Ocean Lab Report Essay

times the length of the Bay. By virtue of blind luck or physics, the tide is

Because of this, many possible sources of error in the experiment have to do with water temperature changing. One possible source of error was that the water surrounding the Daphnia magna was constantly returning to room temperature. Once the 30° C water was taken off the hot plate and put in the dish, it was always cooling down to reach room temperature, 21° C, by losing heat to the air. So that the heart rate found during the three different trials may have been at varying temperatures, some cooler than 30° C. Once the 10° C water was put in the dish, it was always warming up to reach room temperature, by gaining heat from the air. This may have caused the heart rate that was found during the three different trials to have been at varying temperatures, some warmer than 10°

4.1 – On average, how many high and low tides will a given spot on the coast experience in a day, and why?

The Bay’s salinity varies widely from season to season and from year to year, depending on the amount of fresh water flowing from its rivers. The Bay tends to be fresher in spring, when snow melts and heavy rainstorms frequently fall. During the drier months, the Bay is usually saltier. Salinity also increases with depth. Fresh water remains at the surface because it is less dense than salt water. The water on the Bay’s eastern shore tends to be saltier than the water on the western side. This is due to two factors; most fresh water enters the Bay from its northern and western tributaries, and The Coriolis Force, a phenomenon caused by the earth’s rotation, pushes flowing water in the Northern Hemisphere to the right, causing saltier water to move up the Bay veers toward the eastern shore.

If you have ever lived in proximity to coastal areas you may have seen coastline erosion first hand. The beaches you frequent during the summer may seem to be getting smaller and smaller every year. Why does your favorite beach seem to be disappearing? Coastal erosion is to blame. The waves, wind, tides and currents all play a part in the mechanism that is coastal erosion. When water and wind batter the shoreline sediments are carried out to sea and deposited on the sea floor or at other points along the coastline. This is called an erosional coastline. This erosion may be very apparent or seem to have happened overnight when it happens due to a large storm or extremely high tide.

Over the past several million years sea level has fluctuated considerably higher and lower than present levels. With these fluctuations the shoreline has shifted inland and further out, onto the continental shelf, than the present shorelines. The Northern Gulf of Mexico has followed the general path of global sea level during recent geologic time including the time since the last glacial maximum. During the last glacial maximum, 20,000 years ago, the sea level dropped approximately 100m below the present level and the shoreline extended 100km onto the shelf in some locations (Donoghue, 2011). Since the last glacial maximum the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico has seen a rise in sea level at a rate exceeding those seen at any other time. The rate of overall sea level rise since the last glacial maximum is 6mm a year with some periods of rise in excess of 40mm a year. The rate has slowed and stabilized over the last 6,000 years and this has allowed ecosystems and

(Salton Sea Symposium, 1998) However , the condition of the Sea has drastically changed and so has the amount of healthy living organisms in the Sea. By the 1980�s the water level rose greatly and gave way to abandoned businesses, deteriorating structures and empty beaches. The above was due to the fact that evaporation is the only outlet to the Salton Sea , in fact 1.35 million acre feet of water is lost each year , thus increasing its salinity even more. The salinity of the Salton Sea has increased to 45,000 parts per thousand or 45 PPT; the Pacific Ocean is currently 35 PPT.

First explained with science by Isaac Newton in 1686, tides are known as the regular rise and fall of the ocean. Tides are created by the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon. A high tide is created when the moon's gravitational force tugs on water from the oceans and causes bulges. Even though high tides would be the most powerful on the side of Earth facing the moon, high tides will occur throughout the whole earth. Sometimes, depending on the Earth’s stage during the orbit around the sun, the earth is able to have special and even sometimes rare tides. One tide that’s rare is known as The Proxigean Spring Tide. The rare Proxigean Spring Tide is a very high tide that produce large waves. It occurs when the moon is unusually close to the Earth and in a new moon phase. When this type of tide occurs, it also means that the moon is between the earth and sun. In the book Life as We Knew It when the moon his with an asteroid knocking it out orbit. The moon gets very close to earth and the first natural disaster to occur are tidal waves. The Proxigean Spring Tide came to mind because the moon, in order to happen,the moon must be unusually close

The data for Pond 5 were taken first on August 5th, with a temperature of 85.5°F, and wind was headed in a northern direction. Since Pond 5 is quite deep, the group took a small boat out into the middle of the pond about 15 feet away from the shoreline where the water is clear. The data for Pond 3 were taken on August 10th, temperature at time of experimentation was approximately 79.3°F, and wind was northerly. The group walked through the pond to the north of island 1 (Figure 2) and obtained the samples.

Red tide is the common name for a large concentration of certain species of dinoflagellates. This event accumulates harmful algal blooms quickly, resulting in discoloration near the surface water. Dense enough algal blooms cause harmful toxins strong enough to affect people and the oceans ecosystem as a whole. Karenia brevis is the most troublesome species of dinoflagellate in the Gulf of Mexico. This species reproduces by asexual cell division, therefore, given the right conditions, the population can rapidly increase in size. K. brevis needs large amounts of the correct nutrients to reproduce at toxic speed. The nutrients responsible for supporting Florida's red tide are nitrogen and phosphorus.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, almost 40% of the population lives in high population-dense coastal areas. Around the world, eight of the world’s ten largest cities are situated near a coast, with about 250 million people living by a coast line less than 5 feet above sea level. It is projected that all of these people will be directly affected in some way by seawater rising in the future (Siegert, 2017). For the county of Orleans Parish, the rapid loss of coastal land is not a future scenario, but a current reality. Due to our unique geography, Louisiana loses about 16 square miles a year; the rapid erosion of Louisiana’s cost is only expected to accelerate over time. (Wernick, 2014).

The delicate balance of Southwest Florida’s ecosystems is being threatened by a terrible danger known as Red Tide, an event instigated by manmade products. It has become an increasingly prominent issue that I fear is being affected by humans. Red Tide has become a quiet phenomenon that many people fear will overrun the marine life surrounding our coast. If this problem isn’t addressed soon, it could cost the environment, as well as our economy, a devastating toll. Red Tide has become a hot topic to research and learn about due to its current prominence in Southwest Florida’s problems. It can produce a host of problems, such as the destruction of aquatic habitats, countless fish kills, and horrible health issues, even among humans.

The combination of these and other trends was an estimated average sea-level increase of 1.5mm per year between 1961 and 2003, which reached 2.4mm per year in the decade from 1993 to 2003. The decades prior to this trend showed only minor fluctuations in sea-level, suggesting that the current rate exceeds what could be caused by natural cycles. While the exact impact of rising oceans is difficult to determine, it is certain that the consequences will include some degree of flooding, integration of salt water into water tables, and a loss of land due to coastal erosion and submersion.6

The sea constantly undergoes changes in tides and currents caused by wind or lunar attraction.

The water level (observed) and water level (simulated) water levels and the variation over time were graphed below in figure 5.