Post 2 for blog 3: What is an Eco system

There is a thin layer surrounding the Earth where all living organisms can occur, this is called a biosphere. The biosphere consists of the entire section of the Earths Surface that supports Life, it is the sum of all living things on Earth. The biosphere is made up of the Lithosphere-ground, the Hydrosphere-water and the Atmosphere-air. There are then biomes, a region where a particular vegetation type can grow. Within each biome, there is a relationship between the living and the non-living components, called an Eco system.

An eco system is a community of living organisms (plants, animals, producers, consumers, decomposers) living in union with the non-living components of their environment  (things like air, water, temperature) interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are known to be linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. An eco system can be as big or small as the scientist wishes it to be. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun. A change in any of the Biotic or Abiotic factors of the eco system can affect the way that they eco system is run. An area containing living organisms is only an eco system if it is a defined area that is self-maintaining, which includes all the different living and non-living things in the area. An eco system cannot function without these factors, the abiotic factors and the biotic factors, (the non-living and the living.)

To what extent is our eco column, an eco system?

I think that parts of our eco column is an eco system because of the following: I say parts because an eco system can be as big as the scientist wants it to be.

Terra zone:

As you can see, there are plants there that are growing and that have been growing since we built this eco column. In the past holidays the plants grew by at least five centimeters, with nobody to give it water or anything, and it has survived on its own.

Aqua Zone:

This part of our eco column is not an eco system. The zone itself has basically died because there are no more living organisms in the area. The organisms that were once living, were the water bugs and the water reeds that were growing inside of the water. The water just became darker and dirtier over the holidays that by the time we got back, all of the living organisms had died.

Decomposition zone:

 This is also one of the zones that we think is not an eco system. During the holidays, the zone’s vegetation dried up and the fruit flies and the mould that was living and growing there, died. All types of any living organisms are dead, nothing has been left behind besides some grass which is the only thing that is still decomposing. But other than that, there are no other signs of life and no signs of this being a self sustained environment.

Has Our eco column been successful as an eco system?

If our eco column wants to be an eco system, it has to a self-sustaining environment, with the biotic (living) and abiotic         (non-living) components working together with each other. I think that our eco column is self-sustaining because of the following. We are going to comment of each zone and state whether or not we think that this is an eco system by itself.

Terra Zone:

I think that this zone is an eco system because the plants that we planted at the beginning of the year have grown and are in full health. Some of the animals that were also in that zone survived until the end of the first term and so they helped the zone to be a self-sustaining eco system. There must be a food chain in this zone to keep the plants growing and the animals living that are living there now.

The Decomposition zone:

For this zone we don’t think that it is a self sustaining eco system because all of the vegetation has dried up, all of the mould has died along with all of the fruit flies and bugs that were placed into the zone of the eco column. We think that this is not a self-sustaining eco system because the whole zone seems to have died.

Aqua zone:

Again we think that this zone is not an eco system. We think this because it is not keeping itself alive. All of the water reeds that were placed in this zone, died. All of the water bugs that were also living in this zone died too.

Although two of the zones is not an eco system, one is. The terra zone is an eco system and so therefore our eco column might be one too. If all of he zones are working together to keep one alive, then the eco column is an eco system. Because then the zones are transferring energy from the one zone to the next, and so there must be food chains in each zone.

My Understanding of ecology: Alex Williams 

When we started Ecology at the beginning of the year. I didn’t quite understand all of the facts. For example I didn’t understand much about what happens inside the Biosphere and the Lithosphere. I didn’t know what happened inside the Lithosphere and about the eco systems that can exist inside different Biomes. I now get the concept that an eco system can be massive or very small. I also understand that an ecosystem is like one unit, with many forms of living and non-living organisms that make it a unit. From our eco column I have learnt that when one thing inside the eco column or zone, the eco system ‘balance’ has been disturbed and then he eco column is not necessarily an eco system anymore.

 My Understanding of ecology:Alessandro Lupini

At first I had no idea what ecology was but now I do. I understand now that Ecology is the scientific study of interactions of organisms with one another and with the physical and chemical environment. Although it includes the study of environmental problems such as pollution, the science of ecology involves research on the natural world.  An understanding of ecology is essential for the survival of the human species. Ecology evolves a biotic and abiotic factors and I understand now that they all look after each other in a cycle. I have also learnt that many different species live together in an ecosystem in harmony.

