Tuesday, December 14, 2010

My favorite biome

TUNDRA



Tundra is the coldest of all biomes and my favorite.  The tundra tipically has freezing temperatures and snow covered grounds.  The tundra is also known for little precipitation and seasons of growth.  The artic tundra is located in the northern hemosphere and surrounds the north pole and its growng season last 50 to 60 days.  The alpine tundra is located on mountain  across the world and growing seasons last about 180 days. 

Echological Nihe of my favorite organism



Koala Bears are one of my favorite organisms.  They are found along the coast and forest of Australia. They were largely exterminated during the 20th century but is now making a steady come back.  The Koala bear eats eucalypt leaves and rarely come to ground level for water due to the large amounts of water the leaves can hold.  Females reach maturity in 2-3 years and males in 3-4.  A female can produce one offspring each year for around 12 years.  Koalas sleep most of the day and are very inactive animals and remain inactive for around 19 hours a day (now if that's not easy living i dont know what is). 

Mitochondiral Eve

Mitochondrial Eve  lived 200,000 years ago and all mitochodrial DNA in every person is directly decended from hers.  She is thought to have lived in East Africa.  From her, future generations spread across the world and their apperances and make up slowly transitioned to fit their environoments. 

What mitochondrial Eve is suspected to have looked like:


Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab

This biological lab is located in Woods Hole, MA and was established in 1975. The lab is known for their study of ecosystems. Today Hugh Ducklow is the current head of research. 

http://www.mbl.edu/

Butterfly Effect

The butterfly effect is a metaphor in chaos theory that shows how small variatons can affect a larger system.  Basically when some small actions effects the future outcome of a larger action you have the butterfly effect. For example, if everyday you walk to class a certain way, but today you choose a different root and you get mugged and ultimately miss class. The small variation changed the final outcome.