Still here?

It has been awhile since I have been back to this place. Can anyone here me?

Week 12

This week there is not a whole lot of changes to the eco column. The Terrestrial chamber continues to grow to a point where it is outgrowing the camber. When I look at the camber from the outside, it looked like the soil was very dry but when I took the top off the camber, there was a lot of moisture inside the column. The reason for this is because of the different temperatures inside and outside the eco column. Just as when cold winds collide with warm winds to produce storms in the world, the collision between the cold temperatures outside of the bottle and the warmer temperatures found inside the eco column. The temperatures is higher then the outside temperature because of the lights that acts as a source of light and a source of heat. This effect is like the green house effect and the earth. The green house effect is when the earth absorb the heat from the sun and releases some of the heat back out into the atmosphere but not all the heat is released into space because particles in the atmosphere blocks the heat from escaping the atmosphere of the earth. Relating that to the eco column, the lamp acts like a sun to provide heat and energy, the plastic wall around the eco column acts like the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from being released back into the classroom which acts as space. With the collision of warm and cold temperatures, moisture is releases back into the system and hence there is very little water require to keep the system from dying.

The decomposition camber is doing well fruit fly wise because the plants seems to have stopped growing but the fruit flies seems to be doing well. Fruit flies grew very quickly over the pass few days. The first time I introduce the fruit fly into the column, there were only five that was released inside the decomposition, now there are over thirty of them.


The aquatic section of the eco column remains the same from all the other weeks because there is really no changed aside from the minnow slightly getting bigger since he has been alive all this time.








I think I managed to catch one male and two female. I notice that the two new turtles have red ears on them and the original one does not have any red marking on it's ears, I am guessing that they might be two different species.

Week 11

This week I took out our anole because we are nearing the end of the year. I decided to let him lose because I did not want him to suffer being in the camber anymore. When I took the anole out I did notice a few problems with it, mainly that it was going to die soon. In the past day or two the anole became very inactive and it had it's eyes closed most of the time. As I put my hand into the camber to take it out he still response to me even with his eyes closed. After I took him out of the column, I notice that he had lost most of his talons. The reason for this is found in the chamber itself because there was hardly any craw space for it to get out of the soil. He was in the soil for so long that he lost his talons and caused him not to claw on the plant as he used to. Now that the anole is released, I am have second thoughts such as it was nearing death and I still release him into the wild. Another thing that have been on my mind was that he was pampered for the past few month by me feeding him crickets, my hope is that he is still able to go out and find food to survive.

Now my eco column is without the company of the anole, but all continue to live on. Our plant in the terrestrial camber continues to grow without end because it is now touching the top of the column and there are still signs of new roots taking place. As I was looking at the roots I notice that there was movement in the soil. The moving creatures looked like crickets that escape the terrifying jaws of the anole. Aside from the crickets, there were other smaller bugs in the soil area but I am not too sure as to what they are. All that I know is that they are small and are brown. Back to the plant, as I said before it is still getting taller and flower buds seems to be forming near the top of the plant.

In the decomposition camber, all the fruit flys died because of the sudden cold weather this past few days in addition to the cold temputure in the room. Before the camber was swarming with life but now there is completely no movement. The plants seems to be the same as it has been for the past few weeks. The banana that I dropped in for the fruit fly has now become something like a slob, it looks like a liquid but not reallying flowing around.

The aquatic section looks fine on the outside but I have no idea how it is inside. I notice that the alge is slowing it's growth because there is really no where else to grow. While looking at the plants in this section, I saw a few bubbles forming from the roots of the plants and the alge. The bubbles looks like it could be oxygen that is produced from the alge because the bubbles are stuck in the roots. The plants are now growing at wild angles now because there is no more room for it. The minnow is still alive from the very first day and seems to be swimming near the surface of the camber because the alge grew all over the roots and the bottom of the camber. I believe the fish is eating in things from the decomposition camber such as bugs from the soil or possibly the fruit flies that manage its way down into the water. The reason on why the minnow is still alive is thanks to the decomposition camber providing the fish with resources to stay alive.
Me and Tony went out and caught more turtles on Friday last week and do you know which two are the new ones?

