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.