Ecosystems

Last time we went inside Stanley’s body and found out some amazing facts about how animals live. Well, today we are taking another adventure, this time we are going to a place that might be unfamiliar but where millions of species live and interact. Grab your scuba gear cause we are heading down under, or in other words to life in the coral reef! Nemo will be our tour guide as we explore his home. We may run into some of his friends such as Dori, Bruce, Crush and lots others! Slide on your flippers and dive in.

My name is Nemo and I live in an ecosystem called the Pacific Ocean. My ecosystem is huge and contains both living and non-living organisms. Matter and energy are two crucial items that I need to survive. Matter is recycled, but there is only a one-way flow of energy. There are so many organisms living in the ocean that there is often competition. All of the different populations of species are interacting to create communities. **Competition ** is present when the different organisms are competing for food, sunlight, shelter, and territory. There are a few ways to combat competition. One is by **competition exclusion **. This is just a big word for crowding out the enemy. **Resource partitioning ** is when animals divide up the resources. I am not a fan of this tactic to combat competition, but my dad says dividing up the resources is the best way to survive. So, we do. **Mutualism ** can be seen between my house and me. For those of you who do not know, I am a clown fish and I live in anemones.

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The anemone is poisonous, but the chemical makeup of my skin allows me to stay protected. I am able to eat tiny organisms in the anemone and use it as shelter. I clean the anemone and attract prey for the anemone to eat, and in return I get shelter. Both organisms are benefiting from the relationship. **Commensalism ** is shown when my dad, Marlin, is hoping a ride on Crush’s shell to try and find me, because we got separated. He takes him on the East Australian Current. Although, Crush is not really gaining anything my helping my dad, he still lends him a ride. My dad is the only one benefiting from Crush, and that makes it an example of commensalism.

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 * Parasitism ** is something I try to avoid at all costs. It is when a parasite uses you for food, or shelter, and harms you in return, not fun! In the ocean the sea lamprey latches onto fish, like me, and peels off a portion of the skin. The opening wound is what they feed on. Eventually it will drop off, thankfully without killing the host (College, 2008).
 * Predation ** is also seen. I feel like somebody is always looking at me like a piece of meat, or a nice meal. Bruce, the great white shark, is my biggest predator. He likes to eat me, and other fish like me. Humans also like to prey on me. They love to cast out their large nets and grab multiple fish so they can either place us in an aquarium or eat us. Do they not know that animals have rights too? Luckily there are a few tactics I like can use to help defend myself against predators. One is by **camouflage. **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> Many fish are similar in color to coral, rocks, algae, etc. so they can hide easily. Unfortunately Bruce can hide himself easily too. His light colored skin allows him to blend in with rocks and sneak up behind me. Fortunately Bruce is attending some “DEF” (Don’t eat fish) meetings. He is trying to learn to how to be my friend, instead of eat me.

<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">You will be surprised to find out that I am brightly colored to actually attract predators. See, once a predator sees me they follow me back to my house in the anemone. The anemone then stings the predator and I get to eat the leftovers (Wonderclub). **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Mimicry **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> is another way to steer clear of predators. Some animals in the ocean have evolved to look like other organisms to avoid being eaten. The Anglerfish has a piece of its body that projects itself to imitate a wriggling worm. This way all that the predators see is a worm, instead of a tasty meal. The anglerfish can also produce it's own light to attract a tasty meal at the bottom of the ocean; it almost ate my dad Marlin when he was trying to find me!

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The **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">moment of truth defense **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> is when an animal looks scary or distracts their predators with poisons, odors, or repellents. The puffer fish (blowfish) uses this tactic. When is sees a predator it fills its body with water and swells up. The predator sees the large size of the blowfish and usually retreats. Last, but not least is **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">warning coloration. **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> The color of organisms can serve as a warning to predators to stay away. Bright colors indicate that the animal is poisonous and dangerous to eat. While I am brightly colored, my colors are used to lure predators, not flaunt how dangerous I am.

