Reflections on the term’s work

Was our eco-column really successful?

The plants grew well and there were living organisms in both our aqua and terra zones. Over the holiday period the radish plants died and the soil in terra zone dried out. It was successful in the way that fungus grew on the side of the decomp zone and there were still living organisms in the aqua zone.

Michael Peter

What we have learned

Michael Peter: I have a much better understanding of the ecosystem and the different zones and how they work. I learnt that an ecosystem needs resources such as water and oxygen etc in order to sustain itself. 

Sebastian Prentice: I have a better understanding because through making the eco-column it gave me a better understanding of the different jobs and responsibilities the different zones have. 

Jonny Frost: Looking after and creating our eco-column has given me more knowledge of ecology and ecosystems. Now I know that that the biotic factors of an ecosystem are dependent on the abiotic factors and how it works in a cycle.

Did we work as a team?

Sebastian Prentice: Our group worked well together because we all assigned each other separate jobs to do for the project. The work load was evenly distributed and we all did our parts well and did not let each other down. 

Jonny Frost: Our group members worked well together and I think that our blog represents this and what we learned throughout the term. We worked together to complete each task set and succeeded.

Michael Peter: our group worked well together as everyone did the work they were assigned and no complications took place. Our eco-column ended up very well and our blog was also a success.

Eco-column as an ecosystem

Definition of an ecosystem: 

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with non living components of their environments.

I think that our eco-column is an ecosystem because of the abiotic and biotic factors present. The living organisms eg: Plants, Worms and fruit flies, live in conjunction with the non living organisms such as the rotting fruit soil and water. Even though our plants died this does not mean that our eco-column wasn't an ecosystem.

Sebastian Prentice

Observation of biotic factors under a microscope.

We looked at a sample of our aqua zone water under a microscope and we found nothing.

Fruit fly under a microscope.

When we looked at a sample our our decomp zone we found a dead fruit fly. This proves that there are organisms living off our eco-column. In the picture above we can see the fruit fly dead. It had been feeding off the decomposing fruit in the decomp zone.

Biotic factors after 2 weeks

Average height of plants: 146mm
(average taken from 4 plants)

Average number of leaves per plant: 2.5
(average taken from 4 plants)

Several fruit flies flying around the decomp zone living off the decomposing fruit.

There are 4 worms living in the decomp zone and one dead worm. Here is a picture of two of our worms.

We as a group expected our eco-column to have living and dead organisms in it.

Abiotic features of our eco-column after 2 weeks

Abiotic features

Temperature of aqua zone: 27 degrees Celsius
Temperature of the room: 35 degrees Celsius
pH reading of the aqua zone: 9

The temperature of the aqua zone is expected because it is a hot, humid zone. We had several worms in the decomp zone but because of the temperature of the zone one died.
When the temperature recording took place the room was hot which could have effected the temperature of the aqua zone.

Our eco-column does not receive light from 4 o'clock in the afternoon until 8 o'clock in the morning because it is in a classroom. It also being constantly kept cool by roof fans above it at the same times as the light but the fans do not turn on on Saturday and Sunday.

These factors could have varied the temperature of the aqua zone and the pH reading.

references

http://www.learner.org/courses/essential/life/bottlebio/ecocol/

https://sites.google.com/site/enviornmentalscience1/home/ecocolumn-lab

Pictures of our stocked eco-column

How we stocked our eco-column

We stocked each zone of our eco-column separately. The aqua zone, the de-comp zone and the terra zone.

For our aqua zone we collected river water from the outside Sebastian's house. We also collected the river weed from that destination.

For our de-comp zone we collected moist soil from the school green house. The worms we collected were from soil around bishops. The decomposing fruit came from 'fruit and veg city' in access park.

For our terra zone we got soil from the bishops grounds and we bought received radish seeds from a bought packet. We also put rape seeds, carrot seeds and peas.

In building our eco-column we placed the aqua zone on the base with an open top. Into that we placed half an upside down coke bottle with our de-comp zone inside, the bottle top on this zone is left on, but it has a 50mm hole in it to filter out unneeded water. This bottle zone also had been cut in half to make an open top. The next bottle, containing the terra zone, is placed with the base of the bottle down and an open top so that the plants can grow inside. The base of the terra zone also has a 50mm hole for filtration into the de-comp zone. All the bottles are taped together with cello-tape to make sure that the one bottle won't fall in the other.

The reason for putting each of the contents in each zone was simple. We wanted to re-create and eco-system in our eco-column and so we had to simulate each type of environment in each zone. The reason for putting water in the aqua zone was to re-create a pond situation with river weed. The reason for putting damp soil and decomposing fruit in the de-comp zone was because that is the circumstances that we find in real life. It also attracts flies which are a real life circumstance that makes our eco-column self sustaining. The reason for putting dry, fertile soil in the terra zone is because it is most suitable for growing plants.

 This was a picture half way through building our eco-column.

Why our eco-column will be self sustaining

Our eco-column will be self sustaining over and 8 week period because of a few factors.

Two main factors contribute to the outcome of wheather our eco-column will be self sustaining. These are abiotic and  biotic factors.

The abiotic factors of our eco-column are: temperature, conditions and terrain. In our eco-column we have a stable temperature of between 22 and 25 degrees Celsius. The weather conditions in our column are stable and clam with no wind. It will be receiving a large amount of artificial light. The terrain in the column differs in each separate zone. In the aqua zone the river water fills the bottom of the coke bottle. In the de-comp zone we filled it with moist soil and rotting fruits. In the terra zone it is filled with dry soil/sand and so the terrain is flat.

The biotic features in our eco-column vary in each zone. In the aqua zone we have river weed. In the de-comp zone we have abiotic damp mud/soil which holds the biotic worms that make the soil fertile. after a while we will start growing mould on the fruit which is a fungi which another biotic feature. In the terra zone we have radish plants growing.

With all these abiotic and biotic factors contributing our eco-column will be self sustaining.

Our eco-column will look some thing like this. We will use 2 litre coke bottles to make each section and and they will be holes between them so that the system can breath. To stabilize the structure we will put wooden rods around the diameter of the cylinder connected to a base so that it can stand freely. The fly ranch and insect eating bog in our eco-column will be combined to hold compost, rotting fruit and fruit flies. Also we will not have a spider den but we will have radish plants growing in the terra zone.

why our blog is better than any other

because we are in it

all the members of our group