Female Fish Develop "Testes" in Gulf Dead Zone

Date: May 31, 2011


This article is about a fish called croaker. This fish suffering a problem that causes the change of the sex. This fish lives in polluted water and the pollutants in the water make the algae and microbes reproduce and these use more oxygen. This lack of oxygen in the water causes the problem with the change of sex. The female fish change to male and the male fish have less possibilities to fertilize. Scientistis said that this sex change takes around 10 weeks to happen and that the brain uses 20% of the oxygen so if the water has less oxigen. Lack of oxygen in the water causes problems to the brain which produces the neurohormones and neuropeptides. This isn't only happening to this fish, but also to other fish  species. The enzyme regulates the production of the estrogen in the females so if the estrogen decreases there will be a problem: the croaker changes sex.


This article interested me because it is so impressive that this happens to this fish also. I say also because last month I found an article abut frogs that are also changing sex becuase of a chemical that pollutes the water in which they live.


The connection of this article with my life is that if this still happen the croaker fish there can't fertilize and can't have more fish of this type, so if this happen there can be a change in the world like I said in the blog of the frog with a problem like this that if this happen there can have a change in the world like the clycle of the life, so if this fish dead there will be a change.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110531-female-fish-sex-testes-gulf-dead-zone-freshwater-environment/

When frog gender flips

This article is about the research done by a scientist and his team in a laboratory in California. They discovered that the male frogs that are raised in a tank that  has a certain chemical changed from male to female. Hayes, the scientist, discovered this change and told this happend by the chemical called Atrazine,which is used to kill plants like weeds. This chemical, causes the change of sex: the male frog changes into a female, not only in its behavior but also the organism  changes. The male frogs that are put in the tanks with attrazine have  low levels of testosterone and don't attract  females. The organization EPA,  Environmental Protection Agency,  is in charge of the human health and the enviroment. However, the organization approves the use of  Atrazine in higher levels than what Hayes tested in his lab. Tim Pastoor, another scientists who works for the company that makes Atrazine said Hayes was wrong and that Atrazine is safe. . 


The article interested me because it talks about the frogs and theirsex change. We studied genetical modification in class, but this modification is always done on purpose to improve an organism. I never thought that this would happen not just in the laboratory but in an animal's natural habitat. This is happening in the  US but this could happe in all the world because we don't know if Atrazine is being usied in other parts of the world. So that is very interesting. Before I didn't know about the Atrazine and I didn't know about EPA.


This article has a connection with my life because all things that affect the ecological balance can affect my life. For example, this frog eats a mosquito ora  fly and if this frog stops reproducing, it can become extinct, so if that happened the mosquito or fly could reproduce without being eaten so there would be a lot, and the animal that eats this frog could die if it doesn't have food, or it would  have to find other animals to eat. So that is why the problem with this frog changing sex affects my life.


The frog


http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100324/Note2.asp

Astronauts Walk on "Mars"

Date: February 14, 2011

This article is about six astronauts who are part of a team that is simulating a journey to Mars. The astronauts stay for 9 months in a little room that simulates the space ship. The purpose of this experiment is to see for how much time can they resist in the space ship because going to Mars is very far so the scientists want to do the test and make sure that the astronauts stay healthy both physically and mentally. The astronauts have been in this "ship"since June 2010 until now, February 2011. A few days ago they are arrived to "Mars" or to a room decorated like a Mars. They have to stay there for two weeks to take test of the ground. In February 22, 2011 they "came" to the Earth and now they have to wait about 200 days.

The article interested me because before reading the article I didn't know the NASA astronauts are practicing and preparing to go to Mars. I didn't know that Mars is so far away and that it takes such a long time.

The article has a connection with my life because we didn't think we had the possibility to go to other planets. The people think when the world is destroy we can go to Mars to living there but first they have to investigate to know if we can live on Mars.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110214-mars500-landed-mars-walk-esa-russia-experiments-space-science/

Queensland floods hit Great Barrier Reef

Date: January 18, 2011

The article is about the flood in Queensland, Australia, and the polluted water that is reaching the Great Barrier Reef. The fresh water impacts the coral that form the Barrier in two ways. First, the fresh water damages the coral and makes it vulnerable so it can get sick and even die. Second, the polluted water stops sunlight from entering in the ocean water and so some organisms can't do photosynthesis but some algae can grow without sun. The problem with these algae growing is that the crown-of-thorns starfish larvae feed on these algae. the crown-of-thorns starfish is a coral predator. In one year a female crown-of-thorns starfish can produce 60 million eggs so if they reproduce a lot they can kill big part of the Great Barrier Reef.

The article interested me because before I didn't know that fresh water can cause the coral's death. Another thing that I didn't know is that the crown-of-thorns starfish exist, that they can eat the coral, and produce millions the eggs.

The article has connection with my life because these floods are caused by the climatic change, there was a  lot of rain which affects the rivers and these over flooded. We also polluted the river with minerals from mining and pesticides, so when there is a flood all the polluted water goes to ocean and causes damage to the marine environment.

Picture:

The crown-of-thorns starfish.


Fitzroy River floodwaters entering the reef.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110118/full/news.2011.21.html