A Quest to Save the Bay

A Quest to Save the Bay

AP Bio and Environmental Science team up to save the bay!

Background

• Before we left, we meet an employee who works for the organization Save the Bay to learn about the bay and the work they do

What Did We Do?

• We drove down to Palo Alto to a Save the Bay site

• We collected data about the restored versus un-restored soil and plants

• We weeded out the invasive mustard plant

Things I Learned

• Invasive plants, such as the mustard plant, are very harmful to the environment because they wildly reproduce and do not allow the other native plants to reproduce. This is harmful because the native plants are other specie's habitats and provide food and shelter.

• Save the Bay plants native plants that are designed to survive year round and can adapt to the environment and are not annual plants like the mustard that die simply after a season.

• Where the soil is located can change the qualitative and quantitative properties, which include the moisture levels, pH levels, appearance and salinity. This is because the soil reacts with the bay in different ways.

• Another thing that is harmful to the environment was this artist's work. Although it was a pretty sight, these structures allow large birds to perch on them.

Connecting it to Class

• One of the characteristics of water, is water is a solvent. Salt does not dissolve in water, which was clear by examining the plants close to the bay like pickle weed. A purposes of pickle weed is to absorb the salt that the water did not dissolve.

• Save the Bay researches how different conditions of land are affected by the environment. They do this by having separate plots of land and one controlled plot. In class we learned that controlled variables are important to view the effects.

Memories

• While collecting the data of the soil, it was very interesting to see the sudden increase the pH of the soil. I did not realize that by having an invasive type of soil, the pH would just jump by one.

• From this trip I have gotten a better understanding on the importance of keeping a native biodiversity.

• This field trip was definitely worthwhile. I would add to a guide of the native plants so while collecting the biodiversity index, we could try to figure out which plant was what.

• I would encourage everyone to go out to Save the Bay because it provided hands on activities, information about the bay, and a sense that we helped the environment.