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.

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