Focus Question: Biology (1 Viewer)

Tom2nv

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Hello all, i have a biology assessment over the holidays and i need a focus question to base my research around. The assignment focuses on homeostasis in rock platforms or estuarine environments. The teacher gave us an example "how do crabs live on rock platforms" though as it was an example it cannot be used. I am having trouble developing one myself. If anyone would gladly offer some suggestions regarding a focus question i could investigate it would be greatly appreciated :).
 

Trebla

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How do Mangroves survive in estuarine environments where salt levels fluctuate periodically? lol
 

ari89

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Trebla said:
How do Mangroves survive in estuarine environments where salt levels fluctuate periodically? lol
I'd go with that...
 

Survivor39

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I think any animals that live in the rock platforms or estuarine environments will be fine, e.g. barnacles, provided you can find sufficient information to answer the question.
 
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They will be heaps of info on mangroves and stuff like enantiostasis so go with a question such as the one suggested
 

ari89

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Tom2nv said:
ok thanx 4 ur help every1, though i hav 2 actually go down 2 the site does any1 no of an estuarine area close by.
We went to the homebush one...we even got a ranger who talked about the place and we got to do some experiments on the water quality etc
 

basketcase89

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Tom2nv said:
ok thanx 4 ur help every1, though i hav 2 actually go down 2 the site does any1 no of an estuarine area close by.
I don't know where you are but there's a mangroves area near the Georges River.
 

Tom2nv

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hey again, could anyone suggest some practical tests of which i could undertake with regards to mangroves as a requirement of the assessment is to both table and graph the data you collected and i was just curious as to know whether anyone has any suggestions regarding specific tests i could undertake which would help this outcome to be achieved.
 

xiao1985

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for mangroves, you'd learn how mangroves do seclusion, excretion and accumulation...

in those, excretion are easiest to test out... get a mangrove leave, and there should be alot of salt crystals (visible or invisible) despositing at the non-sun side...
 

Tom2nv

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thanks for the suggestion il try that but i was more looking in terms of graphical results e.g my biology teacher used an example for crabs. His example encompassed going to the site for a week and counting the number of crabs in high tide and the number of crabs in low tide for a period of seven days which then would be graphed in tablet form and as a line graph based on the results obtained. I was looking for something similar though encorporating mangroves into the equation and factoring in the salt levels of the environment. Any help would be appreciated :) thankyou.
 

xiao1985

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uhm... that, unless you actually own some mangrove trees, is relatively hard to do...

because saltiness under a leave is not something easily quantifiable...

i guess if you are really wanting to do something like that: at high tide, grab several mangrove leaves and store them well

at low tide grab several mangrove leaves, and store them well...

now, sink each leave in, say, 50 mL of water... now all you need to do is quantify the salt concentration in each beaker of water...this is easily done thruogh conductivity measure...
 

Tom2nv

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hey does anyone know of any books out there refering to mangroves in reference to homeostasis, enzyme activity, hormone control as im finding it hard as most books dont go into enough detail regarding mangroves and as a requirement of the assessment is use a variety of sources i was wondering if anyone has encountered this before and could give me some tips. Any help would be appreciated thank you.
 

Tom2nv

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hey thanks for all the help i was just having trouble with how mangroves control there body temperature, in terms of adaptations which allow it to suddenly warm up or cool down when encountered with these issues. Thanks for any tips
 

xiao1985

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you normally won't be talking about mangroves regulating body temperature.... as trees, i would suppose, like ectotherms, cannot regulate their body temperature....
 

Tom2nv

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o ok fair enough well my teacher said you can use a range of organisms as long as they are either in an estuarine or on a rock platform so i was thnking crabs and how they control their body temperature any suggestions????, And lastly for crabs if you were to test how many were distributed over the rock platform in a certain area in low tide and high tide, which is it likely to favour the higher distribution and reasons behind it as it was a question my teacher asked me to consider but i don't really know the specifics. Thanks for any help
 

xiao1985

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correct me if i am wrong, but crabs are endotherms... which means they would seek shelter if external temperature is toohigh and sun bake (probably) if external termperature is too low....
 

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