Week 10

This week is pretty much like last week, there is hardly any changes now that the eco system inside the column have reach a stable point. Aside from the fact that I have a balance eco system, I did added a few things to improve it. This week I watered our eco column twice using the water from the fish tank. I also fed my anole three large crickets this week and it ate all three them without any problems. After the first crickets I notice that our anole changed from a green color to a brownish color for a day and the next day it changed back to it's original green skin color. I think the reason on why the anole changed color is because it ate the the cricket that was a brown color. So the juice from the cricket that it ate sink into its skin from it's digestive track. Another reason why our anole changed color was that it was changing to the the environment in the terrestrial chamber that is composed mainly of soil and a few plants. Since our anole is mainly on the ground, so it changed to a color brown so that it will be able to catch it's prey which is the crickets. By changing it's color, the crickets can be fooled into thinking that there is no predator to get them, so when there is no predator the crickets will have no need to go under the soil and hide from the anole. When the crickets believe that it is safe, the anole is already almost ready to catch and devour the poor cricket. It is interesting to note that once I drop the cricket in front out the anole, the anole waited patiently for the right moment in order to surprise the cricket. While the crickets was getting used to the new environment without recognize that the anole was right behind it, the anole made a quick movement and all was over for the cricket. So the color change was important in that the anole can fool the crickets into believing that there is no problems in it's environment, before it is too late.
The plants are doing well and are still green, I think the plants are slowing down its roots system because I have been watering it about once a week. Before we had a flower glowing in our eco column but now that our anole is moving about, it trampled down our flower, so now we do not have any more flowers. I notice that alge is growing inside the soil section of the terrestrial camber so that means the column is well watered and it has plenty of CO2.
Another thing that I added to the eco column was fruit flies in the decomposition just because it will bring some life in that chamber. Other than that, there is really no change, out plants seems to be at a standstill.
In our aquatic section our minnow is doing well as all the past week. Now that I think about it when I water the eco column, the water runs from the terrestrial camber all the way down to the aquatic section. In this rundown, the water washes down material such as bugs or waste from the upper two sections which the fish might be able to eat. The alge in this section continues to grow at an unstoppable rate.






I just wanted to let you know that my turtle is doing well and I think it is having a good time in my small fish tank.

Week 9

There is not much to report this week except some small business. For one thing, I made it rain by getting water from the fish tank and watering down the entire system. Afterwards, I drop one small cricket into the terrestrial camber for our anoleThere is not a whole and it snatched it right away. So I decided to drop another one into the camber and the anole quick went for the pray. I did not do this just because I wanted to though. I drop two cricket down because I recall the anole as being much bigger when I first caugt it and put it into our eco column. Just last week I saw that our anole was getting thin as a stick until I drop a cricket down. Another thing to note is that I drop two cricket down last week and I thing the anole only ate one of the two and the one that escape the predator buried itself into the soil to get away from his sight. While look for our buried crickets I stumbled across some other insects under the soil, but I was unable to identify what they are. They are light brown and very small, aside from that there is no other details I can give. Anyways back to the crickets, I noticed that when I drop two crickets down at the same time, they would immediately start crawling around tying to find an open hole in the soil to bury itself. Unfortunately one of the crickets got caught in the mouth on the anole, but the other one just continue to walk around while the anole slowly digest the fresh cricket. So today, I drop another two cricket, but this time I dropped them down one at a time so that the cricket will not be able to bury itself before getting eaten. In other news our plants continue to thrive and prosper. I would like to think that since everything seems to be doing quite well, our eco system has reach a stage of stability.
In our decompostition, it has become hard to tell if anything happening aside from the fact that there seems to be new roots taking place. The plants are doing well in this area but I can not seen any real growth in them as I can see in the terrestrial camber.
The aquadic section stills seems to be doing well as well judging by the signs of alge taking over our entire aquadic camber. It is getting to the point where it is become somewhat difficult to look from one side and to see the other side of the camber.

