Water going from the decomposition chamber into the aquatic chamber, showing interactions within our ecosystem

INTRODUCTION

In our eco-column, we had three tiers. The first tier on the bottom included a layer of sand followed by a layer of rocks. We then planted a plant in the sand to keep oxygen in the water for our snail, and then added water almost to the top of the first tier. We placed our snail carefully in the tier and fed it with three pieces of fish food. The second tier was our decomposition tier. We had leaves and grasses and other plants we found by the pond and we added two worms. Our third tier we filled with grass and fine dirt. We added a layer of dirt after we sifted through it to get all the big chunks out and planted grass. The abiotic factors of our eco-column were the rocks, soil, leaves and twigs, and water. The biotic factors were the plant that we planted in the first tier, the grass in the third tier, the snail, and the worms. Also, there were some bugs by the end of the project that we were not responsible for putting into our eco-column. Through the creation of this three-tieredd ecocolumn, we are trying to discover whether or not we can successfully create a contained environment in which plants and animals can survive. We are also trying to learn about the interaction between different parts of an ecosystem by observing interaction within the three tiers. We did not use a hypothesis for this project because it is not an experiment exactly, there are no specific variables that we are testing so there is no way to make just one specific hypothesis. We think that by the end of the project our snail will still be alive, the plants will have grown tremendously, and the water may turn a little bit yellow or green because in our eco-column there are no water cleaning processes. Throughout the project we will be measuring the turbidity, temperature, pH, nitrates, and dissolved oxygen levels of the water in the first tier. These measurements are important because our snail is living in that tier and the qualities of the water are important factors in his life. The water can be influenced by many different things, such as sediment that may come off of the rocks or enter the first tier from one of the other tiers, the snail and it's discharges, the plant, and the water that we will have flowing through all of the tiers periodically.

PURPOSE

We feel that the purpose of the ecocolumn project was to demonstrate how all different parts of nature interact in one ecosystem. Also, to teach us about what it takes for certain animals to survive and what factors can influence change in an ecosystem. The purpose of the eco-column project is to create three ecosystems (terrestrial, decomposition and aquatic) in one column and monitor the abiotic and biotic factors of each so that two comparisons could be made: comparison to each other and a comparison to those ecosystems outside the classroom.  Another purpose may have been to keep the animals alive long enough to take them home after the project is completed.

MATERIALS

-3 clear 2-liter plastic bottles
-scissors
-tape
-string
-burner
-poker
-water
-leaves, soil, rocks, twigs, and seeds
-snail
-worms

PROCEDURE

a) Construction of The Ecocolumn
1. Gather all materials
2. Completely take off all labels from 2-liter bottles and clean thoroughly with water but no soap
3. Cut the bottles as shown on the board, the top off of  some, the bottom off of others, both off of some
4. Use the burner and poker to poke holes in the lids of the bottles so that water will be able to travel through
5. Fill the bottomost bottle with the correct amount of water snd add rocks to the very bottom
6. Begin to construct the ecocolumn as directed, taping sections together with clear packing tape
7. Add leaves, soil, worms and small twigs to the decomposition chamber
8. Add soil and plant seeds in the terrestrial chamber
9. When you have completely constructed your ecocolumn use the burner and poker to poke holes in the plastic bottles to provide some breathability
10. Cut a "door" in the aquatic chamber and tie a string to it so that you will be able to open it and have access to this chamber for water quality tests

b) Fully constructed ecocolumn:

c) To monitor our ecosystem we will be doing water quality tests along with making observations on any changes we see in any of the different chambers.
d) We plan on adding water about once a month and adding one cup of water each time. Also, if the grass is looking extra dry we may add a bit more water or add some more often.

