Chernobyl Health Effects

1-1. May 10, 2000

1-2. The nuclear radiation and waste can travel over air and make some food harmful to eat.

1-3. In the fish around Norway.

1-4. In the first few years of the explosion, caesium was found in ‘foodstuffs’ and water.

1-5. Because scientists say the caesium is becoming immersed in the soil.

1-6. It’s because of a concentration gradient, pushing the soil into the water, etc.

1-7. For another 10 to 15 years.

1-8. They will remain restricted for about 50 years more.

2-1. These are the children that are victims of Chernobyl radiation. They were born to parents working at the nuclear reactor.

2-2. Members of clean up teams who were sent in after the nuclear reactor exploded.

2-3. Because they contain a higher amount of radiation in their bodies.

2-4. The internal controls were the children’s siblings that were in the womb during the explosion. The external controls were families that were not exposed to the radiation.

2-5. The DNA could have been changed by the children themselves, but scientists reject this theory.

2-6. A change could be because of somatic mutation in the children conceived after parental exposure.

3-1. Low doses are typically no problem, but high doses can kill cells in the body. The rule applies for organs and DNA as well.

3-2. All acute health victims were immediately sent to hospitals- some died as well.

3-3. Late health effects usually grow in people gradually and is mostly unnoticeable at first.

Conservation for the People

Notes

• three vultures were placed into the wild and the populations reached 40 million by the 1990’s but then if fell 97%
• it fell because of anti-inflammatory drugs
• caused renal failure(sharp kidney failure)
• people from Conservation International discovered 25 hot spots
• Some of the hot spots are
• the Brazilian Cerrado
• The horn of Africa
• the concept of hot spots provided a set of rigorous quantifiable criteria by which to guide conservation investment
• for the past 15 years the strategy has been embraced by philanthropic and multi-national organizations alike
• one recent survey showed that only 30% of Americans have heard of the term “biodiversity”
• biodiversity hot spots clearly are not galvanizing the public to fund or participate in conservation
• Neither Louisiana’s marshes or Sri Lanka’s mangroves rank among the world’s biodiversity hot spots because they have virtually no endemic plant species.

• Connections between habitat loss and economic loss that are not always as obvious can also be significant.
• Without a close connection between conservation and social issues, policies that protect biodiversity are unlikely to find much public support.
• The conservation efforts we envision will be assessed not just by the number of species protected, but by improvments to people’s well being.
• Services were divided into four categories:
• provisioning (supplying products such as food or genetic resources)
• regulating (contributing regulatory functions such as flood control)
• cultural (supplying non material benefits such as a sense of spiritual well-being)
• supporting (providing basic elements of the ecosystem, such as soil formation)
• At issue are not just “exotic” diseases, however. By eliminating wolves and mountain lions, people in the eastern U.S. triggered an explosion in the deer and deer tick populations, which has resulted in more than 20,000 new cases of Lyme disease annually
• Every animal in the food chain is important
• One quarter of a million people join the planet every day. More forests and wet- lands will be cleared for agriculture, and more ocean species will be fished to depletion.
• Biodiversity is going to decline
• Wilderness separate from human influence no longer exists.
• The future of ecosystem services as a conservation strategy may depend on the unlikely collaboration of ecologists and finance experts.

Galapagos- Marine Iguanas

The marine iguanas are the only reptile that can swim. They are cold-blooded so they can only be under the water for 10 minutes or their muscles will become tense and freeze and they cannot swim. The iguana came to the Galapagos as a land iguana, but it had to adapt to the cold water in order to get the food it needs to survive. The iguana is not used to the salt water so when it sneezes, it expels the salt out and the salt lands on it's head.

Guppy simulation

1. They are flashy colored because the more colorful they are, the more they attract the females to reproduce.

2. The common name is guppy or millions fish. The scientific name is Poecilia reticulata. The average size is 3.5cm.

3. The common name is pike cichild. The scientific name is crenichila alta. The origin is Trinidad and Latin America.

4. Dams are a good way to keep out big predators because they are too big to fit through holes that guppies can. Also a shallow pool keeps out big predators because they cannot stay underwater because of their size.

5. John Endler was an evolutionary biologist that studied guppies in Trinidad.

6.Pool 1: Brightly multi-colored large spots.
Pool 2: Medium coloration on body and tail with medium sized spots.
Pool 3: Drab coloration and very small spots concentrated near tail.

7. The fish have least coloration seem to live with the most predators, so if you had a lot of coloration with a lot of predators, the fish would get eaten.

8. If the fish are brighter, they're much more likely to be targeted by predators.

9. Yes, in areas with less predators the brightest guppies take over the population. In areas with more predators, only the drabber fish survive. This goes with the hypothesis.

10. Two factors influence the characteristics of a guppy population: the predators, and the mates (natural and sexual selection). Saying that male guppies are caught in the crossfire more or less means this; they need to find a safe median between attracting mates and avoiding predators.