Week 8

During this week, growth continues without no sign of slowing down. The three peace of grass that is somehow sticking out of the eco column continues to grow since the first day we started the eco column. Although it did not grow very much at first, it started to grow when we watered the system for the first time a few weeks back and ever since then, all the plants have been taking root. There were a few things I notice that were different than before. One thing is our anole, it was green when we first put him in the column, but now it is slowly changing to a brownish color starting from it's head. Another thing that I notice about him was that he is getting skinny each passing moment. I usually go out to find some crickets to put in the eco column so that our anole would eat and be happy. But now I am thinking about feed him four times a week because I noticed that his body is getting very small and his head is remaining the same with the addition of the brown lines. So on Tuesday the 1st of April, I dropped in two small crickets and the anole snatched the first one up in an instant. After feeding I decided I will feed him every two days. Other than our anole, our plants is doing quite fine, it continues to grow. When we first started this project, we are able to see the soil but now to my amazement, I can hardly see any soil because of the vegetation that is growing every where in our eco column. While on the subject of plants our little flower is getting stronger to where the buds are able to stand up vertically, which leads me to think that the flowers are about to bloom. You can say that we have a nice little niche going on. Our keystone specie would be our anole because it is providing CO2 for the plants and it is controlling the crickets population.
Out decomposition is still growing with more signs of leaves developing and it is getting taller. Our moss seems like it might hive stopped growing but it still looks healthy because of the many green leaves. We added a small piece of banana to this section and it is hard to tell if there were any real big effect aside from the plants growing under the leaves.
In our aquatic section, there is not much change from the fact that the alge is still on the move to take over and it is making it harder to see what is going on this section. Our minnow is still alive and doing well. At this point I would like to think that our aquatic section if fully establish because plants are taking root and using the dead bodies of fish to clean out the water to where it is livable for new fishes. A sign that this section is doing well is the fact that the alge is growing completely around the chamber.

Week 7

This week I seen a lot of growth taking place in our entire eco column.
In our aquatic chamber alge continues to grow to the point it is becoming a little difficult to see through the plastic. If you take a closer look at the plants inside the camber, you will see the alge growing on the dead roots. I did some search on alge and I learned that alge is good for the system because it produces oxygen for the system thus the fish will be able to breath in the water. I know people who would think,"Fish just need to be in water to survive." I learned that fish needs oxygen to breath in water through all my past fish tank experience. To affirm that fish needs water, we are doing water test weekly checking everything especially oxygen in the water. In our camber, I believe that it is rich in oxygen thanks to both the plants that are taking root and to the alge. I also learned from wikipedia that alge is very beneficial to the system because it takes in waste from things around it like toxic chemicals to bio waste from the the fish.

In our decomposition chamber, things are really growing thanks to the sunlight and to us watering it. I did not see much change in this section until we watered the camber and things started to take off. The moss is growing very quickly and the soil is moist most of the time now. Before we water the soil, the soil was always dry even though the system was watering itself by the humidity. After we did the initial watering, the soil becomes very moist and is still moist till now. Now that I think about it, the cap at the bottom of the decomposition chamber is submerge in the water and therefore the water is wetting the soil. You see this in stores now and days where there is a water tray beneath the pot of plant. At first you would think that when you water the plant the excess will go to the tray. In reality, the tray holds water and is soaked up into the soil. It also helps because when the water evaporate into the air, the soil will be able to grab some of the water as it enters into the atmosphere.
There is one more thing that I notice is the white root that is found sticking out of the soil. I do not know what it belongs to right now but in due time I think we will be able to see where it comes from.
For our terrestrial chamber, there is some new things but not very much. One new thing is that the small flower is developing to form it's buds. Another new thing is some new roots that are forming all over the soil. We added a small cricket to the camber and our anole snapped it right off. Our big plants are getting taller compared from the last few weeks and when we started the project. There is also thing that I notice and that is our soil is all the same moisture but for some reason, the soil seems to be dividing itself into two. What I mean is that the top soil is divided but an empty space or not as much soil and then there is the bottom half of the soil which is full. I guess that is why we have top soil on the earth and beneath that is harder soil and then we have rocks and such.

Week 6

During this week we added another cup of water to the entire eco column. I also dumped out some water in the aquatic chamber because it was beginning to get full form the watering. Another note to add is that I added another cricket to the terrestrial chamber because there were no other crickets in sight which lead me to believe that they are either hiding or that the anole has been on clean up duty. Other than that, that is all the changes I personally made to the eco column.

This week I notice a few new things that are happening in our eco column. One new feature that I did not notice until yesterday was that our decomposition was changing. Our moses that we put in there the first day are starting to grow under the crushed leafs and spreading throughout that chamber. I notice this because I saw some root taking place and the leafs on the moss are getting taller. I believe that in do time, our moss is going to look something like ummm, amazing group where the stem will continue to grow and the leafs becomes noticeably bigger. For now all we can do is wait until the moss becomes bigger to see what will really happens. One reason why I think the moss is starting to grow is because we watered our eco column. While I did say that the eco column was watering itself, it was only watering things on the side of the eco column no the middle part where a lot of things are. I also said that the humidity inside the eco column was high enough that we do not need to water anything, but I notice I was wrong because after the 4th week of not watering it, the plants started to wilt. Another reason why the moss is growing is maybe because of our anole. At first there were no change in the decomposition chamber and that be because there was nothing to produce CO2 for the plants. In the world there are CO2 being released everyday by humans, animals, natural fires, and fossil fuel and this is what helps plants grow and take root. As plants grow, they use the soil by forming new roots and the soil is made of bio degradable like leafs and fruits. So for plants to grow they things that release CO2 and for our eco column it is the anole and the surviving crickets.

In our terrestrial chamber, there are a lot of things that are happening. One major difference is that the root system of the plant is going out of control!!! The plants in the chamber is now evading our decomposition chamber very slowly and there is hardly anything we can do to stop it. I notice a few new plants starting to form in this chamber thanks to our watering the soil and our animals by providing the CO2 that is needed by the plants. This new plant seems like it could be a flower when it blooms because there are buds at the tip of each branch. As for our animals, the crickets remain to be seen anywhere, while our anole is moving throughout our terrestrial chambers. During this week our anole sheds it's skin. I went on wikipedia and search for anole and they said that when you notice spots forming in the head area, that means it is stress. So for now I think we are doing well keeping it happy.

As for our aquatic chamber, all the water plants are also going out of control in that it is growing to an extent that we have to cut it so that it can stay in the aquatic chamber. The plants are taking roots within the water and that it is growing to the very tip of the chamber to where the stem of the plant have to bend so that it can continue to grow. Other then the plants growing all over the place, our minnow is still alive and doing well. One thing that I recall from my past about taking care of fish is that fish will die when they are moved from one water source to another source. In this case the fish was moved from an open pond to a small chamber. The stress level of the fish can reach to such heights that is could die and that is what I think happen to the other fishes that were in there before. Our minnow is still alive from the first day we put it in there and the only way the minnow is getting energy to survive this long must be from the plants that are very rich in nutrients by the looks of how it is growing.

Week 5

Mr. Greene sorry about the confusing titles, as you can see I have remedied that.

As news goes, we have recently had to add more water to the entire ecocolumn. Although water is obviously being slowly cycled in the column (as can be seen in the condensation of the terrestrial chamber) there still is not enough water for the column to survive on its own. We came to this realization when we noticed that several leaves in our plant were slowly drying out. This, coupled with the fact that the roots are having to dig deeper in the hopes of finding water, lead us to water our column. This in itself must be closely monitored in case that we over do it and flood our aquatic chamber. In other news, we have introduced more crickets into our terrestrial chamber as the ones we had previously introduced are no longer in existence as far as we can see. This being the case it is obvious that the anole is the top consumer of the ecocolumn.

