Algae are wide species of unicellular and multi-cellular organisms that use make use of photosynthesis like plants. They may commonly, though not scientifically, referred to as leafless plants. Algae are present in almost all kinds of ecosystems, whether terrestrial or aquatic, and can live in extreme and harsh conditions [1]. Flue gases from power plants and industrial exhaust gases are responsible for a big chunk of global GHG emissions and contain up to 15% CO2 [2]. These gases can be used as a source CO2 for algae and help mitigate the emissions by a great amount. Algae have shown ability to mitigate CO2 while being more efficient in use of sunlight. Another potential application for algae is in waste-water treatment plants. Nitrogen and Phosphorous in the waste water can be consumed by algae. A variety of species including Chlorella, Scenedesmus and Spirulina have been studied for waste water removal [3].Microalgae has historically been used to produce a large number of different valuable co-products such fertilizers and soil conditioners, anti-oxidants, fatty acids, coloring su...
Elodea also known as Elodea canadensis is a genus of aquatic plants. They are also called waterweeds and is mainly used in aquarium vegetation. It plays a significant role in aquatic vegetation as it produces a significant amount of carbon dioxide under the perfect conditions. Elodea mainly grows in shallow water and can also be sometimes found in deep water. The plant for this experiment is kept in a water tank. We use elodea for this experiment as this is a very good plant that play a crucial part in our experiment. The amount of carbon dioxide produced by the plant during the experiment can be used to understand the rate of the reaction.
Cephalopods are known to be exceptionally intelligent by invertebrate standards and in some respects even rival “higher” vertebrates. These animals have many highly evolved sensory and processing organs that allow them to gain a greater understanding of their environment and their place within it. Due to their advanced structures, many of which are analogous to vertebrate structures, and abilities they have been widely studied. Their methods of learning have been of prime interest and many experiments have been conducted to determine the different ways in which octopuses can learn. From these experiments four main kinds of learning have been identified in octopuses: associative learning, special learning,
For part one of the experiment, my team asked the question of which cell fraction of the measured pea seedlings will have a higher ratio of chloroplasts? My group tested for the activity of chloroplasts with three different pairs of cell fractions by two conditions of light and dark in three readings. The first two cell fractions, pellet one and two (P1, P2), are the hard sediments found at the bottom of a tube after it has been centrifuged (which are specimen, like the mitochondria and chloroplast, that are isolated from the rest) (Leicht and McAllister, 2016). The last cell fraction used was the supernatant two (S2), which is just the free liquid surrounding the pellet after the centrifuging of P2 (Leicht and McAllister, 2016). To test for this, DCIP (a chloroplast isolation buffer) was used to
Scorpaenidae are mostly marine fish,very few found in fresh and brackish water. The family have around around 45 different genera and 380 different species. They are mostly found in the India Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Most of them lives in coral, tropical reefs and shallow waters, warmer areas. Not all of the family fish lives in the shallow water, small portion of the Scorpaenidae live deep as around 7,000 feet. Just like most of the coral reef fish are, Scorpaenidae have camouflaged body. Their characteristic reflects their name, they have sharp spine that can sting other organisms. Their spine are covered with venomous mucus just like how some other kind of fish are covered with the venomous mucus. Their body are covered with scales. Generally speaking, the Scorpaenidae family fish have different number of spines over the course of the body. Most known type pf Scorpaenidae are lionfish and scorpionfish. Lionfish have preorbital bone with 3 spines, spines and third below the diagonal; , big mouth, end position, oblique fissure. Mandible, vomer and jaw bone with villiform teeth group. Gill openings are wide, tetrabranchiate membranes without the isthmus, pre-opercular margin with 5 spines. Body are ctenoid scales, round head. On the side, there are about eight to nine dorsal fin, fin spines and rays of an anal fin; five to six pectoral fins, they are large, round, and are branched from the upper fin rays. There are about one to five pelvic, sub thoracic; caudal fin rounded truncate. Reef stonefish are extremely camouflaged, they could look exactly like a rock when hiding for predation. The spines of Scorpaenidae are hard and rough, some of their fin spines have poison, can cause serious pain, swells and fatal wounds. Some of ...
The process of photosynthesis is present in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and is the process in which cells transform energy in the form of light from the sun into chemical energy in the form of organic compounds and gaseous oxygen (See Equation Below). In photosynthesis, water is oxidized to gaseous oxygen and carbon dioxide is reduced to glucose. Furthermore, photosynthesis is an anabolic process, or in other words is a metabolism that is associated with the construction of large molecules such as glucose. The process of photosynthesis occurs in two steps: light reactions and the Calvin cycle. The light reactions of photosynthesis take place in the thylakoid membrane and use the energy from the sun to produce ATP and NADPH2. The Calvin cycle takes place in the stroma of the chloroplast and consumes ATP and NADPH2 to reduce carbon dioxide to a sugar.
In The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister tells how a beautiful, extraordinary, yet, self-centered blue fish learns that being beautiful isn’t the key to happiness. The blue fish came to find this lesson when he lost his friends. Pfister takes a simple ocean setting and explores the consequences of an individual’s arrogance toward their peers, the process of humbling of oneself, and the tremendous reward one feels when they learn to share. The story achieves these morals by the author’s use of detailed imager and also, the influence of minor characters on the antihero in order to reveal to the audience the true thematic message; selfish actions bring true happiness.
