Squid

Body Parts and Functions

Fin: Helps squid change direction when swimming

Mantle: Contains all internal organs

Chromatophores: Spots that change size in order to change squid's color for camouflage or possibly communication

Eye: Well developed; allows them to see

Arm: Squid have 8 arms covered in suction cups.

Suction cups: Help the squid hold onto food

Tentacle: Longer than arms and only have suction cups on the tips; used to pass food to arms and then to mouth

suction cup under microscope

Gonad: Reproductive organ

Gills: Absorb oxygen from water

gills under microscope

Heart: Circulates blood

Ink sac: Squid releases ink from this gland when it is in danger

Brain: Highly developed for an invertebrate

Siphon: Squirts out water so that the squid moves like a jet

Heart, ink sac, brain, and siphon

Beak: Takes in food; resembles a bird's beak

FINAL PRODUCT:

Evaluation:

6 interesting facts:
When a squid is threatened, it releases a cloud of ink to confuse predators and give it a chance to escape.
Squid can be as small as a thumbnail or as large as a house.
Squid sometimes feed on their own kind.
About 6,000 metric tons of squid are taken yearly for human food and bait.
Female squid produce 10-50 elongated egg strings, which each contain hundreds of eggs.
In many species of squid, the parents will die soon after leaving the spawning ground. :(

The most disgusting part of the lab was how smelly the squid was, and taking the beak out. It was also fun (in a disgusting, yet fascinating sense) to take the ink sac out and paint with it. My least favorite part of the lab was that we did not get any gloves; it seemed a bit unsanitary and slimy. But overall, it was interesting to receive a fuller understanding of squids.

Benefits of Mangroves

Friday 2/22

There are the red, black, and white mangroves.

Red mangroves live in deepest salt-water of the three and have large prop-roots.
Organism benefits: Place to hide from predators for young fish.
Human benefits: Used for fuel wood but its most common and important use is in the leather industry: its bark is peeled and tannin is extracted, which is used as a dye.

White mangroves live farthest away from the water of the three. Leaves are rounded elliptical.
Organism benefits: Sugar for the insects.
Human benefits: Used for fishing poles, tool handles and as wood for fences.

Black mangroves live in a few inches of salt water and have pnuematophores.
Also, the leaves have salt crystals formed on the top side.
Organism benefits: Place for breeding, nursering, and especially feeding.
Human benefits: Can be used for fishing poles, charcoal, and in the production of honey.

It helps the fishing industry a lot by keeping the young, baby fish safe so they can grow up, breed and be caught, providing profit.

Ocean Garbage Patch

Thursday, 2/21

The ocean garbage patch is a ginormous sea of plastic bags, bottles and other debris that is growing in the North Pacific, and now another one has been found in the Atlantic. Ocean currents collect floating garbage for thousands of miles and drop it into the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, one of the major ocean vortexes around the world.



Plastic products can be extremely harmful to marine life in the gyre. For example, loggerhead sea turtles commonly mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, their favorite food. Many marine mammals and birds, such as albatrosses, have become strangled by the plastic rings used to hold six-packs of soda together.



Marine debris can also disrupt marine food webs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. As microplastics and other trash collect on the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below. Algae and plankton are the most common autotrophs in the marine food web. If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals such as fish and turtles that feed on algae and plankton will have less food. If those animals start to die, there will be less food for predator species such as tuna, sharks, and whales.

Because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country’s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. Cleaning up marine debris is not as easy as it sounds. Many pieces of debris are the same size as small sea animals, so nets designed to scoop up trash would catch these creatures as well. Even if we could design nets that would just catch garbage, the size of the oceans makes this job too time-consuming to consider. And no one can reach trash that has sunk to the ocean floor. However, we can slow the patch from growing if we use biodegradable plastics and be reusing plastic rather than throwing it in the trash.

Reptiles

Hawksbill Turtle

Common name: Hawksbill Turtle
Scientific name: Eretmochelys imbricata
Habitat: Rocky areas, coral reefs, shallow coastal areas, lagoons or oceanic islands, and narrow creeks and passes. They are rarely in water deeper than 65 feet.
Adaptations: It has a beak like mouth to capture food better.
Status: Endangered :'(
Current issue facing them: They are often killed for their shells and a lot of people like to eat their eggs. Or they can be accidentally caught in fishing nets.
I absolutely adore turtles they are so beautiful and amazing and graceful. <3 <3

Ocean Acidification

Tuesday, 2/19

Ocean acidification is when carbon dioxide is produced by the burning fossil fuels and is then put into the ocean. Many major problems can develop in the marine ecosystem because of this. The animals most at risk are tarapods. Their shells are progressively becoming thinner and thinner as time goes on. Their shells will eventually completely disintegrate from the immense amount of pollution and carbon dioxide us humans use everyday. If the the shells from these small animals keep getting smaller, they will die and so will the animals that eat them. Their will be a chain reaction throughout from the bottom up to the top of the food chain. By not burning fossil fuels we can prevent this from happening. We can use solar energy and not use the earth's materials. In the end we are killing ourselves.

Essay Question For Next Test

Friday 2/15



Karenia brevis is the dinoflagellate responsible for the red tide in Florida and Texas. When it's in high concentrations, it causes the water to take on a reddish or pinkish color. It uses its two flagellas to move more easly through the water.


It is harmful to marine animals and humans, causing death and neurotoxic shellfish poisoning. Symptoms of neurotoxic shellfish poisoning include vomiting, nausea, and a variety of neurological symptoms such as slurred speech. As a result, the Gulf coast economy is negatively affected because it prevents people from being able to eat shellfish. Because the fisherman can't sell it, they economy takes a dive.

What I've Learned About Plankton

Thursday 2/14





I've learned many things about plankton this week, but I'll condense it to 5 main points. Unlike what I have believed my whole life, plankton are the world's main source of oxygen, not trees. They produce 80% of the Earth's oxygen. One reason why they are so important is that they are at the bottom of the food chain in the ocean. Without them the pyramid would fall apart. And lastly it improves immune function and brain health. Diatoms are single alga that has a cell wall of silica. Dinoflagellates are a single celled organism with two flagella and a cellulose covering. They form one of the chief constituents of plankton. Some dinoflagellates cause harmful effects on marine life because of the toxins they carry. Lastly, there are two main types of plankton, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Zooplankton are microscopic invertebrate animals that swim or drift in water while phytoplankton are microscopic plants in the ocean.