My Understanding of ecology: James Murray

Ecology is the scientific study of the relationships that living organisms have with each other and with their abiotic environment. Topics of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount (biomass), number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems. Ecosystem processes, such as primary production, pedogenesis, nutrient cycling, and various niche construction activities, regulate the flux of energy and matter through an environment. These processes are sustained by the biodiversity within them. Biodiversity refers to the varieties of species in ecosystems, the genetic variations they contain, and the processes that are functionally enriched by the diversity of ecological interactions.

·       Life processes and adaptations

·       Distribution and abundance of organisms

·       The movement of materials and energy through living communities

·       The successional development of ecosystems, and

·       The abundance and distribution of biodiversity in the context of the environment.

Ecology is a human science.

Did our group work well together or not? Alex Williams

I think that everyone in the group worked well together. We were assigned different tasks and they were done efficiently. I was the Blog administrator and was in charge of everything that went on the blog. I received information about each post from James Murray and Alessandro Lupini and I edited and posted them myself. James Murray did a great job in bringing everything that was used to build the eco column (stand, wood, bottles, hot glue gun) and we all built it together. Allessandro lupini brought  all of the things that were put in the eco column(rocks, water reeds, fruit that would decompose, grass, plant seeds, water). Everyone helped build the eco column together.

Did our group work well together or not?: Alessandro Lupini

Our group has worked very well together everything getting done in time, but the marks have not been what we wanted to. We also had a good work rate. We worked well with Alex Williams posting on the blogs, Alessandro Lupini getting all the stuff and helping with pictures and measurements, and James Murray helping with building and making the certain things that had to be made, all of which was completed on time.

Did our group work well together or not?:James Murray

How did we work together?

We worked very well together with Alessandro Lupini doing the photo work. And Alex Williams did the blogging, and James Murray did the building and the watering of the eco system

Our Prediction about what will happen to our eco column during the holidays

 Our eco column is currently functioning well as an eco system and each zone in our eco column has got  living organisms in it. This is what we predict for each zone in our eco column:

The Terra zone

•   The zone will dry out because we are not watering it.

•   The plants that have been growing in the zone will die because there will be no moisture and nutrients in the zone for the plants to feed off. 

•   The ants and in the zone will also die because there will be no food and water for them to feed off.

The Decomposition zone.

•   The Flies living in this zone will die because there is no moisture and water coming from the terra zone and because there is no food for them to feed off.

•   The vegetation that is decomposing inside this zone will dry up from a lack of moisture.

•   Any mould that is growing on the vegetation will die from there being no moisture. 

•   The whole zone will dry out and there will be no signs of any living organisms in the zone.

The Aqua Zone

• The water will become darker and dirtier.
•  The water reeds that are growing in the aqua zone will die from the lack of nutrients in the water because it is dirty.
• Any living organisms (water bugs) will die from the state of the water.

When we come back for the next term of school, we are hoping that our eco column is still functioning as an eco system, but some of our predictions will be correct and this will affect then state of the eco column as an eco system
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The accuracy of the predictions made before the holidays.

We are going to comment on each of the zones inside the eco column.

Terra Zone

The zone didn’t actually dry up, surprisingly there were still some sings of living organisms in the zone too. The plants have grown higher than they were at the beginning of the holidays by at least about five centimeters. But the ants that were living in the zone before the holidays have disappeared; they have obviously died from the lack of food or water. This is what surprised the group as we thought that the plants inside the zone would not be able to survive because nobody was watering it, but it didn’t only survive, it grew a considerable amount over the holidays. Our predictions were not entirely correct at the end of the last term but we did predict correctly that the ants living in the zone would die.

The Decomposition Zone

Our predictions for this zone were mostly correct.  Except that the mould that was supposed to dry up, didn’t. We said that the mould would die because there would be no moisture, but there must have been a little bit of moisture left over because there is still mould on the vegetation. Some of the other predictions were also correct; the flies in the zone also disappeared and died because there was no water and food for them to live off. But we were incorrect  when we said that the whole zone would dry up, it the vegetation did dry up but not quite fully dried up. There was still a little bit of moisture left over. Which resulted in our predictions not being totally correct.

The Aqua zone

For this zone we were 100% correct in every prediction. The water became darker and dirtier, the water reeds that were growing in the water, died from a lack of nutrients because the water was so dirty. Also the few living organisms we had living in the aqua zone died.

Overall, the predictions that we made were not entirely correct. Some of our predictions ere incorrect because somehow there was still moisture in our eco column. Here are some pictures of each zone.

Our Terra zone with the plants that grew a lot over the holidays,

The Aqua zone that become much darker as we predicted

Our Decomposition zone where you can see that the vegetation has disappeared and just left the grass that has been there since the beginning.

This is our eco column after the holidays with all the zones there.

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