s-man

=**//__INTRODUCTION__//**=

We students at the [|Amigos School], have visited many ecosystems in the past few months. They include Black's Nook Pond, the Arnold Arboretum, the Charles River and three ecosystems at Deer Island. All of these ecosystems are amazing, by their beauty and structure.

=__//**ARNOLD ARBORETUM**//__=

In my opinion, the [|Arnold Arboretum] is one of the prettiest places in all of Massachusetts. There are thousands of trees and diferent "mini-ecosystems". There are birds, insects, spiders, plants, and more. The Arnold Arboretum is a great place for kids.

=//__**ROCKY SHORE ECOSYSTEM**__//=

ABIOTIC
The Rocky Shore faces the [|Boston Harbor] on Deer Island. There are rocks and shells all over the ground. Deer Island is a peninsula in Winthrop, Massachusetts. There is salt water, about 63° in autumn. Most of the rocks are stuck in the ground, but near the shore you can lift them. The air is 61° because the peninsula cuts off the wind. The water pH is about 6-7, slightly acidic.

Consumers
Under the rocks, there are crabs. They are Asian Green (fighter) crabs. None are that big. Other consumers are clams, mussels, periwinkles, barnacles, jellies, zooplankton and birds, sea gulls, herring gulls and semi-plated sand pipers.

Producers
The producers are kelp, seaweed, rockweed, knotted wrack, algae, protists and phytoplankton.

Decomposers
The decomposers are beach flies, bryophyte and bacteria.

ENERGY PYRAMID
The energy is passed from the **sun** to the **producers**: the kelp, rockweed, seaweed, knotted wrack, algae, protists and phytoplankton. From there it goes to the **herbivores**, the periwinkles, blue mussels, clams, zooplankton and seagulls. The energy then goes to the **carnivores** and **omnivores**, the barnacles, crabs, jellies (formerly known as jellyfish), seagulls, zooplankton, herring gulls and sand pipers. From there, everything except the sun goes to the **decomposers**, the beach flies, briophyte and bacteria.

[[image:IMG_0404.JPG width="517" height="462" align="center"]]
//Children and teachers// //casting plankton nets and drawing// //their observations at the tide pool.//

=****MORE****= = = If you want to learn more about Boston ecosystems, see the rest of the articles under 'bostonecosystems'.