11. Guppies have different coloration in different areas of the stream based on predator population. They adapt to be drabber/brighter when predators are more/less.

12. The guppies would not attract mates because they have so little coloration, but would not be preyed upon. If there are brighter guppies in the area, they would win out over time.

13. The brighter guppies would be preyed upon and would die off due to the high amount of predators, because their coloration would be more visible to predators.
 


         
Trial 6        
Guppy: Mostly Bright
Predators: 30 Rivulus,             0%                           0%                         0%                      100%
30 Acara, 30 Cichlid              (20 generations)    (20 generations)  (20 generations)  (20 generations)

	% of Brightest Guppies (10 generations)	% of Bright Guppies (10 generations)	% of Drab Guppies (10 generations)	% of DrabbestGuppies (10 generations)
Trial 1 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus	70%	21%	6%	2%
Trial 2 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara	14%	86%	0%	0%
Trial 3 Guppy: Even Mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid	0%	3%	2%	95%
Trial 4 Guppy: Mostly Bright Predators: 30 Rivulus	88%	9%	1%	3%
Trial 5 Guppy: Mostly Drab Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid	0%	2%	6%	93%

Biodiversity

What are ways in which preserving biodiversity locally might have a global effect?

Preserving biodiversity locally might have a global effect by saving species in the area. If we save the species in our local biodiversity, then there is more of a chance that the species will survive because we are protecting those animals. When we are protecting those species, they are not in any danger and if they are free of danger then that species will not go extinct.

How do habitat destruction and loss of species effect more than just one area?

Habitat destruction can effect more than one area by urbanization. If people create homes and buildings on the animals homes, then they have to find somewhere else to survive. Since they were kicked out of there homes, then they have to move into another animals homes. If there is not enough food for either species, then they start dying out. It started with one species losing their homes, then it lead to some of those and other species dying.

http://nativeplants.evergreen.ca/learn-more/02_sar_habitat.php

How does preserving biodiversity enhance the life of people?
Preserving biodiversity can enhance the life of people. When people kill a spider, they do not think of what the spider does for them. Spiders eat a lot of pesky bugs that could potentially end up eating our food or bugging us. If we did not have those spiders, then the bugs would be everywhere. Flies and gnats are what will be waking you up in the morning as they jump up and down on your face. We do not think about the long term effect before we kill something because at the time it is scary or annoying, but we need to start to think, what does this do for me?

Gases and Climate Change

1.) Combustion

Hypothesis: If the oil is evaporation into a gas on the inside of the the bottle, then the gases will ignite and they will shoot out fire.


Observations: When the flame of the lighter was near the end of the bottle, the oil in the bottle ignited and then the bottle shot off of the table about 8 feet.


I now know that gases are everywhere. The greenhouse gases are in everyday things that we see everyday, but we do not realize it. Greenhouse gases act like a jar that keeps in the sun's energy. These gases make Earth a sustainable place to live. That is called the nature greenhouse effect. The atmosphere absorbs the sun's heat and then the ground absorbs the heat and sends the heat back into space.



2.) CO2 gas

Hypothesis: If the gases are released from the bottle and the fire ignites it, then the gas will create a flame.



Observations: When the vinegar and the baking soda combined, then they produced CO2. When the CO2 was surrounding the flame, the flame went out because a flame needs oxygen to burn and when it was surrounded by CO2 there was no oxygen.


3.) Hydrogen Gas

Hypothesis: If the water evaporates and turns into a liquid, then the gas will not ignite because it still have oxygen in the gas.


Observations: When the zinc was combined with the HCI, the liquid started bubbling and crackling. The zinc dissolved inside of the HCI. When the gas was ignited, there was a small burst and then the liquid had flames on the surface because of the gases that were being put out.



Solar energy and wind energy are both good sources of natural energy. Wind energy uses giant windmills that when the are turn they power a turbine that consumes energy from that rotation of the blades.

4.) Air pressure

Hypothesis #1: If we place the heated can with vapor inside and place it in the ice bath, then it will freeze and turn into a solid.

Hypothesis #2: IF we have the opening on the bottom of the ice bath, then it will exploded under the pressure.

Observations #1: When we had the opening on the top of the can not submerged, nothing happened.

Observations #2: When the we place the can face down into the ice bath, the can was crushed under the pressure.

In the article, it talked about how the air pressure on Earth has changed over hundreds of years. Its also said that air pressure can affect othher natural things such as rain fall and temperature. The pressure in the air can affect the rain by having the pressure basically squeeze the rain right out of the cloud because there is no other place for it to go. The temperature is affected because if is it colder, then there is more pressure because cold areas are more dense.

Ten Years of the Chornobyl Era

1. What could have triggered an explosion as big as this one?

2. What could be done to prevent this from happened again?

3. What were similarities to this explosion and the Love Canal?

4. What could have been done to prevent a $20-$30 million disaster?

5. Are there some people that are effected by the nuclear effects today?