BOW 7 (Blog of the Week) Semester 2

 A food web in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystem

The producers are the terrestrial, salt marsh plants, aquatic plants, and algae. The primary consumers are insect, fish, and snail. The secondary consumers are rats, frogs, and fishes. The tertiary consumers are snakes, cranes, ducks, and sparrows. The one quaternary consumer is the hawk.



Reference: http://www.tutorvista.com/content/biology/biology-iv/ecosystem/food-web.php

BOW 6 (Blog of the Week) Semester 2

How does geographic distribution of living species support evolution?
The existence of similar but unrelated species was a puzzle to Darwin. Later, he realized that similar animals in different locations were the product of different lines of evolutionary descent.
For example, the beaver and the capybara are similar species that inhabit similar environments of North America and South America. The South American coypu also shares many characteristics with the North American muskrat.

Reference: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/beaver/

Reference: http://www.rebsig.com/capybara/

Reference: http://www.animalspot.net/coypu.html

BOW 5 (Blog of the Week) Semester 2

The first living organisms to appear on earth are thought to have been anaerobic unicellular organisms, who used marine organic substances without using oxygen. Later, photosynthetic bacteria and cyanobacteria appeared in the ocean. These bacteria were able to synthesize organic substances using carbon dioxide, which causes oxygen to slowly increase in the atmosphere. Organisms later became multicellular, and eukaryotes emerged. Sponges and green algae later emerged at the end of the Precambrian age.
During the Paleozoic era, amphibians and fishes appeared and flourished in water, and ferns flourished on land. In the Mesozoic era, reptiles flourished, and gymnospermous plants dominated the ecosystem. The Cenozoic era later began when large reptiles gradually became extinct after the earth was struck by a meteorite.

Reference: http://imnh.isu.edu/exhibits/online/geo_time/geo_time_periods.htm                                                                        

BOW 4 Semester 2 (Blog of the Week)

Natural Selection is a process in nature in which organisms possessing certain genotypic characteristics that make them better adjusted to an environment tend to survive, reproduce, increase in number of frequency, and therefore, are able to transmit and perpetuate their essential genotypic qualities to succeeding generations.
During natural selection it acts on a phenotype, but the genetic basis of the phenotype that gives a reproductive advantage will become more common in a population of a specific genotype. Over time, this process can result in populations that have an increased rate of mutations. In other words, natural selection is an important process by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms.
           



Reference:   http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html

BOW 3 Semester 2 (Blog of the Week)

If a clone originates from an existing person, who is the parent?
The parent is the person in which the DNA was taken from because cloning is the method of producing a baby that has the same genes as its parent. During cloning, you take an egg and remove its nucleus, which contains the DNA genes. Then you take the DNA from the adult cell and insert it into the egg.

 

Reference: http://cbhd.org/content/human-cloning

Should cloning research be regulated? How, and by whom?
Cloning research should not be regulated because the medical benefits of cloning could have the potential to bring our society to a whole new level. With today's technology to identify a genetic defect before the child is born, and the ability to eliminate a disease with a medical procedure while the child is still in the mother's womb. With cloning, children who would have been born with defects or diseases would instead be born healthy.
 

                                                                                                                                   

Reference: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-cloning.html