one organism benefits while the other is essentially unharmed, which is the case given.  A bird benefits by building a nest in a try high about the ground to lay eggs to keep them safe, while there is no effect happening upon the tree.  An example of mutualism would be a bee and a pollinating flower.  Mutualism is when both organisms benefit, and this is the case with the bee and the flower.  The bee gets nectar from the flower essential for survival, and the bee carries the pollen over to other flowers.  An example of intraspecific competition would be two deer competing over resources.  Since most deer have ultimately the same niche, they must compete over resources such as water, food, shelter, mates, and dominance in their pack.  An example of interspecific competition would be different kinds of trees competing for sunlight.  Since different trees have different heights the taller trees have easier access to sunlight, which allows them to make more food necessary for survival, while the shorter trees might struggle to obtain the necessary amount of sunlight to make their food.  An example of a microhabitat in Presque Isle would be the bog.  For the most part, Presque Isle is a forest filled with grasses, trees, and a wide diversity of animals.  However, the bog is not really a forest-like habitat; it is a wet, acidic habitat and has a swamp feeling around it.  If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't have thought that the bog was a part of Presque Isle.  I'll describe the niche of a white-tailed deer.  They are a fair amount of deer that wonder around Presque, which is a wooded area.  Usually their homes are usually less than a square mile, and females usually travel alone when not mating, and males travel in some packs when not mating.  Mating season is usually around November.  Deer usually eat in the early morning hours and in the late afternoon, and what they eat depends on the season.  In the spring and summer, they eat green plants; in the fall, they eat corn, acorns, and other nuts; in the winter, they eat the buds and twigs of plants.  Deer are prey of bobcats and coyotes, but their biggest predators are now humans and dogs, but other things that kill deer are disease and parasites, such as lice, mites, and roundworms.

Although it may be tough to see, this is a picture of a white tailed deer in Presque Isle eating dinner by a tree.

Small Community
One day I was crawling around Presque Isle as my devious little insect self when I stumbled across a small little community.  For the area being as small as it was, there were so many different things located there.  The first object I stumbled across was a green leaf, and good thing, too.  I hadn't eaten in a couple of hours so I was starving and in luck, I was craving greens.  I didn't eat all of it because it was larger in size, but the relationship I had with that leave could be classified as commensalism.  After I was finished with the leaf, I saw spider significantly smaller than I.  Fortunately I'd already eaten, so I decided I wouldn't prey on him, and he appeared to be crawling back towards his nest which was camouflaged by leafs.  I was fortunate to eat when that leaf when I did because the spider looked to be heading towards the leaf I ate.  The interspecific competition has been tough as of recent, so I have been trying to eat sooner to avoid traveling around the same time as other insects. The next object I approach was a stick, and it was propped up at about a 45 degree angle.  Because of this high angle, I wanted to climb to the top of it so I could survey the rest of the little community.  As I ventured over to the stick, I crawled into some damp dirt that hadn't dried from the rainfall that came earlier that day.  It was a tough stretch to pass, but with persistency  and determination it became tolerable.  The last obstacles I faced before reaching the stick were dead leafs, and quite the abundance of them.  Because I knew dead leaves decayed and helped fertilize the soil, I tried to avoid them as much as possible.  Once the dead leaf obstacle course terminated, I reached the stick and began to climb.  The texture was smooth so climbing was fairly easy.  Once I reached the top, I wanted to play mellow music to really soak in the atmosphere, and thankfully I remembered my iPod.  As I was surveying the area, listening to Seals and Crofts was the icing on the cake.  The first thing I noticed was a bug flying overheard, resembling a mosquito.  I tried to get it to stop but it was traveling like it was on a mission.  Other things I noticed once atop the stick were pine cones and pine needles, which probably explained the sap-like smell, some green grass on the far side, a lot more dirt, a small spider web, some white spots on the leaves which looked to be bird poop, and a bunch of smaller cones.  It wasn't the most picturesque view, but to get to most good views one must hike their, and that happened to be the most enjoyable part of my little journey in this unfamiliar community.  When I started crawling, I never would have expected to discover this comfortable little community and I might find myself returning in the near future.

This was the little community I explored the other day. Very comfortable area.

Bog Walk
There were so many interesting things to look at while walking through the bog, from trees, plants, and various kinds of insects and coldblooded animals.  For as much as I enjoy being outside, my knowledge about nature, let alone bogs, isn't very high and I learned a lot about certain organisms while in the bog.  Although I found almost everything intriguing, my favorite living thing in the bog were the pitcher plants present.  I have heard of carnivorous plants before, but I wasn't aware we had any in the backyard of Marquette.  As it articulated on the sign talking about the adaptations plants have to make to live there because of the lack of nutrients, the pitcher plants were no different.  I'm not sure why I found this so fascinating, but the pitcher plants' way of attracting insects was simply magnificent to learn about.  Their adaptation was so unique and I hadn't heard anything like it before, so maybe that's what grabbed my attention.  First, they create a "dew" that attracts the insects and the insects can't resist it.  Once the insects enter the inside of the plant, the pitcher plants secrete a slippery liquid which causes the insects to become stuck inside the plant and eventually leads to the plant consuming the hungry insects.  I think it's really to see how certain organisms make adaptations to survive in adverse locations/shelters, and I thought the pitcher plants' was one of the more interesting I've read.

