Artifact Review

Artifact #1 Ant Population Dynamics in the Pine Barrens

As a group project in the Ecological Principles class, I chose to do a study on the types of ant species in the Pine Barrens for the spring 2012 semester. This comprehensive study was one of many as part of STOCKTONIA, a Journal of Comparative Environmental Studies since 1998. At first, the project seemed easy as our group planted sugar cookies on sticky pieces of paper (the traps) in three different areas of Stockton’s campus, as you may see under the heading Experimental Design. Although after collecting the samples of ants species and getting them into the lab, our troubles began. In order to complete the study we had to individually select the organism under a microscope while reading through an ant identifying key booklet to determine the correct species. Our group soon became masters of the art of ant species identification, as we looked for differences in antenna, mandibles, gasters, and even texture of the thorax.

All in all our lab group spent around 20 hours in the lab identifying over 400 specimens into 8 similar ant species. As you see in our study, we compared our results to those of the same studies from recent years. Our study concluded that “changes in temperature, weather, and humidity played a role in the substantial decrease in total species captured”. Another conclusion was “the fact that this year was considerable dryer and warmer than last year, more ants were recorded in our data.” Overall, I enjoyed setting traps and the end of species identification, after actually learning the different parts of the ant’s body. It was a struggle but in the end, the results came out perfect and our project was good enough to be published in the latest volume of Stocktonia.

Artifact #2 Hydrothermal Vent Ecosystems

As a part of a requirement for Jamie Cromartie’s Ecological Principles class, I was given the task of researching an ecosystem of my choice. Given that I was already fond of the Pine Barren’s community and needed something new, I decided to research an area where no man has traveled. I chose the hydrothermal vent ecosystem of the mid Atlantic ridge because of my interest in the ocean and also to determine if the makers of “Finding Nemo” were on the right track. As I began to dive into this project, I was shocked to learn that there were so many marine creatures, which I recognized, that were living thousands of leagues under the sea in perpetual darkness. The key to the community’s survival is the hot, nutrient and mineral rich water, which is spewed from the vents and cultivated by bacteria as an energy source. The whole idea boggled my mind and made me start thinking about how organisms actually survive without the help of solar energy from the sun, planet Earth’s #1 energy source. I included in the paper a food web, a diagram of how underwater ridges form, a map of the known hydrothermal vents of the globe, and a list of species commonly found in vent ecosystems. If you read the last two sentences of the paper, you may understand my questions and concerns that I concluded with. 

Artifact #3 Climate Journal

In the Physical Geography lab under Tracy Baker, each student was given 10 climate stations around the world and asked to compare three main weather statistics: precipitation (mm), minimum temperature (C^o), and maximum temperature (C^o). For each station, I gave an overall background of the climate, Koppen Classification, along with any other general piece of information that I could find.  After calculating the annual/monthly standard deviations from the past years compared to 2010, I made a standard deviation fallout chart where I highlighted boxes where the indicated year monthly average statistic deviated from the overall monthly average by more than 2%. Also, there are line graphs for each statistic (precipitation, minimum temperature, and maximum temperature) which indicate changes per year. As you may see I only included 3 climate stations rather than the 10 because the file was too large and boring to read. At the end of the journal, I included a map of the 10 stations that were researched.