Background
In this project we were tasked with picking an endangered species/ habitat and find ways to raise awareness and funds for it. Our group chose to cover the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. To raise awareness we created an instagram account as well as a website. For this project my group was Vanessa, Luke, Vinny, and I.
Our Website
For this project we created a website for people to visit to be educated on the challenges facing the Great Barrier Reef from climate change, rising ocean acidity, and rising planet temperatures. On this website we left links to donate to the great barrier reef and other organizations to save the reef. We also created an Instagram account and posted about the reef and
Content
- Carrying Capacity- The amount of organisms an Ecosystem/ Environment can support/ has the resources for. The Great Barrier Reef has a large Carrying Capacity that is rapidly declining due to the death of coral as the coral provides a home and plays an important role affecting all organisms in the ecosystem.
- Abiotic- A word used to describe the non-living aspects of an ecosystem like the water since our ecosystem is a reef and underwater
- Biotic- Biotic is a word used to describe the living aspects of an ecosystems, and example of this is our ecosystem is the coral.
- Ecological Organization- This is how an individual relates to other organisms and the world using a level system of organization going from the individual to everything on the planet.
- Individual- This refers to the individual organism and how they relate to the ecosystem
- Population- This refers to a small group of individuals of the species.
- Community- This refers to the total amount of the species in a particular ecosystem.
- Ecosystem- The community including abiotic factors such as water, and geographic aspects.
- Biome- Geographic location determined by climate, there are 13 different biomes that all ecosystems belong to, in example some biomes are Forest, Wetlands, Rainforest, and Desert.
- Biosphere- How all the biomes on earth relate to each other and work together
- Symbiosis- Interaction between any two species living in the same ecosystem occurring naturally whether to benefit, harm, or neither.
- Mutualism- A relationship between two species in which both are benefited.
- Predation- A relationship between two species in which one hunts the other a source of food
- Parasitism- A relationship between two species in which one benefits and the other is harmed
- Competition- A relationship between two or more organisms where the same resources are used and they have to compete. The most common example of this is predators competing for the same prey.
- Commensalism- A relationship between two organisms in which one benefits and the other is unaffected.
- Biomass- Total dry mass of all organisms in an ecosystems
- Limiting Factor- Determines what controls the population and dictates how many organisms is the limit of the ecosystem.
- Density Dependent- Population is based on and restricted by resources. If a population is restricted by resources, then it is Density Dependent
- Density Independent- Restrictions on the populations not based on the the amount of organisms, examples of this would be natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
- Density Dependent- Population is based on and restricted by resources. If a population is restricted by resources, then it is Density Dependent
- Disturbance of Homeostasis- When the ecosystem is thrown out of balance due to the loss of a species or resource. The death of a species can cause an imbalance as another species loses a valuable resource
- Biodiversity- Diversity of organisms in a place.
Reflection
In this project, I felt that my full attention was not on the project due to the impending AP European History test that most of the group was taking. Due to this, A lot of our energy and attention was redirected towards the test due to stress. Our focus on the project was not our main priority until after the test. However after the test we did put all our energy into the project. In this project I felt a better job would have been done had we divided our attention and time better. There could have been a better job staying on task and we could have brain stormed a bit more or gone out and talked to people to raise further awareness of the state of the Great Barrier Reef and raised our own money or started a GoFundMe as well. My procrastination on this project was definitely a weakness ad we put off giving the project our full attention until after the AP test. All in all, this project was interesting and I enjoyed getting to make a difference.