It might be tough to see but in the middle of the picture is one of the pitcher plants located in the Marquette bog.

What's Alive
About a week ago we gathered some things in a paper bag and had to classify them as never alive, was alive, now dead, a product of a living thing, or is currently alive, and after an indefinite time period later we would reopen our bags to see what the major differences were.  For the non-living things in our bag, we all agreed in saying they were never alive and a product of a living thing outside of the nails and pebbles--we stated they were both never alive.  Other items in our bag included a moth, water, a cotton ball. toothpick, straw, an ant, another unidentified bug, a clover flower, and a weed.  We were all on the same page in classify if they were never alive, were alive, now dead, product of a living thing(s), or alive now.  A couple of items we had discussions about were the corn, kidney beans, and radish seeds.  We split about 50/50 saying they were alive but now dead and alive now.  We all agreed they were a product of a living thing before they were picked though.  We decided to wait until we revealed if they were living now or if they were once alive.  To our amazement, all three items started sprouting!  This answered our question whether they were alive or not.  As basic as this assignment was, it was really cool to see what the effects were when you wrapped certain seeds/kernels/beans in a waterlogged paper towel and kept them in direct sunlight to see if they would sprout, and they did.  I'm probably more impressed about this then I should be, but I haven't done an experiment along the lines of this since I was enrolled in a summer science camp, so it had been a while.  Nevertheless, it was magnificent to see the then and now. 

This was the day we revealed what the waterlogged paper towel exposed to sunlight had to offer us.

Inquiry Wheel

After learning about the inquiry wheel, I'm disappointed my middle and high school classes never introduced it to me.  Science is rarely ever done in a specific order, let alone in a structured format.  Plus the scientific method doesn't include questions you ask throughout your study.  If our group were to just do our research in the steps of the scientific method we probably wouldn't get the best results we could.  I like how the inquiry wheel always circles back around to questions because after every step we take in the research, whether it's articulating an expectation, observing, or reflecting on our findings, we're always going to be asking new and better questions which will help us become closer to what we want to achieve.  We're going to have to do multiple tests because there can be many different things that could give us different results each time, but that's just a part of science.  If we weren't going to run a couple of tests, how would we know if our results are accurate or not?  When writing up the final report, however, that is when I will use the guideline of the scientific method because it thoroughly states all of the steps necessary to convey thoughts across in a written form.  But when it comes to actually doing the hands-on experiment, the inquiry wheel is the best option because science is a never ending process.
 
One example of an inquiry wheel.  (Photo credit:universaldomainexchange).  

DHMO Danger Blog
The main thing this activity taught me was to pay as close of attention to detail as I could.  What DHMO is abbreviated for dihydrogen monoxide, which is simply water.  I've never heard it referred as DHMO, but I put it together when it was described as colorless, odorless liquid.  What I learned about myself is to think deeper about answers that aren't so obvious and that might lead me in the correct direction to finding the answer I'm looking for.  The way this is going to change me in the future is before I decide to vote to ban something to ensure I know everything I can about a certain substance.  Many people in the class wanted to ban it without knowing the positives DHMO could bring.  Although we weren't asked to, if there was ever something I didn't know a lot about but had to make a vote I would make sure I talked to somebody neutral about the pros and cons of a certain substance before I would cast a vote because if the good outweigh the bad, it would be best not to ban any substance.


This is a molecule of dihydrogen monoxide.  (Photo Credit: keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk).

Mystery Container
For this assignment, we were supposed to predict what was in a black container.  Before that, we had to ask questions about the container.  The interesting thing was when we were told to do that, many groups asked questions only pertaining to the items inside of the container instead of the container itself, which isn't that surprising because we have been taught to think about just what something is concealing instead of the object concealing the smaller objects.  What I took away from this part of the lesson is when a science instructor instructs you ask questions about object(s) in front of you, ask as many questions as you can think of because there is no such thing as an out of line question in science.  Our next task was to try to solve what was in the container given various items and a scale to measure the weights.  Many people kept trying different combinations and putting it on the scale to no avail.  As frustration stirred, the groups started to shake the containers to see if the items in the containers created similar pitches.  Although loud, this proved to be effective.  I'm not sure how close groups were to solving the mystery but my group was off by only one item and one ounce.  What I learned from this is using multiple senses is much more effective than using only one, and that's what science is about.  You never hear of scientists solving things by doing only one thing; they try things over and over again and backtrack until they find something an answer.  This taught me a lot about the Inquiry Wheel because at lower levels, we strictly stuck to the scientific method, but the scientific method doesn't explain our process.  This activity made us think, ask questions, backtrack, ask more questions, make predictions, use observations, and other scientific approaches.  It may have been a basic assessment, but it informed me better about how science works.

The container with the penny and screw was we thought the mystery box contained, while the one with the penny and paperclip was in the mystery container.