Thursday 11 April 2013

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

Monday 11 March 2013

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.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

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.

Monday 4 March 2013

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.

Thursday 28 February 2013

references

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

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