wetlands rule

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Biomes

Biomes are sections of the biosphere. A biome is a type of area on earth with specific characteristics. Species in one biome are often found in all of the same biome. Aquatic, forest, desert, grassland and tundra are considered the main types of biomes, but there are many other types, such as wetlands.

If you could create a new biome on earth, what would it look like? What species would live there?

Information from:
http://www.enotes.com/science-fact-finder/environment/what-biome

http://worldbiomes.com/FAQ/biomes_FAQ_ans_001.htm

http://www.realtrees4kids.org/sixeight/home.htm

The Biome Wetland

Wetlands are a type of biome that includes swamps, marshes and bogs. Wetlands are unique in comparison to other biomes because they do not have a characteristic climate. They can exist in polar to temperate to even tropical zones. Rainfall can go from 59-200 inches of rain a year. This means that there can be an extremely diverse population in this biome.

How do you think the environment of a wetland affects the biodiversity in that specific wetland?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetland

http://www.galeschools.com/environment/biomes/wetland/climate.htm

Everglades

Wetlands need a source of water. The Everglades (Florida U.S.) is a very famous wetland. Florida is a peninsula and has access to salt water on three of its sides. The Everglades were named because Marjory Stoneman Douglas described it as “The River of Grass.”

Some parts of the Everglades are being converted to agriculture. Humans are also disrupting the natural environment by keeping the water unnaturally high, trying to keep droughts from occurring. This is causing a decrease in some plant life, such as sawgrass.

What would happen if a dam was built on the main water supply of the Everglades? How would this effect surrounding biomes?

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0201/images/everglades/everglades_map.gif

http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/nt/nt0904_full.html

In a Wetland

Some wetlands are wet all of the time, while some aren’t flooded most of the time. Salt marsh wetlands fill with water when the tide comes in, so you can find barnacles, clams and crabs, and fish that feed on plankton and shrimp. (See image of Salt Marsh, from: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/cede_blackwaterriver/53)

Seasonal wetlands are filled in the winter and start to dry out in the summer. When the land is covered with water you will see insects, birds, reptiles, and the plants start to grow. When seasonal wetlands are dry, some animals move deep into the muddy soil and others die off or migrate.

Fresh water marshes have fish, crustaceans (animals with shells, such as crabs), worms, birds, raccoons, mice, insects and other small mammals. Often, even when the wetland dries, there will be small pools of water with larva and small plants. When the wetland surface is dry, the soil will still contains some organisms.

Bogs have acidic water and are known for low-nutrient soil and carnivorous plants. Birds are common, as well as reptiles and amphibians.

Though salt marshes, seasonal wetlands, bogs, and freshwater wetlands are all considered wetlands, they are very diverse. They may be filled with salt water or fresh water, they are dry at different parts of the year, some species will very, and so on. What do you think would happen if you moved an organism from one wetland to another type of wetland?

http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/vital/wetlands.html

http://www.geography4kids.com/files/water_wetlands.html

http://www.kidport.com/reflib/Science/Animals/Crustaceans.htm

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Bog

http://www.cedarbog.org/animalencyclopedia.htm

Roundleaf Sundew, Cattail and Puncture Weed

The plant roundleaf sundew, (scientific name: Drosera rotundifolia) occurs naturally, but is rare in wetlands. The plant is currently endangered in Illinois, and Iowa. In New York it is exploitably vulnerable, meaning that it will likely become endangered if nothing in the environment changes.

It is a carnivorous plant that exists in areas with little nutrients. That is why the plants are carnivorous; they have adapted to low nutrient soil by being a consumer. A roundleaf sundew can live in bogs, because bogs don’t have a lot of nutrients in the soil. Its leaves/petals are covered in hairs with dew-drop like tips. The dew covered tips catch insects.

Cattail is probably the first plant to come to mind when people think of wetlands. They are basically grass with a brown top. Cattails provide food, nesting, shelter and cover for many wetland residents. You will commonly find Red-winged Blackbirds perching precariously to the tufted end of a cattail.

Another common plant is called Puncture Weed. Puncture Weed is a vine that is though of as a nuisance to many. The vine is covered in thorns that can puncture bike tires! For U.S. wetlands this is a foreign plant so it doesn’t serve much a purpose. In its native environments various bugs eat the plant.

Why do you think that foreign plants don’t serve much a use in an environment?

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DRRO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG8j7dV7MBA

http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/aquatics/droserarot.html

http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=2822

http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourViewCategory.cgi?tour_id=1006&category_id=1010

http://www.weedalert.com/weed_pages/wa_puncture_vine.htm

http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourImage.cgi?image_id=1223&tour_id=1006&category_id=1010

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/onslow/staff/drashash/cattail.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwh4ghZx3A

Bobcats and Walking Catfish

Bobcats can be found in many environments, from deserts to wetlands. Bobcats are known for their black-tufted ears, short bodies and tails. Bobcats are predators in wetlands. They eat rabbits, rodents, sheep, birds, and deer.

Do you think that the small tail on a bobcat helps it with anything?

Walking catfish (scientific name: Clarias batrachus) are able to flourish in muddy water, canals, ditches, flooded prairies and other places where fish are not typically able to live. These fish have suprabranchial arborescent organ, similar to a lung, which allows the fish to breath air. They need to stay moist to breathe. Walking catfish also have a stiff pectoral spine which allows them to move on land. They are mostly found in lower Asia, but are also found in some parts of Florida.

The diet of a walking catfish is dragonfly larva, smaller fish, fish eggs, and some plants, but is known to eat whatever they can if their environment does not contain their usual foods.

Wetlands are a good home for these fish because of the bodies of water there, so the fish do not have to worry about drying out. Also, wetlands contain a lot of insects and plants which can be a food source to the fish. Walking catfish are an invasive species. The fish come and quickly become the dominate species in an area. They can thrive in hard conditions and they lay as many as one thousand eggs at a time, so they can be bad for wetlands, because the fish can take over the area.

Walking catfish can carry the disease Enteric septicemia (ESC). ESC is a bacterial infection. Catfish with the disease usually stop eating, may chase their tails, and develop rashes, and holes in their heads, and so on. A walking catfish could pass this disease to farmed catfish, which is a worry for many catfish farmers. The fish, however, tend to live in areas far away from catfish farms.

In the last 35 second of the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_8tWFbvQ98&feature=player_embedded) you can see the catfish swimming

If you were a walking catfish, would you prefer to swim around or walk?

http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLspec/images/cbatrachus2.jpg

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/WalkingCatfish/WalkingCatfish.html

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Clarius_batrachus.html

http://www.neponset.org/WetlandRestor-PLBiocontrol-Insects.htm

http://www.uaex.edu/aquaculture2/FSA/FSA9050.htm

http://i.pbase.com/o4/64/616564/1/64613031.2GiEHi5K.pbbobcatenhanced3252copy.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC9J3U91gLU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat