Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse

I grew up in San Jose, California, but I had no idea the San Francisco bay was so interesting until i took an environmental science class. As part of the class, we studied a little bit of the wonders of the area, and i would like to learn more about one of the magnificent creatures I met there and share it with you. Why is the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse endangered? Whats so special about it? how can I help?

The salt marsh harvest mouse lives endemically in the green highlighted areas. Meaning is only found in the salt water marshes surrounding the 4 bays (South Bay, San Francisco Bay, Suisun Bay, and San Pablo Bay) that connect to make the San Francisco Bay Area. This brings me to why the mouse is endangered. Over 85% of the bay area's marsh lands have been developed into homes, businesses, and salt ponds since 1850. The area most impacted are the higher marsh lands that the mouse used to retreat to in high tide, but also, because of development, a lot of the tidal salt marshes have been protected by levees and sloughs to prevent businesses and homes from being effected by tides, so the marsh lands no longer flood twice a day do to the tides. Also Cargill (the company that owns the salt ponds) has created land that is no longer tidal but only lets salt water into ponds so that they can dry the ponds up to harvest the salt, eventually that salt is what we use at our kitchen tables. The downside to the environment is it makes the soil super saline and takes away any ability for even salt tolerant plants and animals to survive (to the left is a picture of a mountain of salt being harvested). The final biggest impact that has happened with the area is the bay areas water treatment facilities are dumping its treated water into some of the sloughs creating fresh water streams to the bay in water that used to be brackish (moderately salty) which brings in a whole host of species that can now survive in that environment creating a whole host of invasive species to the area.

Characteristics of the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse:

• about 3 inches long (excluding the tail)
  
• weighs about 2 oz
  
• Dark brown fur
  
• Red belly
  
• nocturnal
  
• eats pickle weed (shown to the left)
• only land mammal that's natural processes allow it to drink only brackish water
  
• lives between 8 months and one year
  
• gives birth to 1-2 litters per life time
  
• each litter has 3-4 baby mice

this mouse is unique in that it survives a high ingestion of salt as its normal systems. Its cute small and is a food source for another endangered species, specifically the clapper rail (shown to the right).

What can be done to help?
Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is always looking for volenteers to help maintain and restore the land, as well as helping with the many vistors and field trips comming by. The Don Edwards Refuge is located at the very southern most point of the South Bay, so is nestled in an urban area, so lots of urban problems to keep up with, like grafitti, and litter, as well as weeding out the non-native species.

For teachers, they have programs for any grade level to come out and explore the marsh lands and learn about all of the species, and learning the importance of the water your using, and how to use it wisely. Besides its beautiful. Just don't forget the sunblock.

Aspirin

I was curious about aspirin. I know it does wonders on my headaches, but how? and why? Approximately 8 billion Aspirin tablets are taken per year for a variety of reasons including:

• Inflammation
• headaches
• pain
• fever
• preventing heart attacks
• arthritis

As far back as the fifth century B.C. a bitter powder made from willow tree bark has been used to ease aches and pains. The first person to write about this was Hippocrates. In the 1700's Reverend Edmond Stone noticed the abilities of willow to cure fevers with aches, and he wrote about it. Early scientists only knew that the willow bark was bitter and good for fever and pain because of a chemical called salicin (discovered in 1829). (picture of the willow to the left)

Salicin is an acid that is very rough on the stomach lining causes a great deal of problems. As a result a chemist Felix Hoffmann who worked for the company Fredrich Bayer & Co. tested compounds to fix the problem. The result was acetylsalicylic acid (ASA or aspirin) it was gentler than salicin to the stomach and more effective against pain, swelling and fever. It was then named after a rose that actually produces the compound naturally (picture to the left).

ASA is made of 8 Hydrogen (white), 9 Carbon (green), and 4 Oxygen (red). The chemical formula is C9H8O4, and it is a complex made up of acetic acid and salicylic acid.

In the early 1970's it was finally discovered how aspirin works, in 1982 John Vane and his colleges were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for showing how aspirin works.

