Monday, September 30, 2013

Alaina's Restoration Ecology Review

My first impression of the field trip was that I would enjoy it, but I wasn't sure exactly why it mattered or why it was relevant to people like me who don't see much forest other than Deer Grove. As I started learning about invasive species I realized why it was important. I wouldn't want someone to come into my home and take my stuff just because they can and no one is stopping them. That's what is happening to our native species. I feel not enough people are aware of the harm that invasive species are doing.  Restoration ecology is very important because humans should try and fix what we caused. We brought these plants over and now they are destroying our natural plants. What is crazy to me it we all spent that whole day out there and barely put a dent in what needs to be done. I'm proud of all that me and my class mates accomplished, not just tearing down what shouldn't be there but speeding up the spread of what should be there! My favorite part of the field trip was definitely planting the acorns and watering the trees. I thought it was so fun to be a squirrel for an hour and spread the seeds and water plants. I was amazed by the fact that all those trees were planted by volunteers like us and that they would grow so quickly! That was when I really knew we were making a difference. Over all, I loved this field trip. It opened my eyes to the importance of protecting nature and fixing the damage that has already been done.








Sunday, September 29, 2013

Conor's Ecology Field Trip Reflection

When the bus pulled up at the conservation district, I must admit I was not expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. It made it feel like I had a part in something bigger than myself, even though in all our time we only completed a tiny fraction of the work that needs to be carried out to fully restore the area. Plus, few things are more satisfying than digging acorn holes with a pickaxe or taking down an invasive tree by yourself with a handsaw. I definitely feel that ecology conservation is important and worthwhile. While it may not be immediately apparent, invasive species are extremely dangerous to an ecosystem. Because they grow in a place where they have no predators, they grow rapantly and kill everything else, which will eventually destroy an entire ecosystem and everything in it. Even if we only contributed a bit, contributing to saving an ecosystem was an extremely satisfying way to spend my day and I'm glad to have been able to experience ecology conservation firsthand.



Sam's Reflections of Ecology Conservation



On this trip I in all honesty didn't think it would be as fun as it turned out to be. I was expecting long lectures on why restoration is important and us working and not really enjoying it. I was very wrong. I had a lot of fun and learned somethings I didn't know before. I learned that badgers actually left the Illinois area because of the lack of their natural habitat, I had always thought they never even left. I also learned what trees are natural to our area. I think restoration is worthwhile. Without it there are so many plants and animals that could eventually die out. If their natural habitat is no longer there they no longer have shelter which can make them easier kill to their predators. Also forest would be run by foreign plants that could be taking the nutrients the native plants need to survive. Put into people terms would you rather have people who are not citizens taking your chance to earn money when you are a citizen and can't care for your family? Benefits would be that people get to see what the land was like when it first came around. It also makes the native plants feel better because they aren't fighting for nutrients to plants that weren't there natively. The only down side I see to restoration is that you have to kill a tree to save a tree.


Buckthorn  that was cut down

 
A burn pile that was made

Friday, September 13, 2013

Acids and Bases Lab


Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to see how certain substances react to certain pHs, also to find buffers. The relationships between the dependent and independent variables is that the independent variable is water, the dependent variable is the sodium bicarbonate, orange juice, spinach, and other substances. We did this to figure out which buffers work best.

Introduction: Buffers are aqueous (dissolved in water) solutions with a very stable pH. Even when acids or bases are added to it, it resists changes in pH. Buffers are made by adding a weak acid or base and its conjugate. They are able to remain in the solution without neutralizing each other. As hydrogen ions are added to the buffer, they are neutralized by the base, and hydroxide ions are neutralized by the acids. This prevents the addition of acids or bases from having any significant effect on the pH of a solution.

Methods: In this lab, we used vernier lab quest probes to track the pH of the substances as we added acids and bases. We set up the lab by cleaning off the probes and setting them in a beaker about half way full of clean water. We then took our first substance (water) and put 20 mL in two beakers. We set the probes into these beakers and tracked their starting pH. After we had found that, we began adding acid to one beaker and a base to the other beaker 5 drops at a time. Every 5 drops we would record on our lab quest the change in the pH. We then rinsed off the probes and cleaned the beakers. After all cleaning was done we repeated the adding of acid and base to the 2 other substances, Gelatin and sodium bicarbonate.

Data:










                                                                Sodium Bicarbonate
Graphs and Charts:
Gelatin

 Water

Discussion: By taking a quick glance at our data you can see that the best buffer we tested was the sodium bicarbonate. The increase in pH was very small. When we added acid, the pH only decreased by .34.  This is quite small in comparison to our worst buffer, water whose difference was 4.01!  While looking at our data, some trends I noticed were in water, the pH increased very quickly when NaOH was added. This must be partly due to the fact that NaOH dissolved well in water. I would question the validity of our data however, because as you can see this trend doe not just occur in water it occurs in Gelatin too. If you took a look at our data table for gelatin, our starting pH was off by a whole 3.23. Also, our sodium bicarbonate was off by .56.We should have payed closer attention to the starting pH and not just assumed it was the same. Next lab, we need to be more alert to our data and if we see a mistake correct it so as to have the most accurate data possible. Even though this data may have screwed up the numbers a bit, it still shows the trend that Gelatin is in fact not a good buffer. The pH still had a high change of 1.65 for the NaOH and 3.50 for the HCL.  If we quickly take a look at the trend of the sodium bicarbonate you see that the numbers remain fairly close to their starting pH. The base beaker started at 9.17 and ended at 9.35, while the acid beaker started at 8.61 and ended at 8.27. Overall, I feel that our data could have been much mo accurate and would have made the trends much more obvious to us. Despite these mistakes, we can see that some substances make better buffers than others.

References:
Helmestine, Anne M. "Buffers." About.com. chemistry.about.com, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 08 Sept. 2013. 
Reece, Jane B., and Neil A. Campbell. "Chapter 3.3." Campbell Biology / Jane B. Reece ... [et Al.]. Boston: Benjamin Cummings, 2011. N. pag. Print.