Conclusions

A)

Terrestial- Radishes started from a seed, to a sprout, to a long piece of grass that reached out of our eco-columns top, and by may the radish died and the grass turned brown. The radish was really small and definatley wouldn't be much to eat if our goal was to grow food. I dont think it got very big and it died because we weren't adding any soil nutrients and the plant ran out of room to grow so it couldn't grow bigger and then died.

Aquatic- Our snail died after a couple weeks. I think he died because we didn't feed it enough food and it probably wasn't used to the water in our eco-column. We had a mayfly in our eco-column that lasted until about april and finally died. He got to about an inch long and i think he ran out of food too. The only living things left in this layer were the elodea and small bugs. The elodea grew constantly and was easy to keep alive.

Decomposition- The layer started with green leaves sticks, dirt, and other organic matter like pinecones. When we destroyed our eco-column, the whole thing looked like it was dirt and the only thing that was distinguishable was a few small sticks. I think the water helped decompose this layer and it decomposed surprisinly fast and thourough.

B)

Terrestrial- Physical traits in this layer didn't change much. The grass grew taller but that is more of a biotic factor. The soil was more compact by the end and looked like it didn't have many nutrients. This is because we didn't add any new dirt or nutrients.

Aquatic- The water randomly kept changing from dark green to yellow to crystal clear. I think that sunlight, how often we atered the eno-column, how much food we put in the layer, and how many living things were in the layer affected this color change. The water level always lowered if we didn't water it and this is because the water evaporates.

Decomposition- The decomposition chamber progressivley got a darker/richer color to the soil and the soil got finer grains as time went on. This is because that is what happens with decomposition. I think people would see results better if we could measure something for 5 years or more because then things have time to fully decompose.

C) I think that when we poured water into the top layer, that water absorbed nutrients from the top layer and distributed those nutrients in the decomp layer. Then after the water got through the decomp layer, nutrients from decomposing material goes into the aquatic layer and feeds the plants and animals in the water. The decomp and terrestrial layer probably kept the water warmer by providing insulation. Other than that there aren't many other huge factors that the seperate layers effected.

D) I compared our eco-column with brents eco-column. I think ours did better because by the end, his had a much darker and cloudier eco-column and the color was green/yellow so it probably wasn't as clean and healthy. Also our radishes grew bigger and taller than his groups radishes. When i looked in our water we had more movement from small insects which is good. We had about the same amount of elodea. Their snail survived longer than ours though. The factors in determining the "survivablility" is probably that the water can't be crystal clear and it cant be really dirty and green.

E) I would get a much bigger tank for all the layers, like maybe a fish tank. I think it would be more interesting and it would be more realistic because it's bigger. It's also easier to make observations and the eco-column would probably survive better because theres more stuff in it. If the eco-column was bigger then we could put fish and cool aquatic life in the tank and it might be able to survive. And we could plant more/different plants for variety and maybe even put worms in the 2 top layers. I think it would be harder to do this bigger eco-column, but it would be really cool.

F) I think the one most important thing I learned is that ecosystems are really sensitive and can change a lot. Like how we went from a lot of aquatic life to a little. And how if the circumstances aren't right, everything will die or stop growing like the radishes.

G) Sometimes the data didn't follow a pattern which threw us off a little bit but we are just sticking with what the equipment says and hopefully thats accurate. It was un-expected when our snail died soon and also that we had a huge jump in nitrate levels. It went from like 0.5 to 20. We made a few modifications. we poked small holes in the three layers so that the eco-column could get more oxygen and fresh air, we added more pond water and we tried to add more aquatic life but they all died. I think that the holes helped everything in our eco-column because fresh air helps things grow and probably helps decomposition too. The pond water added nutrients and it also added small bugs and aquatic life that helped keep our water clean and survivable.