There is no change in the state of the decomposition chamber, leaving the idea that the bacteria that helps decompose the material is either dead or cannot decompose tha material that is in there.

Aquatic chamber has no visible changes.

Week 5

Thank you Mr. Greene for pointing out the creature that I thought was a gecko in our terrestrial chamber was really an anole or an polychrotidae. Aside from that misunderstanding, our chamber still looks decent.

We had to water it once this week because the soil was starting to get dry at the bottom and condensing. I believe that although the column is able to water itself by it's own humidity, that alone is not enough because it only kept the top most level of our soil moist while the second bottom of the soil was completely dry. This goes to say that even in the most humid of places, rain is still required to provide for the earth. Another reason for us to water was because the plant was showing signs of dying.

We also added another cricket into the terrestrial chamber because the other crickets are completely out of sight. I have no idea as to whether or not the crickets were eaten by the anole or went underneath the soil, but our anole is still alive and happy (I don't really know about that happy part because it is stuck inside an eco column compared to the outside world).

Our decomposition chamber is looks the same as usual with nothing to report.

For our aquatic section our minnow is still alive and still swimming around. Our water plants are doing fantastic in this section by all the new leafs and the new root taking place. I believe the reason for our minnow still being alive is because it is eating the plants in the aquatic section. I learned from petmart that plants are very important in water life because not only do they provide oxygen for our fishes, filter the water out by using the ammonia that is caused by the dead fishes and the waste produced by the fishes to provide energy for the plaint, and to provide fishes food when there is nothing else they can eat. So I believe our minnow is feasting on the plant for the time being.

J Rojas- Week 3

This week we have introduced new creatures to the the terrestrial chamber. These creatures are: 1 gecko and 2 crickets. Obviously we are hoping that the gecko will consume the two smaller crickets. However, unfortunately we are not completely sure what these crickets will eat and are hoping that they are herbivores. In other news in the same chamber, the plant continues to take root, and thus far we see no reason to add more water to the chamber.

In the fungal chamber we are not seeing any real change with the breakdown of any of the matter in their. On a more positive note our minnow is still swimming, we are still kind of curious on what he is eating.

Also, I think Dylan Dugas' group is the best. He has worked hard, along with his teammates Nervous Guy and Branson. They deserve an A without a doubt.

Week 4

This week we made a few modification to our eco column. First off we added a gecko to our terrestrial chamber which will hopefully bring some life to that chamber. We also added two crickets so that the gecko would have something to feed on while it is in that chamber. The first thing I notice that the gecko did was hiding itself from us by going down to the ground and hiding behind a few plants. We then added the crickets and they did not have a care in the world on what was going on. Than I notice that the gecko was getting ready for an attack on the poor innocent crickets and within a few seconds the cricket was doom to be the gecko's pray. The second cricket was just sitting around on the earth at first but the next day it manage to dig itself a nice hole underground.
As before our system seems to be watering itself without our aid because of the water cycle, where the water from the aqua chamber moves up into the atmosphere and then it is cooled down by the cooler air outside of the column and becomes water deposits on the side walls. Just by looking at the soil in out terrestrial chamber, you can see that the soil is moist on the top section as to the dryer section near the bottom half of the soil. This is proof that the eco column is watering itself. The roots of our plants are still doing well because of how it is trying to invade the decomposition chamber.
Our decompostition chamber seems to still be the same and so there is no report here.
As for our aqua section, there is still one minnow alive and hopefully doing well. The plants in this section is doing very well because there is new root and the stem is getting much more taller and greener. I like to stay that there is nothing wrong with the water in our eco column just that out minnow will not be able to survive because there is no source of energy for the fish as to how it was in the bigger pond.

Week 3

The minnow is practically dead and the water is probably worse than the pond... The grass is looking fine and we still do not have an animal for the terrestrial chamber... We will gather further specimens this weekend on a nature walk... Our first minnow died within a matter of days, the second one is still around (barely), all we need to do now if find out what it was feeding on.