Discerning the spatial patterns of biodiversity and understanding their ultimate (why) and proximate (how) causes is very dear to biogeography and is one of the key concepts of Macro ecology. Some places on earth contain more species as compared to others. All species occurring at a given space and time either originated (speciated) there or dispersed and arrived from another place and settled there. Biogeographers try to understand the past and current distributions of species by incorporating historical, evolutionary and ecological factors. Earlier biogeographers or the ‘naturalists’ in their sacred quest to serve ‘the creator’, travelled to various parts of the world and imparted valuable knowledge about the diverse patterns and processes of nature. Linnaeus (1743), on the one hand, hypothesized that early Earth was filled with water except for it’s highest mountain top i.e., Mount Ararat which was known to be the site of paradise and as the sea level dropped the exposed land was colonized by plants and animals that migrated down from high elevational zones of Mount Ararat whereas Willdenow (1805) hypothesized that within each geographical region of the earth, plants and animals were first placed and later survived the great flood on many mountain ranges (Lomolino,2001). Von Humboldt and Darwin in the South American Andes and Wallace Southeast Asian islands noticed the decreasing trend in elevational species richness patterns (McCain and Grytnes, 2010). Later work done by Grinnell (1917), Whittaker (1952), Terborgh (1977, 1985) on elevational species richness became accepted and set a established pattern for all species for more than two decades (McCain and Grytnes, 2010). However current researches on elevational gradients are...
It is believed that the world's supply of oil will last until about 2040. If you think about it, that’s not too far in the distance future. Oil is running out fast and we need to think of an alternate energy source. When we burn oil, we release carbon dioxide into the air which causes the earth’s climate to warm; a temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit could have serious if not devastating consequences. In the United States alone 60 percent of each person’s carbon footprint comes from the goods they buy, while the other 40 percent comes from their energy use at home, driving, and flying. That totals out to be about 10 billion tons a year. There are other energy sources but let’s think about the environmental and energy benefits of algae biofuel. Algae was first explored as a fuel alternative in 1978. Gas prices had skyrocketed, and the government was looking to help ease the crisis. The Aquatic Species Program run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, researched high oil-output algae for biofuel. After testing 3,000 types of algae, the program concluded that the algae, if...
The Chesapeake Bay has faced an excessive amount of pollution over the past century. The water in the bay has become so highly polluted that It is capable of causing harm to humans coming in direct contact with the water. Although algae serves a vital role in the bay’s ecosystem, it also creates a problem that is causing a large amount of the problem.
The city’s water resources being a river, ground water and a reservoir are prone to having hazardous pathogens harmful to anyone who consumes water from the plant. Chlorination in water treatment is a common practice which is used to disinfect water from disease, however, it is known that when microbes attach to or are within particles of water they are protected from chlorine treatments. An alternate solution to chlorine is chloramine. Chloramine is the addition of ammonia to the chlorine compound. Once chloramine becomes in contact with water it is known as monochloramine. According to Gerstein (pg 719. 1931) and Holwerda (pg 719.1928) the germicidal properties were less when ammonia in chloramine was present. Monochloramine lasts a lot longer in water than chlorine therefore protecting the water from disease for a longer period of time. The water supply network consists of numerous pipes that potentially carry disease in them.
There are 80 countries that have been suffering from a lack of clean water, and two billion people lack access to freshwater, especially South Africa (Alois). This area of countries is the driest in the world - Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and so on. Like in the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, Nya, who lives in Sudan, has been lacking clean water. She has to find water every day for her family. Luckily, Nya got help from Salva who used to live in Sudan and came back from America to build the water system for her village. However, there are still many people around the world that have been suffering to find clean water for basic use. There are many factors that cause a lack of clean water around the world: geography of countries, deforestation,
Microbes are microscopic life forms, usually too small to be seen by the naked eye. Although many microbes are single-celled, there are also numerous multi-cellular organisms. The human body has 10-100 trillion microbes living on it, making it one giant super-organism. Since the first link between microbes and diseases was made, people have been advised to wash their hands. Scientists, however, have recently started to investigate more closely how the microbes that call the human body home affect our health. While some microbes cause disease, others are more beneficial, working with our bodies in many subtle ways.
The purpose of this term paper is to provide information about the different kinds of algal blooms and their effect on our environment and ourselves. There are still a lot of things that are not known about the algal bloom phenomenon, and many different hypotheses have been presented to explain these. Throughout the course of this paper those hypotheses will be presented and discussed, allowing the reader to derive their own opinion about the origin of algal blooms and what will happen in the future.
Aquaponics is the combination of both aquaculture, which is fish farming, and hydroponics, which is farming without the use of soil. In aquaponics, plants form a symbiotic relationship with fish allowing for fish to get nutrients from plants, and plants get a supply clean water from the fish. With aquaponics, the plants and fish can grow faster than average due to naturally fortified water from the fish, and nutrient-rich water from the plants. Aquaponics also allows for two types of farming happening at the same time, fish and plants, if the system the fish are in is large enough. Furthermore, aquaponics allows for plants to grow anywhere, without arable land. Many countries are not able to meet the demand for food because of the climate or
What if the world could find a way to dispose of sewage, produce food, and purify bodies of water at the same time? The Aztecs have proven that this idea is possible. Lake Texcoco flowed near the Aztec civilization. The Aztecs disposed of their waste in the lake. The human waste added nitrogen to the water. The nitrogen helped algae to grow, and then the algae performed photosynthesis. Photosynthesis gives off oxygen, and oxygen purifies polluted water. The Aztec's also abstracted the algae from the lake and used it for food. Certain types of algae like red and green algae are edible. Many cultures have eaten seaweed for centuries. Wendy O'Leary Dunn states, "They think of seaweed as a vegetable and eat it as we eat broccoli or spinach" (18). Therefore, when humans dispose of their waste in bodies of water, they help algae grow. Then, the algae cleans the water and they can eat the algae.