Doing some water quality tests:

 Our snail, Napoleon:

DATA

a) Watering Patterns

Date	Water
9/20	100 ml
10/18	100 ml
11/8	100 ml
12/10	100 ml
Jan	100 ml
Feb	100 ml
Mar	100 ml
Apr	100 ml
May	100 ml
Jun	100 ml

b) Quantitive Data
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Date	Temperature	Turbidity	Nitrates	pH	D.O.	Oxygen Gas
9/20	19.6°C	0	0.4mg/L	7.4	N/A	N/A
10/7	20.6°C	0	1.2mg/L	7.63	5.4mg/L	N/A
10/18	23.8°C	0	5.1mg/L	8.12	6.8mg/L	N/A
11/8	24.8°C	0	4.9mg/L	9.72	9.2mg/L	20%
12/7	21.3°C	5	9.8mg/L	8.56	9.7mg/L	N/A
3/23	19.6°C	10	17.5mg/L	9.02	13.0mg/L	N/A
5/24	20.00°C	15	8.9mg/L	6.7	5.7mg/L	N/A

c) Sept. 20- The water is extremely clear and we just put the snail into the water, everything looks great
Oct. 18- water quality still looks great, no mold
Nov. 8- snail died, got a new snail, water still looks very good, planted a plant in the aquatic chamber today, grass is really starting to grow
Dec. 7- new snail is doing well, water still looks good, there are starting to be some bugs in the water
March 23- snail is STILL alive and looking good, water is getting a yellowish tint to it, grass looks like it may be starting to die, still no mold, a lot of condensation
May 25- Our snail is still alive, the water is starting to get some mold on the top and is looking pretty green, a lot of the grass is dead

d) Graph

e) First Day- Overall great water quality and the habitiat is completely new and clean. Everything needs to kick in and start growing and really turn into a mini ecosystem
Last Day- The water has turned to a yellowish green and there is definitely a lot more algae, but the ecosystem is still functioning and our second snail is still alive

CONCLUSIONS

a) In the first chamber of out ecocolumn we had the snail. Our first snail only lasted a few weeks before it died, but we got a new one and it is still going strong! I think that by the time we got our second snail the ecocolumn had naturally adjusted a little bit instead of everything being completely new and this may be a factor contributing to the second snail's survival. Next, we had worms. Since the day we put the worms into the ecocolumn we haven't really seen them, but they are they to decompose some of the plants in the decomposition chamber. The worms and snails were the only animals that we put into our ecocolumn, however, there were some bugs that got in there and stayed mostly in the aquatic and terrestrial chambers.
b) The abiotic factors in our ecolumn include the water, plants we had picked from outside, soil, and rocks. Throughout the year our rocks and soil did not change much other than just being a little bit weather over time. The water and plants, however, did. The water got progressively dirtier because of the plants and the snail living in it and polluting it. The plants were decomposed by the worms and continued to just get less and less abundant.
c) All three chambers within the ecocolumn interacted with eachother. The terrestrial chamber was where we planted the grass and when we watered the grass from the top of the ecolcolumn the soil in the terrestrial chamber would soak up the water, and the leftover water traveled through the decomposition chamber and into the aquatic chamber. By that time it had been filtered by travelling through all the soil and plant life. Also, the aquatic chamber produced some water evaporation which caused condesation throughout the entire column.
d) Compared to Patrick's groups ecocolumn I think that ours did better. I am basing this comparison on the aquatic chamber and how their water is completely green and filled with algea whereas ours is a bit more clear. I think that the condition of the water is vital to the survivability of the ecocolumn because the aquatic chamber supports that snail life.
e) If we had to do this project over, we would have put the terrestrial chamber beneath the decomposition chamber so that the water would go straight from the soil in the terrestrial chamber into the aquatic chamber and be freshly filtered.
f) The most important thing that my group and I learned from this project was that all systems in nature somehow interact.
g) I believe that all of our data is accurate. One unexpected observation would be how long our second snail has lived! After our first snail died so quickly we were definitely not expecting Napoleon II to live so long. No, we did not make modifications along the way.