A Walk on the Wild Side

On Tuesday morning our class took a walk around the nature filled fields of Pentucket. I was surprised at the amount of wildlife that was hidden in the pond, fields, streams, etc. One of the first things we observed was the fish in the pond. I had no idea there was anything living in the pond, but there were actually many fish, frogs, and even a turtle! The fish were hard to see because the water was murky, and the frogs were very elusive. The turtle was camouflaged by the surrounding mud. There were also many plants surrounding the pond such as cattails and skunk cabbage. The plants are considered producers and primary consumers such as the turtle eat them. Secondary consumers like an eagle would eat the turtle. Each organism provides energy for the animal that eats it. If one element of an ecosystem was removed, then the rest of the ecosystem wouldn’t be able to function. For example, if you removed the plants or producers from an environment, then the primary consumers would suffer causing the rest of the food chain to crumble. Organisms depend on each other for energy, for nutrients, for shelter, and in order to make an ecosystem complete. 

-Calleigh L.

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Pond Excursion

To Much Algae

    

Pentucket Pond

   

As I was walking around the pond yesterday I saw a frog leap in to the water. As the ripples from the frogs leap disturbed the surface of the water I saw a few fish. Seeing the fish was weird because previously I thought this algae infested body of water was able to sustain no life except the insects which floated on its surface along with the green and brown algae. Seeing this got me to wondering what if their was no algae on the surface? With that question on my mind I went off to find out what was the purpose of algae. I found that the purpose of algae was to oxygenate the pond. If the algae were for some reason to disappear I found that there would be no other plant to oxygenate the water which would cause the fish living in the water to die. I also thought what if the insects floating on the surface were to some reason disappear and I found that the fish would lose their food source and begin to die which would cause the algae to increase and over run the pond and then die. When algae dies it takes all of the oxygen with it which would kill the pond and make it uninhabitable. From my research I found that it is difficult to tell if something starts to die if it will die off completely or it is just being reduced to maintain homeostasis.    

                                                                                                                                Jeffrey H.    

      

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