Tundra:
"Only time-unimaginable stretches of time that conceal from human eyes the dynamic natural forces shaping the Earth-creates the illusion of stasis. But sometimes, if you're lucky, you come upon a place where time seems compressed, where you can feel in your bones how kinetic even geology really is."
Questions: What is a good example of something daily that we come across that is like compressed time? Is there ever compressed time? What are other things that act upon the Earth? At what rate are things growing, melting, and dying at?
Comments: This was such an interestingly worded quote. This makes me think in motion, realizing that everything around us is doing something as time passes. If you leave a facet dripping and a bowl under it, the bowl will fill. Yeah, I sort of ignored the whole article after this quote. I suppose this quote sort of made it more obvious that time is passing and things are changing, which is perfect for the tundra because the whole problem is ice melting and building up water pressure against dams. May result in future flooding. I think they portrayed that message well.

Rainforest:
"Even though all gorillas found in zoos around the world are western gorillas, little is known about their behavior in the wild."
Questions: What is being done to collect this information? What is being done to preserve natural animal behavior? Are they rehabilitating gorillas for the wild?
Comments: Throughout the article, I liked the journey. The paragraphs were ordered in an understandable fashion. This quote stood out to me because, I suppose it's more philosophical, but it got me thinking about animal rights in general. Weird, I know, but that's what it did. For me, it sort of started me along the other paragraphs where they talked about the diet, habitat, etc. It made me think that what they're observing is harmless, why aren't we doing something like this more efficiently? We may have the species, but we may be losing the unique animal behaviors if they really don't even know how they act in the wild.

Freshwater:
"This is considered ground zero for screwing up. But it can also be ground zero for success."
Questions: Even if we're at ground zero, doesn't that mean we haven't made any progress? Since we've done everything wrong, what has happened to make everything right?
Comments: I sort of didn't like this line. First time I heard something like this, I was a little like, "Oh, that's cool that's cool." but it was worded different. I'll be honest, this whole article was sort of long and boring. They had a lot of opinion and life story with facts sort of in there. It didn't help me read along. This line particular just made me go, "Gosh, get on with it." There were too many events to try and support a few points. I didn't really find the last line about "we're river people" inspirational either. It was hard to follow and didn't make me interested in the issue at all.

Freshwater: Why do fresh water salmon swim upstream?
They swim upstream for different reasons. It could be that there is no light at night so they look for the light of the moon. The most common reason is that they lay their eggs upstream because it is safer from predators there and there is more food.

Marine: Are there type of omnivore plants in the coral reef?
Yes, there is the Sea Fan that eats tiny plants and animals.

Desert: How else do animals survive in the dry desert?
I found a website with an organized list of them here.

Forest: Why do tropical forests have poor soil?
"In the rainforest, most of the carbon and essential nutrients are locked up in living vegetation, dead wood, and decaying leaves. As organic material decays, it is recycled so quickly that few nutrients ever reach the soil, leaving it nearly sterile."
I found more information here.

Grassland: What sort of animals are poached and why?
Two of the most common animals poached are elephants and rhinos. The rhinos have a horn that fetches high prices on the black market. Elephants have ivory tusks that also sells wells. Not only that, the elephant has around 1000 pounds of edible meat.

Tundra: What other dangers do the animals in the Arctic Tundra have aside from cold?
Polar Bears are dying due to global warming because the ice under them melts and they drown. Global warming also changes habitats for seals and leaves no nesting grounds for turtles. Also, food and shelter is sometimes scarce for the carnivores living in this region. For animals with fur, poaching is also taken to account because of how much fur costs.

There isn't really much of a time scale, but I'll tell you how long I think things will take.

(5 hours) Organizing information for the index, obtain 2 pictures for each plant, redesign typing aesthetic , spell check, check sources.
(.5 hours) Make sources in MLA format
(1-4 hours) Work on redesign for the garden to scale, finish all hardscaping and critiques
(2 hours) Research more about ecosystem and type a coordinated paper
(2 hours) Finish legend with colors, well typed descriptions and information
(1 hour) Research Resource Needs and write a description

4 goals for class tomorrow

1. Research more trees that can grow very tall, maybe from 9ft-40ft for shade.
2. Place more rest stops throughout the garden
3. Place basic essentials on new draft
4. Finish legend

Article 1:
Evidence shows that pollinators of crops and wild land plants are declining worldwide. UC Berkeley and UC David did a 3-year survey of bee pollinators which concluded that urban residential gardens providing resources for bees can help in the reproduction and diversity of native bees. I have personally not seen many bees around in the garden, I hope the planting of vegetation in our school garden will help the bee population.

Thorp / UC Davis, Robbin W., Jennifer Hernandez / UC Berkeley, Mark Rizzardi / Humboldt State University, Barbara Ertter / UC Berkeley, Jaime C. Pawelek / UC Berkeley, Sara L. Witt / UC Berkeley, Gordon W. Frankie / UC Berkeley, Mary Schindler / UC Berkeley, Rollin Coville / UC Berkeley, and Victoria A. Wojcik / UC Berkeley. "Native Bees Are a Rich Natural Resource in Urban California Gardens." California Agriculture Online. Sept. 2009. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. .


Article 2:
Lima beans secrete nectar that attracts acts that, in turn, fends off herbivores. After some research, there is evidence to believe that "light quality or composition plays a decisive role in regulating nectar production in Lima bean". This is interesting because, for our garden, perhaps we can plant plants that also produce nectar that can fend off bugs.

Max Planck Institute. "Red Light Regulates Nectar Secretion." PhysOrg.com - Science News, Technology, Physics, Nanotechnology, Space Science, Earth Science, Medicine. 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. .

Article 3:
The light brown apple moth, seen as a pest, feeds off at least 250 known species of plant. Though, they prefer plants in aster, legume, knotweed and rose families. People are worried that if the moths continue to spread "several vegetable and fruit crops may be affected, such as apples, pears, caneberries and peppers." With this future prediction, what can we do to stop it? I think a goal we should have in the garden is focus on how to fend off very harmful pests versus all pests.

California Agriculture Magazine. "The Light Brown Apple Moth: Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask." California Agriculture Online. June 2008. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. .

Other:
Bergen, Molly. "Thinking Big About Forest Carbon." Conservation International. 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. .