Hawksbill turtle

Common name; Hawksbill turtle
Scientific name: Eretmochelys imbricata
Habitat: coral reefs in the tropic areas.
Adaptations: they have a beak like mouth and claws on their fins. Their lung capacity reaches over 50% of the normal human's.
Status: critically endangered
Current issues: they are hunted for their shells and meat.
I chose the hawksbill turtle because I used to own a turtle and enjoyed raising him.

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification is the decrease in the pH of the earth's oceans. The ocean absorbs a quarter of the CO2 released into the atmosphere. This CO2 does not initially harm the ocean but over an extensive amount of time it changed the chemistry of the sea water. The marine life in the ocean uses the calcium and carbonate to make shells and skeletons. The less pH makes if harder to make shells. It is not possible to produce calcium carbonate in acidic water. Ocean acidification can be traced to men who use fossil fuels and practice deforestation. Every day over 79 millions tons of carbon dioxide are released. The best way to prevent ocean acidification is to stop deforestation, continue to keep the ocean water clean and stop dumping waste into different areas.

Plankton Race

The most difficult part of the plankton project was to make sure it sank slowly instead of quickly. If I changed the design I would make the plankton lighter. I enjoyed having to use limited materials in order to reach an end result.

HAB

HAB is an abbreviation for Harmful Algae Bloom. HAB is caused by nutrient enrichment and water temperature warming.

Marine Plankton

Plankton are important to not only the ocean but also to man. This is because the plankton is the bottom of the food web. If plankton did not exist the whole food chain would fall apart. Including human life that not only feeds on creatures of the ocean but uses the oxygen produced as seventy percent of the earth's air. Plankton are also a large food source for not only fish but plants or algae within the ocean as well. Because many lower level fish feed on plants not just plankton their second source of food would also dwindle. Finally Plankton are considered the key to life's existence. This is not just because they provide a strong food source for fish and plants in the ocean but because of their role in the biogeochemical cycle of the carbon cycle within the ocean. The organic makeup of the plankton are more dense than sea water causing them to sink into the ocean ecosystem bringing the carbon with their bodies. The plankton has been discovered to be one of the largest reasons why the world receives so much of its oxygen from the ocean. The most common type of phytoplankton are Diatoms and Dinoflagellates. Diatoms are single-celled algae. They often join together in long chains. Where as Dinoflagellates are small organisms with two tails. Dinoflagellates come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some have shells and some do not need them. Not all dinoflagellates rely only on photosynthesis for all their energy like most plankton. Some wrap themselves around food and are able to absorb it. Some dinoflagellates can make their own light using an adaptation called bioluminescence.

The Sea Cucumber

Common name: Sea Cucumber
Scientific name: Holothuroidea
Adaptations: An interesting adaptation is how the Sea Cucumber is able to escape a possible threat. When they are threatened, some sea cucumbers are able to discharge sticky webs to entangle their enemies from movement towards them. Other sea cucumbers can mutilate their own bodies as a defense mechanism. The sea cucumber contracts their muscles and send some of their internal organs out of their anus. The missing body parts are able to quickly regenerated.
Habitat: The Sea Cucumber lives in many different areas but most frequently found in tropical coral reefs. The sea cucumber can happily live in the deepest part of the ocean or the more shallow areas. However they avoid areas with high current.
Endangered/ threatened: Sea Cucumbers are an endangered species. Although there are many different types of sea cucumber they are hunted by not only predators of the ocean but humans as well. In parts of Asia the different types of sea cucumber are considered a delicacy and farmed because of it.
Interesting facts: There are over a thousand different kinds of Sea Cucumbers.
Why did you choose this organism? I chose the Sea Cucumber because of its unique span of size. The Sea Cucumber can be as small as less than an inch to over seven feet long.

Glomar Challenger

The Glomar Challenger first set sail on March 23, 1968. This expedition was the beginning in oceanography and marine geology studies. What most people don't know is that the Glomar Challenger was built in orange, Texas. Its' name also originated from the words "global", and "marine", a dedication to the HMS Challenger. The DSDP (deep sea drilling program) began a fifteen year expedition with the Glomar Challenger where they took core samples of the ocean floor. This information gathered helped greatly in the understanding of plate tectonics and sea floor spreading theories. One of the most important discoveries was made during its fifteen year expedition. The crew drilled 17 holes at 10 different sites along a oceanic ridge between South America and Africa. The core samples retrieved proof for continential drift and seafloor renewal at rift zones. This confirmation of Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift strengthened the proposal of a single ancient land mass, which we know as Pangaea.