Wednesday 10 April 2013

Blog 3 - Post 2 - Eco-column as an ecosystem



An ecosystem is a living community of plant and animals sharing an environment with non-living elements such as climate and soil. The two main components that influence an organism in its natural habitat are the abiotic and biotic resources, which function together.
Biotic features are the living organisms such as the producers (plants, sun),consumers(carnivores) and decomposers(worms).
Abiotic features are the physical factors like light, temperature, atmospheric gases and water.
Ecosystems exist on different scales. An example of a small-scale ecosystem is a pond. A medium scale ecosystem could be a forest. The tropical rain forest is an example of a very large ecosystem.

This interaction between the different organisms in an ecosystem is called feeding. During feeding one organism is obtaining food or energy and raw materials from the other. The flow of energy between different organisms in the ecosystem can be shown in a food chain.

Our ecocolumn was an example of an ecosystem as included in it were abiotic and biotic features and an ecosystem cannot exist without both these components. The abiotic features we used were soil, water, stones, light and atmospheric gas. We did not adjust the temperature but the temperature was variable based on each day’s temperature within the classroom. 

The biotic features we introduced were worms, plants, grasshoppers and the algae, which was in the pond/dam water we used.

Our ecosystem was a small-scale ecosystem split into three sections. The first section (terra zone) contained our producers and consumers - grasshoppers and plants, the second section (decomp zone) contained the decomposers - worms and rotting fruit and the third section (aqua zone) was our aquatic element containing the algae and pond/dam water.

As time passed we noticed interaction within the ecosystem. Maggots were discovered in the terra zone without us putting them in and fruit flies in the decomp zone. Some of our biotic elements survived and some died. All the insects that we introduced into the ecosystem died. They would have decomposed into the soil. During the holidays, when no-one was responsible for the ecocolumn the water in the first section dried out and one of our plants died - the others survived. The dead one had almost fully decomposed upon our return from the Easter holiday leaving a few black/brown remains that were visible. We introduced earthworms into the zones to speed up decomposition.

Organisms competed for important resources like food, water and light.

The ecosystem was partly successful. It was successful in the fact that all of our plants, except for one, stayed alive, continued to stay green and photosynthesize. These green plants transferred light energy into chemical energy in the formation of food during the process of photosynthesis. These green plants would have served as an energy source for other organisms in our ecosystem such as insects, had the insects survived. It was successful in that it attracted fruit flies and maggots were found and a living worm was found in the decomp zone.
It was unsuccessful in the fact that 1 of the plants died and all the insects that we introduced died.

Chris Mewett

A worm that we found in the decomp zone looking at soil under a light microscope




Photos of maggots and fruit flies







Blog 3 - Post 3 - Reflections on the term’s work

1.    Was the eco-column a success or not as an ecosystem? 


From the results of our research and discoveries within our eco-column, I(Matt Clayton) and most likely the other members as well, think our eco-column was partly a success as an ecosystem as we had new organisms being formed and growing in our decomp and aqua zone and in the terra zone the plants survived the holidays, besides for one. During the respiration stage and photosynthesis they were able to give off water vapour. The small amount that condensed on the plastic in the terra zone made its way through and down the eco-column into the decomp and then the aqua zone. Every zone had an effect on the other zones and worked together like the circle of life through all the interactions between biotic and abiotic factors.


2. To what extent do you have a better understanding of ecology 


Matt- I always used to think that ecology was just the basic food change but from this project and the lessons I now have a broader understanding of ecology, now knowing that it is also about the nature, the natural effects and the animals that work in unison to keep the wild life self sustaining, which I find very interesting and would like to get to know better and learn more about it and get deeper into the knowledge of ecology.

Chris- I always you used to think that the ecosystem was the basic interaction between non living and living features and that it was easy to create a self sustaining ecosystem.I now know that you need to get the right amount of producers and consumers in order to create a food chain where it is self sustaining. and the interactions between the biotic and abiotic features with in our ecosystem and that they all work together for survival.I hope to further increase my knowledge of ecology in future years.

Luke- I have a much better understanding of ecology and what is required to make an ecosystem self-sustaining. I fully understand that organisms interact with each other and with their non-living physical environment and how the abiotic and biotic resources function together. I have a much better understanding of the flow of energy between organisms and food chains. I also fully understand that organisms compete for food, water, light and shelter and that this may result in death of some organisms.

