Junior Marine Biology: Week 7
Did you know habitats such as seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangroves absorb half of the ocean’s carbon? We’re currently researching how much carbon is being stored in the habitats of Laamu. But even if you don’t live in a mangrove you can still see which environments near you are good at storing carbon by using a simple tea bag.
Your emails last week were fantastic and we are delighted to still be welcoming new junior marine biologists to the team! It’s never too late to join the program so be sure to tell your friends about it. We can’t wait to see your pictures and feedback this week. Email them to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
For this week’s class, all you need is your marine biology logbook and a… tea bag (it will make sense later). There is a worksheet after Video 2 that can be printed off or you can write directly on the document. Once you’re ready to get started, go ahead and press play on the first video.
Do you know how big your carbon footprint is or what you can do to make it smaller? Have a go at calculating yours by answering the questionnaire on the World Wildlife Fund’s website. Ask a parent to help you if you don’t know one of the answers. We would love to see what results you got so email them to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
Here at Laamu we have two habitats that are really important carbon storing ecosystems; our seagrass meadows and mangrove forests. But we want to know more about the natural carbon storing near you. To research of an area near you, it doesn’t have to be a marine environment. This worksheet will help guide your research.
Download the Carbon Research Worksheet here.
You can find out more about the Blue Carbon Lab and Peter Macreadie’s work here.
A science experiment where you only need a tea bag? How cool! Follow Lawrence’s instructions and bury your tea bags in different areas around your home. After a few weeks to months you will be able to see how degraded the tea bag is and therefore how good the soil is for carbon storage. Even if you dig your tea bags up months later, we still want to hear about it. Email your results to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com and until then let us know where you have buried them and what your hypothesis is. You can read more about this experiment here.
Next week, Ali and Viv will be joining us to look at marine protected areas. Tune in and you might even get a pen pal in Laamu ... more about that next week. As Lawrence said, climate change can be a big and tricky subject to study. But it is the most important thing any marine biologist needs to learn about. If you’d like to do some more research on your own, here is our favorite webpage from NASA.
Thank you for being with us today! Remember to share what you’ve written, drawn and discovered by emailing our team at marine-laamu@sixsenses.com or get your parents to tag us on social media @SixSensesLaamu #AtHomeWithSixSenses and #GrowWithSixSenses.
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