From Homer teacher Bruce Rife

Brant, I am curious. With regards to the impacts of decreasing snowpack and the provisioning of food especially in light of it being an economic engine, is there a prevailing theory on how climate change will impact this service?

I found it very interesting that at the K'Beq site Alan discussed that there was a change in the way natives in the area did certain things about 1000 years ago and that historians are not sure what caused that change. Then today Jim from the National Park service talked about how around 1000 years ago there was a forest where the outwash plain of the  glacier is today. Could these incidences be related somehow? 

One thing Bruce Rife said that got me thinking is "the most obvious...[eco-service of salmon] was in the way the ecosystem was “provisioning” the commodity of food.”  I feel like there are under-considered services that are highly valuable for ecosystems and economic systems. For example, the nutrients released from the spawning salmon will fertilize riparian trees as well as inland trees, resulting in high primary productivity (as Karen mentioned in a in earlier blog comment; go bear poop!).   Ecologically, the services are obvious: big healthy primary producers = big healthy consumers (generally speaking).  However, the large healthy trees may also improve economic services.  Not only do trees supply lumber for construction, they create shade for the forest floor, resulting in cooler temperatures for streams — another service for the salmon (and other aquatic species).  This could prove crucial in light of climate change (as mentioned by Eric).  Also, the trees reduce runoff and build up of sediments in the river, ultimately maintaining a stable riverine ecosystem.  

Have these been topics of conversation on this learning adventure?  If so, what do the local people think of the value of trees?  What other economic services of ecosystems might be overlooked (after all, I am coming from a “forest-centric” perspective)? 

We met in Cooper landing in the morning, during which Brandt introduced the essential question of the day:  "How can you integrate these social-ecological systems and relationships into your classroom curriculum in a meaningful way for your students?"  Roger, from Idaho, then introduced us to some very interesting visualization technology in the form of Salmon Sim.  This was a "game" that simulated Sockeye Salmon activity in the Russian River, as well as life cycle stages of Pacific Salmon.  With an X-Box (?) game controller, we saw how we could control a particular salmon making its way up the Russian River to spawning grounds, having to maneuver through waterfalls and against turbulent currents without letting energy levels get too low. 

Courtney, from Anchorage, then introduced us to the Augmented Reality Sandbox.  This had all of the teachers drooling over the highly interactive tool.  A projector hooked up to a computer is aimed downwards over an actual sandbox, as well as a rangefinder from an X-Box.  Contour lines are projected onto the sand that match the actual contours of the sand.  The contours changed as we manipulated the sand into mountains, valleys and volcanoes.  Rain could be produced by holding a hand (rain cloud) about 30 cm over the sand.  Apparently, software is being developed that would also allow students to see how wild fires would progress up wooded slopes.  This seems like a tool that would have inumerable applications in the classroom.

This activity was followed by a talk by Lisa Beranek from the Kenai Watershed Forum.  She informed us how the local non-profit organization can help in environmental education as well as aiding teachers to expand their teaching tool kits and resources.  We were issued information sheets on general sciece resources as well as professional development opportunities through various local, state and national agencies.  All in all, it was a very informative morning.

It was great, today in biology class I was able to refer back to this workshop, yet again, as I talked about how our 'salmon in the classroom' eggs are progressing, when they will progress to what stages of development, how the temperature of streams affects the progress of development, and how PNW salmon are on a different schedule than we are up here in Alaska because our water temperatures are different. This timing is all very important to the way that salmon provide nutrients to or take nutrients from the ecosystem in their life cycle.

There was a great discussion at the russian river trail landing, on the first morning of the workshop, when we discussed how the accumulated thermal units all affect how fast eggs develop. We even reference how the iced-over streams affects the develpment of eggs by slowing metabolism and cell division so that eggs hatch when there is enough, but not too much, stream flow to provide for the fry. I was able to incorporate this discussion into my lesson and talk about the differences between warm-blooded egg development (birds sitting on eggs or why mammals incubate in utero)and cold-blooded egg development (fish, amphibians, reptiles). We begin our cell structure & division part of the year next week and it was a great segway into that topic.