Monday Blues 10

I really am blue today... today was supposed to be beach day for me, Floyd, and hubs since we don't see each other as often as one would like, but alas.... no blue skies or water. The weather fates are against me.

Remember, you can participate in Monday Blues also. This week, SeaLaura hosts so stop by and leave a comment with your link.

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Some Storm!

A very scary set of clouds moved in. This worries me because my husband is out on the water spearfishing right now. I haven't heard from him.

The clouds are very beautiful but ominous. I love the way they turn the light silver.

SOOOO to distract myself from the scary thought of my husband in a scary storm in the middle of the ocean, we are going to talk about weather!

What is a hurricane?

It is an ENORMOUS storm that can reach sizes of 600 miles in diameter with wind speeds between 75 and 200 miles per hour. They move in a counter-clockwise direction around a calm "eye" The spin is caused by Earth's rotation and the Coriolis Effect. They need water temperatures of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or more to intensify.

What was the strongest to hit land in recent history?

The top three are Camille, Andrew and Dean in that order. I lived in Miami for Andrew and I must say, it was intense. Maybe that is why I have no fear of hurricanes anymore. I am just always ready!


That is all I can handle. I am going to watch my video and make myself laugh.

All photos protected under Creative Commons. You can use them, just give me credit ok?

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Rainy Day

It finally rained today. I'm happy because our island has had a bit of a dry spell. Our cisterns filled up a bit this morning and out plants got some much needed love. It's strange how after a good rain you can hear the plants growing. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. A bit of a break from thinking about science. There is lots of science involved in this process, but I rather enjoy the scenery a bit more.


The Guanabana (Sour Sop) tree seemed to really enjoy it

Papayas too...

If only I could reach those mangoes!





rainy day pictures by
Marizela Moya is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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The Levees Broke

This image is copyright Natee2000 on Flickr under creative commons.

Recently, there has been a hefty bit of flooding in the Midwest. No fewer than 19 levees have broken according the Army Corps of Engineers. Tons of workers have tried to pile sandbags in hope of pushing back the torrent of the Mississippi and its tributaries. This is a bit in vain for the simple reason of development.

No, the flooding is not a sign of the Apocalypse. Flooding happens when it rains more than it should . That is why certain areas are known as flood plains. These areas are formed of river sediment and are important due to the high fertility and saving everyone else from getting flooded! You see, when the river floods, the water has to go somewhere and floodplains are it. They are like sponges. The land around these areas is even more important. Let's put this into perspective.

Take your house plants: when dry, you can put in a substantial amount of water before it becomes saturated. However, cover this plant with a plate and pour water over it and you get water everywhere! This is what happened in the Midwest. People were developing (and still are) areas that normally "wicked" away a lot of the rain. Since all the soil and terrain is covered with a "plate" of cement and asphalt, there are less and less places for the water to get absorbed into and more runoff causing more flooding. Also, a lot of the levees that were built actually "bottle-necked" the Mississippi pushing it through an area much narrower than existed before the levees were built.

Now we get to the topic of contention... Should we rebuild or should we just concede defeat and leave well enough alone to avoid more heartache and death in the long run?

More info on this at SciAm and Army Corps of Engineers.

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A bit about biodiversity

First things first, I am apologizing for the horrible quality of the first video. I made it small so I could up load it easier and didn't realize so much of the quality of the original would be lost. I promise to update the video soon to a better quality. Also, I plan on doing these about once a week or bi weekly, so keep checking for new ones. Don't worry though, there will be lots of other content I will include on here as well. It will only be this way for a while (I hope) as I get better with the film editing equipment, the videos may be more frequent.

Now, on to the topic!

Biodiversity is a term that seems to be thrown around quite a bit, but what does it mean? Well, it can mean all the speciation in an area, an ecosystem, a certain biome, or even the entire earth. for example, my house (area) does not have a lot of biodiversity compared to St. Thomas' dry forests (biome), but the biodiversity increases a bit up Crown Mountain, the mountain I live on, due to a pocket of moisture that occurs crating a unique ecosystem. Now that I have you thoroughly confused, I will break that down a bit more.

Okay, biomes are not to be confused with ecosystems. A biome is an area of ecologically similar ecosystems (think communities of organisms) that is climatically and geographically defined. There are a few factors that go into determining a biome. On the climate side, it's limited to humidity, altitude, and latitude. For example: Tropical (latitude) Rain forest (humidity) is a biome. If you took down some of that forest to build a resort, the area around that resort plus the resort is an ecosystem. In ecosystems you include abiotic factors as well (think buildings, fences and man's interventions).

This is a tropical rain forest. The whole of it is a biome.

If you were studying the specific animals and plants
around this waterfall, you would be studying an
ecosystem within the biome!

Hopefully, everyone understood that! You are now officially on your way to become expert ecologists... well, at least well versed enough in science that people will think you're smart and so interesting to talk to at the next social event.

By the way all these pictures are Copyright to me under Creative Commons. You can use them, just give me credit somewhere please!

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