Changes in the abiotic components

2013/02/21

• We recorded the temperature in the class at 8:50am 2013/02/21. The teperature is 21.5 degrees celcius. 
• The water in the water zone has created a lot of water vapour in all 3 zones (aqua, terra and decomp). 
• The water level in our aqua zone is 7,4cm at the moment.

2013/02/28

• The air temperature is 22 degrees Celsius in the room our Eco-column is in recorded at 08:51
• There is still a lot of water vapour on the sides of our bottles.
• The water level has stayed exactly the same (7,4cm)

2013/03/04:

• The water level has dropped about 1mm, the water has evaporated by means of sunlight and spread to the rest of the eco-column
• The temparuture in the class room is 25 degrees celcius, this was measured at 11:14am
• The temparuture of the water is 26 degrees celcius. This was also measured at 11:14am

Other abiotic factors that may be affecting our eco column:

Our eco - column is on the side of the classroom where it will receive a lot of sunlight which will speed up the process of photosynthesis and the growth of plants. The windows and doors are usually open which allows a cold breeze to blow over the eco - column which will cool down the temperature of the water and air inside the eco - column on a warm day.

Who did what?

Nicholas 

Measured the temperature of the room

Measured the water temperature
Measured the pH of the water

Josh:

Measured the water level
Looked at the water under the microscope

Warwick

General observations
Looked at the soil under the microscopes

This is how we measure the temperature of the room:

This is us measurin the temperature of the water:

Changes in the biotic components

Our eco-column has sustained itself for 1 week now! Here are some observations of the biotic components:

2013/02/21

• We added a spider in the terra zone last week and that spider has now died. We also added about 30 ants, and at the moment it looks like they are all still alive.
• We found a small worm-like creature in our aqua zone. We will be adding a short video of the worm moving, that was taken under a light microscope.
• The grandilla outer shell is slowly decomposing in our decomp zone.
• The snail has started eating the tomato plants

2013/02/28

• A plant has begun to grow from our decomposing piece of tomato (you can find more info on this here: http://leavingbio.net/plant%20responses.htm)
• The growth of the plants in the Terra zone was great, the weed has grown approximately 2,5cm in height. There is nine leaves on the succulent plant.
• Most of the ants has died as we can only see a few.
• The water plants in the aqua zone has grown roots die to a lack of oxygen.
• The tomato has almost completely decomposed.

2013/03/04

• The ants were stuck tot the side of the terra zone because of the water vapour in the eco-column
• The snail oin the terra zone has started to eat the tomato plant

Who did what?

Nicholas

Managed and counted the leaves and plants and observed the colour of the plants

Posted all info onto blog

Josh

General observations about the eco-column 

Measured the height of the plants

Observations under microscopes

Warwick

Managed and counted the animals in the eco-column

Reported extra information for me to post on the blog

Observations under microscopes


This is how our terra zone is looking at the moment:

This is our plants in the terra zone:

Biotic components under a light and disecting microscope

On the 2013/02/21 our observations under the light microscope where dismal. We never found dead or living organisms from the water in our Aqua zone. Warwick and I were fascinated when we looked through the disecting microscope at the soil from the decomp zone, where we found fungal spores germinating and growing on the soil.

This was a shot of the fungal spores taken by the our biology teacher:

This is a cell shot of our water from our aqua zone:

                                                                  A light microscope:

A disecting microscope

Who did what?

Josh - looked under the light micrscope
Took pitures of observations see under microscopes

Warwick - looked under the disecting microscope
Took pitures of observations see under microscopes

Nic - edited blog and posts
uploaded pictures to blog


EXTRA INFORMATION:

Fungal spores - www.geo.arizona.edu/palynology/ppfungsp.htmlShare

Definition - Unicellular or multicellular, reproductive or distributional cells developing into a number of different phases of the complex life cycles of the fungi. Fungal spores can be readily classified by the Saccardian system, which relies on the number, shape, and placement of spore cells to classify the fungi imperfecti. Most fungal spores in pollen preparations probably are phaeospores (dark spores) of the fungi imperfecti, rather than ascospores, basidiospores, or spores of the lower fungi. However, repeating (asexual) spores of the basidiomycetes are very common in some sites.

This is a photo from the internet that looks similar to the fungal spores that were in our decomp zone

The worm-like animal that we found in our aqua zone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicellular_organism

The worm like creature is a multicellular organism. Multicellular organisms are organisms that consist of more than one cell, in contrast to single - elled organisms. To form a multicellular organism, these cells need to identify and attach to the other cells.

Only a dozen or so unicellular species have cells that can be seen individually with the naked eye. The rest of the nearly two million visible species are multicellular. In particular all species of animals, land plants. and filamentous fungi are multicellular, as are many algae. Some organisms are partially uni- and multicellular, like Dictyostelium.

The worm like animal is similar to the one we found in our eco - column, and observed under the light microscope.

Problems - Warwick Reid

My technical problems have been sorted out and I am now able to get onto the blog!

How and why will it sustain ITSELF?

We have tried to create a food chain of three trophic levels. With the research I have done I know that the spider does consume ant in the wild so I believe it will happen in the eco-Colum. Through observation I found out that the ant consumes grass and other plant materials that we have planted in the terra zone. It will also be kept going by the sun which will provide sunlight for photosynthesis

Our terra zone

Will be self sustaining because our the plants are releasing oxygen through photosynthesis. Our back up for if plants die is that we have planted grass seeds in the potting soil mixed with some sandy soil as we never had any loamy soil in the garden. We have a small aqua zone above for administering small amounts of water over a long time, this should all be enough to keep the ant and spiders going for 8 weeks.

Decomposition zone

is self sustaining even though it has no trophic levels the fruit will decompose and the fungi growing and dying will keep the decomposing going for 8 weeks. it is all decomposing in and on top of the potting soil. This has pieces of small plant material that will decompose over a longer period of time

The aqua zone

will stay self sustaining because of the water plants we put in so that it has a ready supply of oxygen so that it does not stagnate. We will find out any trophic level later under the microscope.

Annotated diagram

(ON BEHALF OF WARWICK REID)
This is our annotated diagram which describes what is in the eco-column and why it is there.

Stocking of the eco-column

(ON BEHALF OF WARWICK REID)

Terra zone

I started by pacing fish gravel until it just covered the height of the lid.

I then mixed some potting soil with sandy soil to thicken it a bit

I the trans planted a succulent and weeds with a spoon digging hole and placing the roots and sand in hoping that I one died the other would live because they enjoy different conditions 

I then sprinkled some grass seeds on the soil.

I followed it up with some more potting soil to neaten it up.

I released about 25 ants into the zone.  

This was followed by a spider that was observed eating these ants.

                              

Decomp zone

I started by pacing fish gravel until it just covered the height of the lid.

 I then mixed some potting soil with a tiny amount of sandy soil to thicken it a bit.

I then miced some torn leaves into the sand

We cut some some fruit into small amounts and placed them on top of the sand.

Aqua zone

I filled the bottle up about half way with river water.

I then placed some water plants in the water from my fish tank. 

Water for the aqua zone: