So all of our research helped us figure out the following things:
1. The Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean became connected in the 1920s, when canals connected the St. Lawerence Seaway and the Great Lakes.
2. Around this time, fisherman began noticing large fish, like the trout and salmon, begin to have quarter-sized wounds appear. They also caught wind of an invasive organism, known as the sea lamprey, to have entered the Great Lakes. A journal entry from a fisherman in the 1930s revealed this to us.
So we set off to find out more about the sea lamprey, and figured we should compare it to the trout. We decided to return to our Driving Question Board, and answer questions we had about reproduction, movement, and habitat, for not only the trout, but this new organism, too.
1. The Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean became connected in the 1920s, when canals connected the St. Lawerence Seaway and the Great Lakes.
2. Around this time, fisherman began noticing large fish, like the trout and salmon, begin to have quarter-sized wounds appear. They also caught wind of an invasive organism, known as the sea lamprey, to have entered the Great Lakes. A journal entry from a fisherman in the 1930s revealed this to us.
So we set off to find out more about the sea lamprey, and figured we should compare it to the trout. We decided to return to our Driving Question Board, and answer questions we had about reproduction, movement, and habitat, for not only the trout, but this new organism, too.
We discovered a whole bunch of things!
1. The sea lamprey can live in both fresh and salt water, while the trout can only survive in fresh water.
2. The sea lamprey have FAR more offspring than a trout.
3. Despite trout being good swimmers, it seems as if sea lamprey's body made of cartilage and s-like swimming ability make it even faster and more agile than the trout.
4. The sea lamprey has absolutely no predators, while the trout has many.
While we have lots of strong evidence that organism #3 on our graphs is the sea lamprey, but we're using a computer model to help gather even more evidence for what an invasive does to an ecosystem.
1. The sea lamprey can live in both fresh and salt water, while the trout can only survive in fresh water.
2. The sea lamprey have FAR more offspring than a trout.
3. Despite trout being good swimmers, it seems as if sea lamprey's body made of cartilage and s-like swimming ability make it even faster and more agile than the trout.
4. The sea lamprey has absolutely no predators, while the trout has many.
While we have lots of strong evidence that organism #3 on our graphs is the sea lamprey, but we're using a computer model to help gather even more evidence for what an invasive does to an ecosystem.
At the start...
Half way through...
When the invader arrives...
What do you notice when an invasive arrived in this ecosystem? How is this related to what happened to the trout? And the trout's prey?