Put an argonaut in your aquarium!
Characters:
Theme: Ecosystems
Competencies
Competence in Linguistic Communication
Mathematical competence in science, technology and engineering
Personal, social and learning to learn competence
Competence in cultural awareness and expressions
Subjects and year by Educational System
Spain > Biology and geology > 1st ESO > Ecology and sustainability
Spain > Biology and geology > 3rd ESO > Ecology and sustainability
Enunciation
Jeanne Villepreux can be considered a marine biologist and naturalist. She was the first person to use aquariums for research in marine environments. She created different aquaria with different materials according to the size of the mollusks under study. She demonstrated that the argonaut, a cephalopod of tropical and subtropical waters, secretes its own shell, settling an open question of her time.
One can find in her work an antecedent to aquaculture, since she was a pioneer in the breeding of fry to repopulate rivers where fish had disappeared.
As you know, an ecosystem is a portion of the biosphere formed by living beings, the environment that surrounds them and the relationships between them.
The attached drawings correspond to a 19th century aquarium and a drawing of a cephalopod, called argonaut, to which he dedicated many of his observations.
1. Could the aquarium be considered an ecosystem? Reason the answer.
2. If so, which elements of the aquarium are components of the biotope and which are components of the biocenosis? List them.
3. Determine the biotic and abiotic factors of this ecosystem.
4. Can you describe any limiting factors in this ecosystem?
5. If the argonaut were in the aquarium, what trophic level would it belong to? Reason the answer.
6. Draw up a trophic chain with all the elements that would appear in that aquarium.
Observations and context
Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794-1871) was a contemporary of the great Scottish mathematician and science popularizer Mary Somerville and Nancy Maria Donaldson Johnson, who obtained the first patent in the United States in 1843 thanks to her hand-operated ice cream machine.
Jeanne produced exquisite illustrations of the species she studied and the observations she made about them, as did other scientists such as Marya Sybilla de Meriam (1647-1717), an entomologist who illustrated and demonstrated the development of metamorphosis in insects, and Eleanor Ormerod (1828-1901), whose drawings helped farmers and ranchers identify harmful insects and the effects they produced.
Throughout history, the field of biology and natural sciences has been plagued by women researchers such as Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), who was one of the most versatile and influential women of the Middle Ages in 12th century Western Europe. Mystic, abbess, theologian, writer of scientific books on plants and minerals and their healing powers, as well as on the functioning of the human body; the anatomy professor Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716-1774); Laura Bassi (1711-1778) who fostered the constitution of a network of experimenters that connected Italy with the scientific culture of France and England.
Since the late nineteenth century there have been many women devoted to science such as Marie Curie (1867-1934) pioneer in the study of radioactivity, with two Nobel prizes, one in physics and one in chemistry, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) marine biologist, zoologist and writer, who after observing her natural environment concluded that pesticides were devastating it, Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1954) British chemist and crystallographer whose work was fundamental to the understanding of the environment, Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958) British chemist and crystallographer whose work was fundamental to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, carbon and graphite.
Description
Short answer activity.
Objective: to work on the components of ecosystems and limiting factors.