Bruce is pretty much on a meat diet alone while I would say I am more an omnivore, because I eat meat and plants, like algae. While plants don’t really have fins to swim away, they have other **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">plant defense tactics **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> they can use. They can make spines/thorns that will poke whatever it is that is trying to eat them. They can also create poison that they produce as a secondary compound; sometimes these poisons are so dangerous that they are lethal.

When predator –prey interactions are present **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">co-evolution **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> usually occurs. We all need matter and energy to survive. Everyone needs to eat, which means that we all need each other in one way or another.


 * <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Populations **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">

There are a lot of fish in the sea! We all need resources like food and space to survive, but when there are too many fish this can lead to competition. This is why my dad and I like to live away from too many fish, this way we don’t have to compete for food or our anemone. Resources and populations are inversely proportional; if one goes down, the other goes up. All populations, even mine, have what is called a **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">biotic potential **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">, basically how many of us could survive in a location under ideal conditions. Of course conditions aren’t always ideal, fish die and not every fish reproduces to add to the population. The **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">growth rate **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> is the rate of change in a population over a set period of time. To calculate growth rate for my small portion of the ocean, you would take the number of fish born and add it to the number of fish that moved to our part of the ocean (like my friend Dori) and then subtract the number of fish that die plus the number of fish that moved away. Birth rate is calculated by finding the number of fish born per 1000 fish in a given area, and the death rate is calculated by finding the number of fish that die per 1000. The **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">fertility rate **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> (average number of children) is a little different than the birth rate, the fertility rate is the number of babies an average female fish will have in her lifetime.

Populations can grow quite quickly in the sea, if you imagine for a minute my family. If all of my sisters and brothers had grown up to be fish like me, and we all went on to have big families as well, and then our children each had a lot of children, the population would //<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">explode //<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">!! This is called **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">exponential growth **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">. The time it takes for a population to double (2 fish to 4 fish) is called the **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">doubling time **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">. Luckily though, populations can’t grow infinitely like this, otherwise there would be no room to swim! There are things called **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">boom and bust cycles **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">. A bust cycle is when the number of fish quickly decreases, like if there is something that makes the plants in the water sick and we suddenly aren’t able to eat. My population is also closely linked with my predators; if there are a lot of sharks like Bruce, then they will quickly eat a lot of the fish, causing our population to shrink. However, when our population shrinks, the food source for our predators disappears and their numbers die off, causing my population to go back up. What normally happens in a population is that there is a long period of exponential growth where the population booms before it reaches **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">carrying capacity **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">. Carrying capacity is the maximum population size an ecosystem can support indefinitely.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> There are things that influence the population size in an ecosystem. **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Density independent factors **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> include things like weather, natural disaster, and humans doing things to our ecosystems. These things are going to happen regardless of how big the population is. **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Density dependent factors **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> happen as populations increase. These include things like disease, predation (from fish like Bruce!), parasitism, and competition for resources. Both density independent and density dependent factors keep the population in check.

Humans are a little different than the fish like me though. They have increased their carrying capacity by developing things like better nutrition, better medicines and medical care, and childhood vaccines (which decreased infant mortality). Humans have also reduced accidents, eliminated their predators, and tapped fossil fuels that allow them to increase food production, heat their homes, and transport themselves. Humans that live in developing countries have to rely on human labor, which causes high birth rates and high childhood mortality. Developed nations, like Australia, have lower birth rates, but also lower death rates.


 * Human Impact**

Hey guys! My name is Squirt, if you don’t remember me, I’m the little turtle from the EAC (East Australian Current) and it’s “totally sweeeet dude”. My job here is to teach you a little about some stuff that is not exactly IN my ecosystem but affects it nonetheless! Have you ever heard of global warming? Acid rain? Nuclear waster, or ozone depletion? If you answered no, well then you are just like me before I learned all this cool stuff in school!

