Changes in our eco-column over 3 weeks

Over the next three weeks our eco-column will be put to the real test of survival, with no human interaction and varied outside conditions which will affect the inner state of the eco-column. In this post I shall be explaining what I think will happen over the next three weeks, while us humans are enjoying ourselves, basically putting together a hypothesis for what will happen over the next three weeks.

The Holidays

• During week one our eco-column will be busy adapting to a world with no human interaction, hints the word "sustainable".

All of the living organisms that are left alive in the eco-column will also be strained over the next period of three weeks, most of our mosquito larvae will have hatched by then and would have been released.

The Eco column will busy be adapting to its new world, so therefore most of the Eco column will be strained through this period, but will survive and produce some interesting results when we get back.

The terra zone as you can see has not produced much growth and has not yet reached the half way mark, but is still lagging behind at the quarter mark.

The Decomp zone although a bad picture, has retained little moisture and has life forms, we are hoping that these life forms will multiply over the holidays.

The Insect zone has little plants and has little insects as well, hopefully by the end of the holidays there be a sufficient improvement.

The Aqua zone, has microscopic life forms in it and the colour is holding steady at a darkish brown colour.

(The information displayed below is the result after the holidays and reflects on the Eco columns progress.)

Most of our predictions were correct in thinking that the Eco column will improve in some areas and not so much in other areas.

• Our Eco column has survived the holidays and most of it is still "alive".
• The mosquito larvae that were present in the aqua zone before the holidays have seemed to be gone and most of the other life forms in the aqua zone is gone.
• The Eco column has improved in overall quality since we left it and is thriving.
• There are microscopic organisms in the Aqua zone, which were there before the holidays but have increased in overall population, at least doubling, this was not one of our predictions.

Here are some pictures, kindly taken by Boyd while i was overseas, these are in ascending order.

The plants have shown major growth since the last time we analysed them and the are facing towards the sun which is a good sign and they are a darker green than before the holidays which means that the plants are much healthier and are thriving in a successful manor. 

The separator is looking pretty lifeless and the seeds which we placed in this "zone" are seen to be dried up and therefore the separator zone is inhabitable.

The insect zone looks pretty much the same, the life that once inhabited this zone (plants)  is seen to have died out and dried up, which is not all bad because it turned into a bit of compost. and the leaves and twigs are starting finally to decompose.

The decomp zone still holds life, our slugs which were placed in the decamp zone are still alive and microscopic life is thriving, the zone has retained some moisture which is a good sign.

The aqua zone has remained the same colour and the water level has not increased or decreased.

Jaime

By Jaime

Reflection on the terms work

This post will show how we have worked together,who did what and was the Eco-column a success or not 

first I will inform u about our Eco-column 

Our Eco column is a great success because our Terra layer is still growing and is condensation which means our Terra layer is functioning with ease. The decomp layer is still functioning, the insects are still living well they have a substantial amount of food. 
I have a better understanding of how an eco column works and what an eco column is
i think our group worked very well together it didnt show everything we lerndt but we all did our part 

Richard Schwulst


I think our EcoColumn was a partial success as the zones were reacting with themselves but not each other, as is seen in the Aqua layer having the same amount of water 3 months ago.
I have a better understanding of how connected an ecology has to be to work efficiently.
Our group worked well but thats not to say everything was perfect, and the blog doesn't show how much we learnt but does show parts of it.

boyd




Please note that Jaime was absent and so unable to complete his portion of this post. We have tried to contact him.

Eco Column as an Ecosystem

This post is an overview of our EcoColumn and an evaluation of whether it was/is an ecosystem.

An ecosystem is a defined area that is self maintaining, which includes all the different living organisms in that area. These organisms interact with each other and the abiotic components. That is the textbook definition of an ecosystem; our EcoColumn is:

• self-maintaining
• including all the living organisms in the EcoColumn
• interacting with the EcoColumn's abiotic factors and biotic factors

Although, there is little reaction between the zones.

Here are photos of the ecosystem.

Our Terra Zone, which is growing very well from the seeds which we planted at the beginning. Not as visible here, is that the plants are all facing towards the window, therefor the sun, with at least a few leaves.

The splitter between our Terra (Above) and Insect zones. The seeds which we planted have died out because of a lack of soil and maybe water.

Our Insect zone, I cannot see much difference from before the holidays

The Decomp zone, there are decomposers at work here, but too small to bee seen clearly without help.

Finally, our Aqua zone, as you can see, the water level has not changed (marked by duct tape). I looked at the water under a microscope and saw that there were numerous creatures, but I couldn't get a clear picture

From this I conclude that the EcoColumn is almost and ecosystem as the different zones were interacting with themselves but not each other.

b