One of the topics covered in your current set of chapters deals with currents. We will be doing an activity based on this " spill" in class. Please familiarize yourself with the incident and then comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Labels
- Animals (1)
- AP Exam study (10)
- assigments (6)
- assignments (1)
- Welcome Back (1)
Search This Blog
Garrett Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons
The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons
Move the Megolith
The Meatrix Trilogy
Blog Archive
-
▼
2009
(81)
-
▼
February
(15)
- Tragedy question....let's get some good comments o...
- Thomas Malthus theory on population - does it diff...
- Readings......
- Earth Hour - 36 days and counting
- Some terms and an illustration that may help with ...
- Tragedy of the Commons? Really now, says who?
- The Lights of the Cities Go Dark.....How serious a...
- Rubber Duckie, you're the one.......
- NEW PROFILE PICTURES!!!!!!
- The Iceman says more than originally thought....
- APES in films and other endeavors
- Reading Assignment
- APES get to pondering as all good APES do...
- Assignment : Bats dying? So what? Big Deal?
- Assignment - Great Barrier Reef dying?
-
▼
February
(15)
Wow thats really crazy to think that there is a possibility that rubber ducks could still show up after being out at sea and around the world for more than a decade. The information that can be gained from them as it said in the article will possibly give a fresh look on what we know about the ocean currents.
ReplyDeleteThe whole section about the fact that we are feminizing the ocean is intense. Many times, we as humans dont realize the impact our actions have on the surrounding environment. Since plastic soaks up those chemicals, many containing estrogen, and the plastic is mistakingly ate by birds and other creatures of the sea, the animals are being subjected to high rates of estrogen which is completely unnatural to them...especially the males. Basically we are doing the same thing to the animals as a man would do go through a sex change...so we are possibly mutating our ocean life which could have unusual effects on their future and our food source.
Additional material for currents in the Pacific -
ReplyDeleteThe Pacific Garbage Patch. We will watch these in class, they are here for review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M
wow that was very interesting i wouldnt think that would even be possible wow. but i cant wait i like ducks
ReplyDeleteCould you imagine sitting on the beach and seeing a sea of yellow coming at you. I can't believe all the rubber ducks aren't gone by now.
ReplyDeleteTripper...am loving the gorilla profile picture with the baseball glove....way to go capturing you and what you love!!!
ReplyDeleteThis article is fairy old...I wonder if anyone ever found one. I don't understand why the company did not pick up the toys dropped into the sea.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting. The part I don't get is the part about the seagulls. Were they basically saying that the female seagulls were homosexual because of the fact that they might have plastic somewhere in their system? How would that affect a seagulls preference? I was totally befuddled after reading that.
ReplyDeleteI am not a biologist Megan. maybe Mrs Maxwell can answer how the chemicals in the decaying plastics would alter estrogen levels? If she does, let us know, ok?
ReplyDeleteLol I just thought it was funny. It made no sense to me. Plastic shouldn't alter estrogen levels, unless on a hugely massive scale if it alters it at all. So I really doubt it, I think that they just threw that in there thinking that no one would really go back and check to see if plastic changed estrogen levels at all. From all the reading I've done and with my understanding of biology I don't really think that plastic would change it just like that. So my first post in a way was rhetorical wasn't it?
ReplyDeletelol yup that is so...maybe ask her anyway?
ReplyDeleteI will tomorrow. And then tell you in first period. Yay me.
ReplyDeleteso i thought this was interesting. Who would think that a small army of ruber ducks were circulating the ocean's currents.
ReplyDeleteIt seems unlikely like Megan said that these plastics are giving male creatures sex changes. We should have more scientific data on how much estrogen is contained in typical floating plastic pieces.Is it really life altering if some estrogen gets into a males system and don't these hormones regulate themselves differently between male and females? What I mean is if an unspecified amount of estrogen is introduced to a males or females bloodstream wouldn't the body balance out the problem over time?
ReplyDeleteJake,
ReplyDeleteI would hope so...Megan is going to ask Mrs Maxwell what the ramifications are...hopefully we will have an answer soon.
That's crazy that these plastic duckies are still floating in the ocean after a decade! The video that we watched today just confirms that plastic can not continue to be put into oceans like it has been. Also, I would like to see the answer to the sex change part. I mean say that we swallowed plastic, I don't see how that could have any effect on preference?
ReplyDeleteworking on that answer Brittney.....hopefully Mrs Maxwell can shed light.....
ReplyDeleteWe asked Mrs. Maxwell about the "sex changes" in ocean animals. She said that she had never heard of the plastic or chemicals in the plastic causing that, but she had heard that when women take birth control pills and use the bathroom, the excess estragin (sp?) eventually makes it to the ground water, thus the ocean, causing increased female hormones in the ocean.
ReplyDeletehmm.. well if plastic duckies can actually cause ocean animal to have"sex changes" then it seems like people who want these type of things in the human world need to do some rubber ducky research.
ReplyDeleteJustin says:
ReplyDeleteMegan asked this question: “How do plastics alter estrogen levels?” It is called “endocrine disruption.” Estrogen plays an important role in both sexes, especially in brain functions. Actually, I found out that estrogen is actually a derivative (Calculus students, I am sorry I used the “d-word.”) of the male hormone testosterone. Chemicals in the plastic found at sea are causing an alteration of estrogen levels in various animals, because those compounds affect estrogen signaling pathways in the body! PCBs, or polychlorinated hydroxybiphenyls, are a class of compounds that produce this result. Another chemical, the “building block” of polycarbonate plastics, bis-phenol A, are found in food cans; in plastic milk, juice and water cartons; in baby bottles; and in microwaves. Once marine life ingests these chemicals, they can be absorbed into the body and act as a competitive inhibitor (For all my AP Biology peeps!). Aside from the science of estrogen levels, I am also an expert on ocean currents (HaHa!). Like Matt said, if these rubber duckies wash up on shore across the globe, they tell a lot about ocean currents. The more we learn about ocean currents, the better our science of predicting weather patterns will become (and I am a big supporter of better weather predicting).
Justin that junk is crazy. Its amazing how much rubber duckies can be so seriously important too!
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy when you think about these kind of things and to acutally see what happenes to all of the plastic we put into the ocean such as the North atlantic garbage patch.
ReplyDelete