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
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
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