Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

Ecosystems maintain stable by cycling energy and nutrients obtained from eternal sources. There are three trophic levels. Primary producers, first trophic level, consists of producers like plants, algae, and some bacteria. They get their energy by using solar energy to produce organic plant material through photosynthesis. After comes Herbivores, animals that feed off of plants, making them the second trophic level. Predators that eat Herbivores comprise the third trophic level. They make up being the third trophic level because if larger predators are, they represent still higher trophic levels.

Sea grass notes

1. How does eelgrass density influence abundance of species in an ecosystem?
My hypothesis: The more dense the eelgrass, the more biodiverse the ecosystem because of the more availability for shelter and food.

 San Diego Bay provides multiple resources. It provides salt marsh and tidal floats, bird nesting and foraging sites, essential fish habitats such as eelgrass beds, and nine federal and states listed endangered or threatened species.

An invasive species are those that are evolved elsewhere and whose introduction has or is likely to cause harm to the environment, the economy, or human health. They have been introduced to the San Diego Bay being transported on the ballast water of international ships, arrive attached to boat hulls, introduced intentionally for fishery or mariculture, related as unwanted organisms by aquarists, or spread naturally through dispersal. 

Endangered species are habitats that are close to being extinct. For example, an endangered species in San Diego Bay would be the Eastern Pacific Green Turtle. San Diego Bay provides a protected foraging habitat for the sea turtles and offers a prime study area for researches.

San Francisco and Norfolk

San Francisco and Norfolk

Surface Water and Global Temperatures

1. Thermal Inertia. San Francisco and Norfolk, Virginia are on the same latitude. Why would Norfolk, compared to San Francisco, have warmer summers and cooler winter?

Norfolk has warmer summers and cooler winters because air in Norfolk has approached over land. 

2. Describe the different ways temperatures are "moderated" on Earth. Without moderate temperature, Earth could not support life as we know it. 

The ways temperatures are "moderated" is by liquid water which takes longer than air to heat up and cool because it has higher specific  heat.  When air cools, water slowly releases heat to the atmosphere, raising air temperatures. That is why temperatures along coastlines are cooler in summer and warmer in winter relative to inland areas.

  San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deep water port located in San Diego county, California near the US-Mexico border. It is 12 miles long and 1 to 3 miles wide, making it the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's entire 840 miles long coastline. Before the Coronado Bay opened in 1469, commuters to and from the island relied on ferry services to cross the bay.

Several parks and nature preserves are found at various locations along the shoreline. Sightseeing depart from the downtown area. Commercial port fishing and whale watching tours depart from Shelter Island.
On the bay, the shallow southern end of the bay is used for evaporation ponds to extract salt from the sea water.

The San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex is located on San Diego Bay in Southern California, but are other locations as well. Their purpose is that it supports habitats as diverse as coastal marshes and uplands, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, oak woodland, freshwater marsh, rare vernal pool wetland, and the incredible breeding and nesting grounds for

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a suite of migratory and resident  bird species in south San Diego Bay.