<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Global warming** is basically the process of the Earth getting slightly warmer year by year. It’s not warming up too noticeably, such that you are sitting on the beach and can feel the world around you jumping up a few degrees. Instead, it is gradually warming up and has an affect on our planet in the long run. It is estimated that by the end of the twenty-first century, the earth will have increased in temperature by about three degrees Celsius (Kids Site). But why is this important? Eventually, global warming could have an impact over many different aspects of our lives (both humans and turtles!), such as: where we can live, what food we can eat, where we can grow food, where animals (like me!) can live etc… (NOAA). Global warming is caused by something called The Greenhouse Effect. The Earth’s atmosphere is very similar to a greenhouse. Two gases, carbon dioxide and methane act as the “greenhouse’s glass walls” around the earth. The sun’s rays have the ability to pass right through those “glass walls” and heat up our Earth! Some of those outgoing rays get trapped underneath the “glass walls” and reflect back down on the Earth which traps the heat and keeps the Earth approximately thirty-degrees warmer (NCDC). This whole process is called the Natural Greenhouse Effect. At first I thought it was a bad thing, but really…it’s very important for our planet, even for turtles like me, way down in the ocean. The problem with this arose in during the industrial revolution when humans began using energy in much larger quantities (ex. Cars… aren’t you jealous we can swim everywhere we need to go?!). Most energy sources are made by burning fossil fuels. These fuels then produce large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions which make the Earth’s “glass walls” much thicker. As a result, sunrays get trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere much easier and heat the plant more than necessary (NCDC).

Next I will tell you all about what I learned about **acid rain**. This is a type of rain that has been made acidic (substances that have a value lower than 7 on the pH scale) by pollutants in the air. Acid rain can come in both a wet substance (such as rain or snow), and a dry substance (such as gases or dust particles). Acid rain can cause health problems in people, harm forests, damage lakes and streams and damage buildings and objects (Epa). The important question is, how does rain, that goes into the water I live in, turn into something so dangerous? Acid rain is caused by a chemical reaction that starts with compounds (ex. Sulfur dioxide) that are released into the air. These compounds can rise very high into the atmosphere and can mix with things like water and oxygen, which then creates the acidic pollutant known as acid rain. You humans have released so many different chemicals into the air that the correct mix of gases in the atmosphere has changed. When big power plants release bad chemicals, acid rain is formed and causes all the problems I mentioned earlier (Epa).

How about **nuclear waste**, have you heard about that? Do you know what the word radioactive means? I sure didn’t! Radioactive waste, or nuclear waste, is the leftover from nuclear reactors, nuclear research projects and nuclear bomb production. This waste can be very dangerous to both humans and animals because it can get mixed into water, which is essential for humans and is the home to us sea animals! (Wisegeek).

The last important issue we need to discuss is the **o****zone depletion**. Ozone depletion is basically losing our ozone layer. Like we talked about earlier, sunrays come down to Earth through the greenhouse gas layer. The good thing is that a layer of ozone gas located twenty to fifty kilometers above Earth absorbs most of the harmful UV rays. The sad part is that the ozone layer is made from oxygen and can be easily destroyed by harmful man-made chemicals. Because of this, the ozone layer is thinning over time and small holes are appearing over the Arctic. These holes and the thinning ozone layer are letting more of the harmful UV rays onto the Earth (ESA).

<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">So there you go, there is the quick explanation of those four human impacts on the Earth. All four of them affect the various ecosystems on the planet because they change climate, food sources, types of animals, where humans and animals can live and so much more. Everything you humans do is important for the rest of us! So think wisely before you pollute the Earth, think about those of us down in the EAC who love our home and don’t want it to change!

