Our predictions on how our eco-column would survive over the 3 week period

At the beginning of the 3 week period

We predicted that our Terra zone would not survive an that all the plant and animals in that zone would die due to it not having a sufficient supply of water. Our decomposition zone had more than enough substances to decompose and we predicted that it should survive very well over the 3 week period. All of the plants and animals in our aqua zone had died very quickly due to the lack of oxygen in the aqua zone. This means that there was only water left in the aqua zone which we presumed would survive the holiday apart from slightly overflowing.

• Images of the 3 zones before the holiday

The decomposition zone

The Terra zone

The Aqua  zone

At the end of the 3 week period

All of our predictions were more or less very accurate and consistent, this could be due to some factors which were easy to calculate affecting our eco-column in the way which we predicted. Except not all the plants in our terra zone died, only the wheat grass which we presume is very water dependent  The Aqua zone stayed more or less the same apart from becoming extremely full and the decomposition zone was able to decompose everything which we had left for it at the beginning of the holidays.

Decomposition zone

 Terra zone

 Aqua zone

Reflections on the terms work

Our eco column was a success as it was self sustaining. The food chains all worked and so the biotic factors were able to survive without assistance/help, besides the plants as we had to water our plants quite often, although this water could act as rain, as we did not water out plants every day. Our eco column looked good as we chose wheat grass as one of our plants which grows very fast and is very green, we also added melon to our decomposition zone which has bright colours and so the eco columns visual impact was great. The building of the eco-column also went smoothly and our eco-column was up with all the stuff inside of it quite quickly.

              Bright Fruit                                                         Green Plants

                                                                        

	Questions 2 of post 3 on blog 3 will be on Chris Mailers post

Our group did work well together. We all brought what we needed to; when we were building our eco-column. The looking after of the eco column was done by only 2 of us though. Our Blog was an accurate reflection of what we have learnt and how we worked together. Everything we put in our blog was real; we didn’t take pictures of other groups’ eco columns and put it in our blog. We learnt more about the smaller factors which go on in an eco system and how some factors such as water play a big role in life.

Eco-column as an ecosystem

Definition of an eco-column

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

                     

There are 3 things that show that our eco column is an ecosystem.

·        The abioitc factors

·        The biotic factors

·        The food chains in the eco column

Abiotic

We have abiotic factors such as soil, water and light. These are all resources that our plants and insects can use to survive.

Soil                                                                                                          Water

 

Our plants use the water and nutrients in the rich soil to grow. The water plants live in the water and so they have no problem growing.

Biotic

Our biotic factors include wheat grass, a fern, pond weed, snails, fruit flies, tiny water snails, aphids and a small spider.

                Snail                                                                                          Aphid

Fruit Flies

Food Chains

Wheat Grass/FernàAphidsàSpider

Rotting FruitàFruit Flies/SnailsàFungi

This shows that our eco-column is definitely an ecosystem as we have biotic factors which share the resources in the column between them and they interact with each other by eating one another. These biotic factors also interact with the abiotic factors to survive.

We carefully examined all of the zone of our eco-column for any forms of life, the only habitable zones in our eco-column are the Terra zone and partially the Decomposition zone.

In the Terra Zone we still have the worms which we original placed in the zone, but we sadly have no images of the actual worms.

In the decomposition zone there is a huge amount of fruit flies and some small forms of worms. The fruit flies have also laid small bead like eggs on the bottle lid in that zone.

Sadly our Aqua zone has become extremely smelly and it has an extremely high PH or acidity level. It is also staying still which stops any forms of oxygenation, killing all life forms.

In this image you can see small tunnels against the side of the bottle which have been made from the 4 worms which we placed in the eco-column when we constructed it.

here is the data which we have collected from our eco-column
(they were all conducted at least 2 days apart):

The PH level in the aqua zone (according to the PH level scale) :
Sample 1: 3
Sample 2: 3
Sample 3: 3

The Temperature of the aqua zone (Degrees Celsius) :
Test 1: 21
Test 2: 19
Test 3: 20

The height of the highest plant (centimeters) :
Test 1: 16
Test 2: 19
Test 3: 29


Here are 2 images showing the height difference in the plant

Here is a picture of eggs on the end of the bottle in the decomposition zone. We are not sure what type of animal this is but we think it might be the fruit flies.

This is a sample of water from our aqua Zone. As you can see there is a squiggly line where the pointer is pointing to. This is in fact a fragment of our river weed. This river weed is slightly rough and it is brown. Our water in our aqua zone is a light brown colour and it really stinks. This shows that the colour from our river weed is being dissolved into the water. Our water had also changed colour due to the melon rotting and all the juices have gone through to the aqua zone, this is also the reason why the the waster stinks so much.

Our soil is rich with lots of air holes and water. Our wheat grass seeds that we planted have grown extremely well due to the fact that they have the right nutrients and water from the soil. There are roots from the wheat grass and the small fern that we put in. We have seen some small insects crawling in the holes of the soil.We have not been able to identify them as they are small and we cannot see them clearly due to them being in the soil. 

We have seen some dead fruit flies on the top of the soil in the decomposition zone. Our fruit flies have also layed eggs on the bottle cap inside the decomposition zone.