Here is a very simplified explanation of how aspirin works:

Your body produces a enzyme called cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2). When in pain COX-2 changes into a chemical called prostaglandins which increases the strength of the signal being transmitted to your brain. Aspirin attaches itself to COX-2 and prevents it from turning into prostaglandins which is what causes it to appear to be relieving the pain. Aspirin only works for 4-6 hours because that's how long it takes your body to process it out of your system.

To the right you have a picture of a man trying to build a model of the complex COX-2 molecule. Below you have a diagram of prostaglandins.

Why there are so many warnings about not taking excessive aspirin:

COX-2 is all over your body and doesn't just turn into prostaglandins when your in pain. In your stomach, it is produced constantly so that your body keeps up with the rebuilding of the stomach lining, this keeps the lining thick which is what protects the rest of your body from your stomach acid. To add insult to injury, Aspirin is an acid, so along with weakening your stomach lining over time, it can also cause your stomach lining to break down leading to some serious stomach problems. Prostaglandins aids with blood clotting, so by preventing it from being made, blood clotting slows down It can prevent heart attacks, but can als cause serious injuries to bleed longer.

Aspirin is one of the oldest known drugs, and it was one of the first drugs to be artificially produced on a large scale by the pharmaceutical industry. Like any drug, aspirin can be dangerous when taken in excess or when not following the directions. However, it is a very widely used drug that is beneficial to the millions of people who take it every day.

Properties of Water

I was cooking dinner and for the pasta i needed to boil water. I realized i knew that boiling water is a change in form from a liquid to a gas, but why does it seem to have stages and what is really happening in that pot in front of me? My blog is on the weird properties of water.


Water is composed of 2 hydrogen's and 1 oxygen so written out is called Dihydrogen Monoxide or H2O.


When water starts to heat, all the oxygen gasses dissolved in the water are released and those are the tiny bubbles that appear to be sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Because of the oxygen being removed from the water, water will both freeze and boil faster if its already been boiled recently and been returned to room temperature.


Water Boils at lower temperatures at higher elevations because of the atmospheric pressure difference. There are actually Charts to show this.


The State of water is actually dependant on two things: Pressure, and Temperature (shown in the diagram to the left). In fact, if you get water to the right temperature and pressure level, you can get water to what is called the triple point where you have a container of water as it exists in all three stages.



Ice FLOATS I know its obvious but what other solid form floats in the liquid form? NOTHING. Ice actually floats because the water expands as it freezes and therefore becomes less dense, and of course something less dense is going to rise above something more dense.


In fact heavy water, will actually sink when frozen, as shown in the picture on the left. Because the hydrogen in the water molecule has a neutron, it is heavier than it normally would be which is why its refered to as heavy water and the ice sinks.

Water has a very neutral PH of 7 meaning it is neither basic or acidic

Water is the universal solvent, NOTHING else will dissolve as many things as water does.

VOG

I am curious about VOG what is it? why is it dangerous? how does it form? how much is produced?

VOG is an abbreviation for volcanic smog, a specific form of natural air pollution. It is composed of Sulfur dioxide (SO2), Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gasses when it is initially released from the volcano. When magma is exposed, it releases the previously mentioned dissolved gasses into the atmosphere. At which point the gasses mix with moisture and oxygen in the air aided by sunlight to create other gasses and aerosols, one example is Sulfuric Acid (H2SO4). Kilauea Releases anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 TONS of SO2 per day. That gas then travels down to the south coast then right back north along the Kona side of the island, and then it blows off over the ocean (the picture on the left shows the VOG as red and yellow and the picture to the lower right shows the trade winds that move the VOG around the island). Although most people don't really get bothered by these gasses, for some it can cause problems because the aerosols tend to stay in your lungs. Results of exposure to VOG can be headaches, Breathing difficulties (including asthma), flu-like symptoms, and in severe cases problems with skin being irritated and itchy.

Sources

Wikipedia

Hawaiian Volcano Obervatory

USGS