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Now that you know about the impact you humans have on ecosystems, we’re going to learn about sustainability principles! What is sustainability? When referring to sustainability in ecosystems, it can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future. Some key principles are: restoration, recycling, population control, renewable energy and resources and conservation. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Population Control **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">: Population control helps with sustainability because it controls overpopulation and improves the quality of life for a group of humans or animals. In the case of animals, like in my ecosystem, things such as predators, disease, parasites and environmental factors can do population control. Somewhere that has a constant environment, such as Nemo’s home in the coral reef, population control is regulated by the availability of food, water and shelter from predators. Even you humans effect our (animals) population and contribute to the population control. <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Energy Flow **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Lets recall that energy is the capacity to do work. All life requires a constant supply of energy to maintain a stable balance. Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is just converted and recycled back into the environment. The law of thermodynamics states that energy is forever. Energy becomes less useful each time it is transferred. The loss of energy happens when it spreads out through being heated. When we get energy in food, we break apart the molecules, the bonds, break and ATP is released.
 * <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Sustainability Principles: **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">
 * <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Restoration **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">: Restoration is important because it gives an opportunity to restore an ecosystem to what it was before, or at least try. The main problem with restoration is that it is hard to actually get an ecosystem back to its original state. It is important to understand that ecosystems all restore themselves over time. Although sometimes humans interact with non-human ecosystems to help restore them, it is possible for them to do it on their own. Natural restoration is a good thing but expensive, time-consuming, human restoration doesn’t seem necessary to those of us non-humans!
 * <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Recycling **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">: Recycling is crucial to the environment. Imagine if nothing was recycled and all those reusable resources were put to waste! Recycling helps to save money, save resources and save energy. By recycling, energy use is reduced and therefore, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced as well. This in return prevents global climate change like we talked about earlier. Recycling also prevents different pollutants from entering the air or the water (Pennsylvania). This helps all of the sea animals I live with because we do not want pollution in our water just like humans do not want pollution in the air they breathe. An example of recycling
 * <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Renewable Energy and Resources **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">: Renewable energy is the energy that comes from natural resources. For example, wind power, solar power, waterpower etc…this idea kind of goes along with recycling. Renewable energy does not emit greenhouses gases that cause global climate change. Renewable resources are not a new idea to the planet because one hundred and fifty years ago, wood was used for 90% of energy needs (not for the turtles and fish underwater though!) (EIA). Renewable energy is extremely useful because it is endless! There is no worry about running out of ways to make energy but there is the scare of running out of fossil fuels (non-renewable energy). So use renewable resources! It helps our planet and it is better for the environment.
 * <span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Conservation **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">: Conservation is the overall idea of literally conserving what there is in an ecosystem. For example, marine conservation affects me the most. This is the protection of ecosystems in the ocean. One way to conserve an ecosystem would be to limit the damage that humans cause on marine life. Also, the act of preserving endangered marine species such as the loggerhead turtle or the green turtle (NMFS). Conservation is important because if humans or animals aren’t careful of their surroundings, before they know it, the crucial parts of the ecosystem will disappear. All ecosystems need conservation, not just marine ones! Think about how humans are working to conserve energy, water, and natural resources.

We will take a look at the energy flow down under in the big blue ocean, where we run into Nemo who will be our tour guide. Hey there! It’s Nemo and I cannot wait to tell you all about the energy flow at my home in the big blue ocean. The most important organization chart of energy flow is the **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">trophic pyramid **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">, which shows the relationship of energy and my community.



The <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;">main **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">producer **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> in the ocean and coral reef would be kelp. Plants are huge producers because they use the energy of sunlight, and make organic molecules from inorganic substances (Solomon, Berg, and Martin 1142). Producers trap 1% of the energy from the sun that enters the ecosystem. 10% is passed down to each level and it goes to the tissues. Consumers that eat only producers are known as the **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">primary consumers, like al **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">gae eaters. Who eats the primary consumers? The **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">secondary consumers **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> do, some examples of secondary consumers are Dori, the blue tang fish, and Nemo, the clown fish. **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Tertiary consumers **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> eat the secondary consumers which are the Bruce’s of the ocean, the great white sharks. Bruce used to eat fish, but he is regularly attending his DEF meetings and working on this problem of his! This is how eating happens in the ocean. My home is filled with toxic waste, how do I get rid of it?

