- quick recap of caffeine research findings
- discussion about terms introduced yesterday (biosphere, dynamic equilib, "mantra")
- discussion about importance of biodiversity to maintaining dynamic equilibrium in the biosphere (included reading about frogs as indicator species: p12-14)
- went over requirements for Blog (begins tomorrow)
Thoughts about the material:
Our discussion made me wonder about the biodome project (why didn't it work?), how many organisms can exist in a given food chain (is there a max # of "links"?), and just how thick is the biosphere (other than "saran wrap"). It's hard to believe that this small region is the only place that life exists in the universe.
Above and beyond:
According to this site: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/biosphere the average thickness of the biosphere is about 5400m above sea level to 9000m below sea level. That's 14.4km - not very thick (you could walk that far in about an hour and a half!).
Note: some organisms have been recorded outside of this range - at least temporarily e.g. Ruppels vulture found at 11,300m! (Mt Everest is 8850m) and some fish found at -8372m! (10,000psi of pressure!). Most organisms at the extremes of the biosphere are simple, single-celled bacteria.
The picture shows a charming baby octopus found deep in the ocean.
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