3.1 Did our group work well together or not?


Matt- I think we worked well together in the beginning, as in making the stand and the actual eco-column. We all did what we had to do and it worked out well but unluckily Chris was away most of the time as he had two rowing tours. He was unable to access blogger for a period of time but he did post from Luke's laptop and in the end it all came togther and it worked out well, so I think we did work well together and we were able to adapt to the situations and complete every task to the best of our ability.

Chris-I think that we worked well together in the creation and gathering of the materials but then it all fell apart as I had to go on rowing tour for posts one an two.In the end it all came together and in post three we all did our fair share of work and contributed equally.

Luke- It was not easy to work together all of the time - in the beginning it was easy but as it progressed it became harder caused by the absence of group members. I felt that sometimes I had to keep the group together (as they asked me to delegate work) and to ensure that the work was being done, but everyone did their fair share of work and it all worked out very well as we were all happy with the final product. All projects need someone to distribute the work which made it more efficient with no confusion so that everyone knew what they were doing!


3.2 Was our blog an accurate reflection of what we learnt and how we worked together?



Matt-I think that our blog was an accurate reflection and well done. It was good and simple and very easy to understand. All our posts had their own title such as the dates and what was written in the post. We all worked on this blog : one taking the photo's and getting the evidence, one getting the information and the other typing it out and putting it all in an ordinary fashion. The pictures were labelled or given a title making it easy to understand. I think our blog was attractive and effective. It all came together showing that we worked well together and learnt a lot.


 Chris- Yes, our blog was an accurate reflection of what we learnt and how we worked together. We shared all our knowledge so that the posts could be of the best of our ability. We understood what was happening in the ecosystem and we recorded our observations on the blog. 

Luke- Yes the blog was an accurate reflection of what we learnt and how we worked together. All the knowledge we gathered and our observations were posted on the blog. We could make sense of what was happening in our ecosystem, every step of the way and mentioned this in our blog.









Blog 3 - Post 1 - Changes in our eco-column over 3 weeks

1. Predictions

We predicted that our ecosystem would survive the holiday, that is, that all the plants and the insects would survive. The plants were green and the insects were moving. This is because our ecosystem seemed to be sustaining itself. The plants would photosynthesize producing oxygen and water vapour - essential to any form of life. The ecosystem looked healthy with each zone performing well. We only saw one problem in the Terra zone. This was that some of the leaves on the plants were browning at the tips. This could have been from too much moisture. We did not predict any new forms of life. We predicted the maggots and fruit flies would still be there. The algae would continue to grow in the aqua zone.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_the_ends_of_the_house_plant_leaves_turn_brown


2. Accuracy of predictions

Our predictions we made were partly accurate. Part of our ecosystem survived throughout the holiday. The ecosystem seemed a lot drier in the Terra and Decomp zone. This was because it had not been watered for a very long time. There was also a lot less condensation in the Terra zone and on the perforated lid, as a plant had died . This dryness we believed was from one of our plants dying. The water level remained constant in the aqua zone and was the same after the holidays as it was before the holidays. Less evaporation has happened as we are changing seasons and moving into winter at the moment and it is becoming much colder. One of our plants had died due to dryness as the terra zone was found to be very dry, lacking moisture. Without moisture plants cannot survive! None of the insects that we put into the terra zone were still there. They had died and decomposed into the soil. We believe this is because a plant had died and there was not enough food, oxygen and moisture in the ecosystem. This negatively affected the flow of energy between the different organisms. There was competition between the praying mantis and the grasshoppers for food, water and light. This is a negative interaction that leads to  the death of living organisms. Fewer plants means less respiration and less energy transferred to the environment as heat. The food chain was disrupted by the plant and insects dying. We were inaccurate about the maggots and fruit flies as they had disappeared after the holiday and they were no longer feasting! 
Perhaps if we had used water-wise plants our predictions would have been more accurate. The algae in the aqua zone was however growing as predicted. A new worm was discovered in the decomp zone so our prediction of no new life forms was not accurate.