<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">There are many **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">decomposers **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> in the ocean which act as the clean up crew. They recycle nutrients and matter. When I went to the aquarium at the dentist office Jacques the cleaning shrimp took care of all the disgusting algae that was clouding up the windows, he is an example of a **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">detritivore **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> who eats fungi, dead plants, bacteria and matter. He is an example of a decomposer who eats dead waste and recycles nutrients. **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Scavengers **<span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"> are another example of decomposers <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;">who eat meat. This example would be the seagulls shouting “mine mine mine mine” at me while I was trying to swim away really fast. Another example would be the hermit crabs out of the drainpipes who pointed me in the direction back home. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;">Nutrient Cycling **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;"> All organisms use carbon. The different type of kelp I eat in the water, gives me some organic molecules. These molecules are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and nucleic acids. The energy in food is used for cellular respiration, that happens in the big scary humans’ bodies. Carbon dioxide is filtered into the atmosphere where it enters and disperses through the ocean. Some of the other ways it is filtered that don’t affect my reef are: volcanic action, melting permafrost, burning forests (deforestation), distributing soil, and burning fossil fuels. Carbon is stored in the seawater, limestone, and phytoplankton which are all around my home. It is also found in soil (humus), in vegetation (forests). This may get a little confusing, but unlike Dori you guys don’t suffer from short-term memory loss. Sources can become these things called sinks, and then sinks can become sources. For example a forest us a carbon sink until it is burned… then it is a source. What that all means is until something is drastically changed, it a source giver. The steps for the carbon cycle, first it starts as atmospheric CO2. Next it moves down into photosynthesis where they incorporate the carbon from it into their own tissues. Next happens respiration of some of the carbon tissues back into CO2. Next plants and animals die and are decomposed by fungi and bacteria, and some CO2 is moved back into the atmosphere. Next some of the remaining carbon is stored up in carbon-based compounds which are fossil fuels. Lastly the burning of fossil fuels which puts carbon in the atmosphere in the form of CO2.



<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;"> Another system ties in with the carbon cycle. Can you guess which cycle it is? It’s the Nitrogen Cycle. This is even more confusing than the carbon cycle, there’s a rip current coming up, so pay close attention. Plants cannot use nitrogen from the atmosphere, and organisms require it in huge amounts. 78% of the atmosphere is N2. Luckily we have special bacteria that fix the nitrogen by pulling it out of the air and using it (N2). It is then converted into ammonia NH3. It is vital that the ammonia mix with water to create ammonium NH4. Here is the formula: atmospheric nitrogen→ ammonia + water→ ammonium and N2+ nitrogen-fixing bacteria→ NH3 (+ H20)→NH4. NH3 (ammonia) can also be converted into nitrates (NO3) by the unique nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil. Ammonia and ammonium can be converted back into nitrogen by some bacteria. These are known as denitrifying bacteria. For the nutrition aspect of nitrogen foods that are high in nitrate are spinach, broccoli, and carrots. Foods that have added nitrates are hotdogs and processed meat. All of this applies to the human species, as us fish don’t eat human food, cause it is too large to fit in our mouth.



<span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;">The element that is essential to life in the reef, and the big ocean is water. Obviously without water, there would be no ocean. Water restores life in us, and allows us to survive. Being a fish, I am totally surrounded by water, and it is so cool! Water changes at different times from the different states of ice, vapor, and liquid. The water in my ocean is heated by the sun. Evaporation is when water transforms from a liquid to a gas state. Condensation is the transformation of water vapor to liquid. Precipitation is when the air moves the clouds and particles fall from the clouds, so much water has been collected, the clouds let go of it as rain, hail, or snow. The cycle goes like this: Evaporation→Condensation→Precipitation→Collection. After precipitation the water may fall into the ocean, or into the ground and become groun d water that plants and animals use to drink up, being soaked up and taken in by the ocean. The cycle starts over again. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive; font-size: 14px;">So that sums it up in a nutshell. I taught you about communities, population growth, energy, the carbon, nitrogen, and the water cycle and how you as humans can reduce your impact on the earth. You met some of my friends and were able to catch a glimpse of life down under. Keep in mind, that while I showed you my ecosystem in the coral reef there are ecosystems all around us. You, as a human, make up an ecosystem too!! So think of Dori, Bruce, Squirt, all my other friends, and me the next time you are down under and feel free to swim on by.

//<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Clownfish //<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2009, from Wonderclub: [] <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">College, M. (2008, April 9). //<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Symbiosis // <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; display: block; text-align: center;">. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from [|http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/symbiosis.htm] NOAA - []  <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Kids Site - [] Student Site - [] Wise Geek - [] Pennsylvania [] NMFS [] EIA [] [|http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEMY1LXJD1E_Earth_0.][|html]
 * //__Sources__//**