Well hello again! I’m back, it’s been a while since my last post. 

Quick catch-up: This is PLP Science 9. Yeah you heard me correctly, it’s just science instead of last year’s Scimatics, which I’m super happy about. Now science and math are separate classes, like mainstream (non-PLP) students usually have. And we have welcomed a brand new PLP Science teacher this year named Miss Julia Kadi, who got her Bachelor of Science in Applied Biology at UBC before becoming a teacher. And then the grade 9 PLP students went on an epic field study to Alberta, stopping in golden, Banff, and Revelstoke on the way. So yeah… you’re all caught up, now let’s talk about our science project.

In what ways have humans impacted the delicate cycles within our local ecosystems and how can we lessen our impacts? This was our driving question as we worked through this project. Along the way we made some really cool media about different subjects we were learning about, and I’ll be sharing some with you today. Keep reading!

We started off by learning about the Earth’s different spheres, and how humans affect each sphere. 

Humans have big impacts on all the spheres. We looked at some city photos, and came up with examples of how we are affecting each category. Let’s take a look at each category and learn a few ways humans affect it.

1. The geosphere: All rocks on the Earth’s surface and crust. Humans affect it when developing a city, through paving streets and sidewalks, ground breaking construction to develop bridges and buildings, and using rocks to make concrete used for construction.                           

2. The biosphere: All living things on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria etc. Humans affect it by modifying their natural habitat; clear cutting forests, polluting our oceans with garbage and toxic chemicals, hunting and killing animals etc. With all our greenhouse gas emissions, the planet gets hotter and arctic animals have less ice to live on, because it’s melting.

3. The hydrosphere: All water on Earth, including rivers, lakes, oceans, etc. We are using a lot of freshwater for drinking water, household, and watering our crops, and water for our agriculture animals. It takes 1800 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans, so lots of water goes into making clothing and goods as well. Air pollution and climate change is increasing the acidity of the rain, which goes into our ocean and will end up making the ocean to acidic for some fish and biotic things in the ocean, which are part of a greater food web. We are also polluting the oceans with plastics, trash and poor sewage systems. 

4. The atmosphere: Envelope of gas that keeps the earth warm and provides air for living things to breathe. Humans affect it with all our gas and air pollution, which heats up the planet, and affects the biosphere, hydrosphere and cryosphere in negative ways. This year, much of B.C. is experiencing drought and ongoing hot weather due to the lack of rain that has left streams (hydrosphere) running dry, leaving no way for some salmon (biosphere) to return to their spawning grounds, and they end up dying before being able to lay their eggs.

5. We didn’t learn too much about the Cryosphere because it plays into the hydrosphere category, but it means all things frozen ( glaciers, ice sheets, frozen ground ect.)

Zooming in on the Biosphere

Then we learned about food webs, and how they are a more complex way to show multiple food chains, and the flow of energy through a particular ecosystem. Plants are producers, which means they make their own food, through a process called photosynthesis. They use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of sugar, to keep growing. However, animals get their energy by eating other living things, like plants or other animals. Here is my amazon rainforest food web!

Hey y’all!! This is an amazon rainforest food web interactive simulator. Simply click on the green flag to start, then the toucan will explain from there. In the lower right hand corner of the rainforest food web simulator, there is a button to see the flow of energy arrows from one animal to the other in the ecosystem.

I also made a hand drawn, frame by frame, GIF to depict bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Bioaccumulation is the process in which polluants from the environment, such as microplastics, accumulate or build up, in biological organisms or living things. These microplastics can become imbedded in certain living thing, like phytoplankton. This can cause interruptions in the bodies of plants and animals, and can be really difficult to digest, and cause blocks in the system. Microplastics contain toxins which leech into the organisms.

Phytoplankton eat the microplastics, then a minnow eats the phytoplankton, then a brown trout eats the minnow and so on…. Now even the top of the marine food chain is eating the microplastics and the microplastics inside the animals that they eat. And humans eat fish in their diets, so we are eating microplastics too. This can’t be good for any living thing’s health.

We also learned about a specific wildlife management strategy. My group was assigned the B.C. And Alberta wolf cull. I didn’t even know about this until now, but the government pays people to shoot wolves from helicopters, to try to halt the decline of southern mountain Caribou. “But many populations of caribou are in serious decline, due to industrial logging, oil and gas exploration, and human recreational activities, that destroys the habitat they need for their diets and protection from predators. Caribou were pushed to the brink of extinction because of human destruction and activities, yet “wolves pay the ultimate price.”(Pacificwild.org)

To sum it all up, humans impact the environment and all the Earth’s spheres enormously. We aren’t taking enough steps toward reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, reducing our waste and packaging in grocery stores, delivery and goods, properly recycling etc. We must become greener as a country, and then eventually as a planet, but you can take small steps to reduce your environmental footprint and impacts too.

Here are some social media posts Kira and I made to educate the public on the topics we learned about. There are some eco tips in the posts too!

See you soon for my next Science blog!🔬🧬🍄