Luke Baker


3. Photographic Evidence Before and After the Holiday


BEFORE HOLIDAY

Decomp Zone - Before Holiday
Aqua Zone - Before Holiday
Terra Zone - Before Holiday




AFTER HOLIDAY

 Aqua Zone - After Holiday
 Terra Zone - After Holiday
Decomp Zone - After Holiday



Worm we found in decomp zone after holidays

Luke Baker

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Why I(Chris) have not blogged

I have been away for most of the lessons but I was present in the creation of our Eco-column. I have been away twice on rowing tour. I have missed numerous lessons and this is why Luke and Matt have been doing most of the blogging.

Observation of Changes in the biotic components

Today - 12 March. It seems that our plants are shrinking and some of the leaves are going. We reaserched this and found it can be caused by a few things. Over fertilising, high heat, high light, over watering and under watering. We believe the cause of our leaves vurling and darkening to a blackish/brownish ishigh heat and too much moisture in the terra zone as there was initially a lot of water when we started the eco system.
 
The tips of the plants are also rough and look like they have been eaten off by the large insect.
 
 
There are no fruit flies left in the decomp zone. We believe that they have escaped through the air holes in the side of the plastic bottle. We made the holes for air transfer in and out of the decomp zone. We never expected any fruit flies to fly into this zone.
 
 


4 March - 11am
The fruit flies have all disappeared out of our decomp zone.
The praying mantis and other large unidentified insect are still alive.
The plants are all looking green although the one plant had a few darker blackish leaves.



1 March - 9:30am


Fruit flies have flown into or have developed in our decomp zone.
The pray-mantis is still alive in our Eco-column.
The plants are all green.






25 February - 3:30pm

An alive insect was seen today when we observed our ecosystem. This shows the ecosystem is self sustaining as the insect requires and is getting oxygen from the living plants!




Today we found some white fungi in the decomp zone! This will be very interesting to look at under a microscope!
















Abiotic components data collection



7 March - 9am

The air temperature was 23 degrees celcius.
The water temperature was 22 degrees celcius.
The water is alkaline.

Condensation was taking place on the perforated lid in the terra zone and shows the ecosystem is self sustaining as plants photsynthesize and release oxygen and water vapour.


(7 March done by Chris Mewett as blogger on his laptop is not working)






5 March - 3:30 pm

The air temperature in the classroom was 26 degrees celsius.
The water was alkaline.
Condensation was taking place on the perforated lid in the terra zone and shows the ecosystem is self sustaining as plants photsynthesize and release oxygen and water vapour.
The water temperature in the aqua zone was 27 degrees celsius. We believe this to be caused by the increase in air temperature.








1 March - 9:30am

The temperature in the biology classroom B3 was 22 degrees Celsius.
Condensation was taking place on the perforated lid in the terra zone and shows the ecosystem is self sustaining as plants photsynthesize and release oxygen and water vapour.
The water is 1 degrees Celsius lower then yesterday at 21 degrees Celsius.
The water level has stayed more or less the same.
The water was alkaline.




28 February - 10:45am

The air temperature in biology classroom B3  was 22 degrees Celsius.
The water temperature in the ecosystem is 22 degrees Celsius and the water level has stayed more or less at a constant level.
Condensation was taking place on the perforated lid in the terra zone and shows the ecosystem is self sustaining as plants photsynthesize and release oxygen and water vapour.
The water was alkaline.

Summary:

The air temperature is changing throughout the day as the day progresses. This has a direct affect on the water temperature. The condensation shows that plants are photosynthesizing, showing sustainability.This means that we do not have to water the ecosystem. Each time we have tested the water it is alkaline. Here is some information about alkalinity of water. The alkalinity of water is a measure of how much acid it can neutralize. Total alkalinity us effected by environmental factors; rain , acid, sanitizers, addition of fill water and other product applications can all change alkalinity over time.
 http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water_quality/quality1/28-08-alkalinity.htm.



Tuesday 5 March 2013

Oberservation of BIOTIC components under light and dissecting microscopes.



Here are organisms that we saw by looking at our aqua zone under a dissecting microscope!
We did a Google Image search using the image to look for any other similair images. This returned no results, so the image remains unidentified.




This is a cell scope of the soil from the light microscope. Some white fungi is present. We did a google image search, but it returned no similair images so we could  not identify the type of fungi.

Luke took photos, Matt got samples of soil and water and posted the pics and writing.