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Pages:
3 pages/≈825 words
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2 Sources
Style:
APA
Subject:
Social Sciences
Type:
Lab Report
Language:
English (U.S.)
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MS Word
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Topic:

Albatross Dissection: Other Impacts of Trash in the Environment

Lab Report Instructions:

PART A: Waste and the Environment
Does trash always make it to a landfill? Why or why not?
How does trash get into the ocean?
Where does it go?
How does it travel?
What impact does trash have on the ocean and organisms in the ocean?
Next watch the following video:
Good Morning America. (2019). The great Pacific garbage patch [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu(dot)be/WtewmJ78hzw
Stop the video at 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
Note in your word document the types, shapes, and sizes of marine debris you see.
Discuss your observations. Were there any interesting things you learned from this video?
PART B: Albatross Dissection
An albatross is a very large oceanic bird related to the shearwaters, with long narrow wings. Most mistake this bird as a seagull; however, albatrosses can have wingspans greater than 10 feet, are found mainly in the southern oceans, and rarely stay on land. A bolus is formed from undigested materials that the bird regurgitates as part of its normal feeding process. Many birds create boluses. Most albatross boluses should be composed of animal parts that the albatross cannot digest, like squid beaks. However, there are other materials they eat accidentally, such as rocks and wood, and even trash and plastics that accumulate as marine debris.
Before viewing the dissection, formulate a hypothesis about the types of items that you think you will find in this bolus. Why might these items be here? Record this in your lab report.
Now observe the dissection and note what you observe as the scientist dissects this bolus;
U.S. Fish and Wildlife. (2020). What's the deal with albatross vomit? [Video]. YouTube. https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=b7ks1yLV96o
List the items that are typically found in a bolus.
List items that are in and on the bolus at first glance.
What is your guess of the percentage of plastic items in the bolus?
List any other observations you find interesting.
Compare this bolus with the bolus that has the toothbrush.
Why would plastics be a problem if ingested by the albatross?
Do you think that the bird that regurgitated this bolus felt full?
What about the bird that regurgitated the bolus with the toothbrush?
What are the health implications of a bird “feeling full” after eating the materials that were extracted from the bolus?
Could this debris and the substances in the bolus create health problems for other ocean animals? Which ones? What about humans?
PART C: Global Environment
What is being done to combat the global problem of marine debris?
How do humans directly impact organisms, based on this exercise?
What can you do to combat the global problem of marine debris? (Answer this question by creating a hypothetical experiment as if you were a marine biologist.)
List a few experimental methods for how a scientist would conduct a mini-experiment to monitor human impacts on albatross populations within a research project scenario.
Elaborate on why monitoring populations in research is important to understanding the human impact on organisms within a given environment.
Basic Writing Expectations:
Your lab report has no word count minimum, but make sure all questions are answered entirely.
Include a title page and reference page in APA format.
Double-space your paper, and use a font size of 10 or 12.
Include a highly developed viewpoint and exceptional content.
Demonstrate superior organization — use logic.
Make certain that your paper is free of grammar and spelling errors.
Avoid plagiarism.
Use APA style for all in-text citations and references.
Include an introduction and conclusion.

Lab Report Sample Content Preview:

Albatross Dissection
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Part A: Waste and the Environment
Not all trash always ends up in landfills. Some are scattered by people, wind, or animals littering the land and the water bodies. The primary reason why all trash does not end up in landfills is because of people’s ignorance. People often disregard designated litter points. Instead, they throw trash anywhere, polluting the environment.
This trash gets into the ocean in various ways. The first is through water draining into rivers and oceans after heavy rains. The water carries along with any trash it finds on the way depositing it in the oceans. The second way is through people and organizations dumping the trash directly into the oceans (Lebreton et al., 2018). Other people think oceans do not support life and thus dump trash there. Others, especially those operating water vessels, find it convenient to dump their trash in the ocean waters.
Once the trash reaches the oceans, some settle at its base while others float on the water. Oceans creatures, including fish, birds, and turtles, feed on this trash affecting their lives because most of the trash is made of non-biodegradable materials. Some of these materials tied the animals and killed them slowly by inflicting sores on the water creatures. They also cover plants killing them by impeding their growth.
The video “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Good Morning America” exposes interesting news about garbage and the ocean. The oceans have small to large debris, most of which is made up of plastic materials that do not decompose. The interesting things the video exposes are the size of ocean garbage which extends from the US’s coast to China, and the fact that the garbage is steadily increasing in the ocean, meaning more of it is dumped in the water with time (Roddenberry Entertainment., 2011).
Part B: Albatross Dissection
The hypothesis here would be: Plastic materials make up most of the content of the bolus. I arrived at this hypothesis based on plastic materials' rise in ocean pollution. People and organizations carelessly dispose of trash on land carried into water bodies when it rains. This plastic debris often sticks to squid beaks and other food for albatross.
The items typically found in a bolus include squid beaks, plastic materials, and rocks. At a glance, the bolus contained primarily squid beaks and a toothbrush for the second sample that Lauren in the video does not sort for contents. My guess for the percentage of the plastic in the bolus is 60 %.
The video has several interesting issues. The first is how albatross can manage to swallow a whole toothbrush. It was also interesting that one sample had a little sample of plastic mate...
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