This is a picture showing the initial growth in the terra zone in our Eco-column. This was taken a few days after planting the seeds. as you can see there has not been very much growth.

this picture was taken after about 2 and a half weeks of growth. as you can see, it is significantly higher than the previous picture and the highest plant measures 19cm.

This is an annotated diagram of how we planned to layout our eco-collumn

Is our Eco-column self-sustaining or not?

Here are some of the reasons why our eco-column is not self sustaining

• organisms in the aqua zone would not be able to survive because the water is not oxygenated.
• we have to keep on adding to the decomposition zone as it will eventual run out
• the environment is not large enough and does not have the right factors to sustain multiple life forms
• because it is unable to sustain multiple life forms we cannot have a sufficient food chain in the eco column

Here are some reasons why we fee our eco-column could be self-sustaining

• we use the water which overflows out of our aqua zone to water the terra zone, thus putting nutrients back into the eco-column and keeping the cycle of energy going.
• water which evaporates out of the soil in our eco-column condenses on the top of the bottles and falls back into it.

Here are some images of the construction of our eco-column

Here is a picture of our stacked eco-column and filtration system all stacked with the stand except we have not placed any abiotic or boitic factors in our eco-column.

Here is a picture of how we cut the bottle lids for our filtration system, the glue we used and the pipe we used for our drainage system in the aqua zone.

Here is the stacked eco-column with the filtration system and soil.

Here is a image of our aqua zone in our eco-column. we used river water so that it would already have sufficient nutrients to sustain life forms. we also place some simple pond weed in this zone but sadly it will not last very long as the water is not being oxygenated and this plant relies on oxygenated water. if we wanted to oxygenate the water we would either have to install a pump or find some way of keeping the water moving. we also have water snails in our aqua zone but they will also die due to the lack of oxygen in the water.

 

Here is a close up of our decomposition zone, in it we place bananas, banana peels, cut up pieces of melon skin, pieces of melon and old cut grass. to start off the decomposition process we placed already rotting fuit in the eco-column which already had flies and fruit flies and mould. 

This is another image of our decomposition zone, you can see all of the rotting elements which we have placed in our eco column. we have also got a gecko in the decomp. zone, but sadly it is not vissible in this image. it lives off of the insects and flies in that zone. sadly the environment is not big enough for it to sustain the geckoes life sufficiently so it will not live its full lifespan. There are also some very nice examples of mould growing in this zone.

 

here is a close-up image of our plants growing in terra zone. we used a mixture of fertilizer and garden soil to aid the growth of our plants. we also have 3 worms in this zone and you can see some of their tunnels allong the wall of the eco-collumn.

Here is another large image of our terra zone and you can see the sprouts very clearly and our fern which was the same level as the bottle when we started. due to the small amount of soil in the zone, sadly the fern will not be able to grow to its full capacity.