Week 3

I personally have not seen any changes in our eco column, so I come to the conclusion that as off right now the eco column is supporting itself. For one, water is being introduce on the walls of the column thanks to the warmth and the humidity inside the column against the colder air on the outside. I believe that the eco column is watering itself without our aiding in watering it because of the deferences between the inside and the outside walls of the column. Our plants seems to be very healthy because there are a lot of new root forming underneath the soil in search for a source of water. In our decomposing section of the column, I have no idea what is going on aside from our fungus is still alive. As for the aqua section, it is currently supporting itself alongside with two fish. The body of other fishes that died in this section in the first few days of the column seems to have vanish. I believe that the body decayed to the extant that it looks like the soil at the bottom. Although they died, their death was not meaningless because thier little bodies actually provides nutrients for the plants so that the plants are able to sustain its energy and provide oxygen for the two fishes.

J.Rojas- Week 2

Ok so this week has been full of ups and downs. On the downside most of our fish have died, with the exception of one, this we think for the most part is probably starvation (as if it was lack of well oxygenated water pr something else it too should have died). We have left one part of one of the smaller fishes in the lower chamber, in hopes that in may revert to cannibalism.

So on to the good news: our plant is very much alive and thriving. Over the last few days we have seen amazing amount of root growth. This may be from a lack of moisture and the plant burrowing its roots deeper into the soil in search of this. We have also not introduced any more water into the environment as we have seen moisture build up within the container.

Also, a moth has appeared in out terrestrial chamber. We believe that its possible that moth eggs were already on their. As there is currently no insects in the chamber, if we don't introduce any, it will die.

Week 2

In the second week since we first made the columns, everything seems to be doing well. For one our plants is taking roots because when you look at our plants closely, you can see that the rooting is taking place by all the new white roots. We did not add any water or anything else to it so far and it is still growing. The reason for this growth is because we have have not watered the plant and when the soil is dry the roots must spread out to search for a water source. My partner and I were surprise when there was a moth flying around by our plants, we are not really sure on how it got in there the first place. As for out aqua section things did not looked too good mainly because the fish were dieing off one by one except for one fish. I believe the reason why the fish have been dieing is because the fish has nothing to eat as out in the lake where there are many creatures the fish can pray on. I learned from Josh that when there is no food in the area, the fish will convert to eating each other to get energy. Aside from the fish, our plant is doing well because the fish is still alive producing CO2 and ammonia for the plant. For our decomposition section, the fungus seems to still be alive, but aside from that I did not see much change it in. Another change that I saw among the entire column is moisture developing along the inside walls of the eco column. The reason for this development is because the inside temperature is much warmer then the temperature out side. Another reason for this is because the humidity inside the eco column is very high thanks to the aqua system at the very bottom of the column. I believe that the water from the bottom of the column evaporates and because of the two different temperature water is formed on the wall of the column, I like to think of it as condensation. When the we can actually see the water drop lets it is called precipitation.

Josh Rojas, Week 1

The basic idea that we started out with, is that for our miniature environment to be successful it must be self-sufficient. This being the case we decided to take an already functioning environment and to simply maintain it in our system. Knowing that all life requires some sort of water, and it probably being the easiest to maintain therefore, we took specimens from primarily near the lakes. As of now however, we believe that its possible that we put to many fish into such a small environment that probably wont be able to contain all of them, nor provide them with enough food substance.

Week 1

We started out with just plain water in the aqua section of the column, but I thought we should add dirt to make like the pond out side where you have the plants on top, then water, and then you what the dirt at the bottom. We put three fish small fish in there and we decided to leave out the mid to large size fish out because it would not have anywhere to swim, so small will just do. We also added a shrimp looking like animal in there so that it would clean up or eat the bacteria, helping to clean up the environment. The last thing we put in here was the green alge which hopefully will provide oxygen for the fish and help keep the water clean by using the fish's waste to produce the oxygen.

Testing, Testing

What up Josh