Title: Bottled Ecology
D.H, J.Y, K.L
Background
Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to understand the network of Ecosystem and to corroborate it
by making our bottled ecosystem to function properly.
Hypothesis: If we create and organize our bottled ecosystem properly, then it will provide factors
that are necessary for life because there would be a direct or indirect link between different
organisms in a different environment.
Research: We used most of our data from the internet. We used the internet to find out the
process of making Eco Column.
http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/library/fast/www.fastplants.org/
TableWithProject/BottleBiology/ecocol.pdf
Materials: two 2- liter bottles
Bottle caps
Scissors
Water (aquatic water that we got from my stream)
Soil (Science classroom’s soil)
Worms (Science classroom’s worm)
Rocks for aquatic life
Eggs of Triops
Food items for decomposition
Other food to feed Triops
Grasses that we plucked from Kail’s backyard
Procedures: 1) Use scissors to cut the 2 liter bottles. The bottom section is aquatic life.
2) Put handful of rocks into the aquatic chamber and put aquatic water from the
stream. Put sand and may put moss. Later put 7 aquatic grasses that will help photosynthesis in
aquatic chamber and one small half full of plastic bag of triops eggs that will later grow up to
swim around. With the top of the bottle which was cut, put it upside down into the base bottle.
3) We puncture the bottle cap with the needle. Pour two handfuls of soils and put
them in the decomposition chamber. Put decomposer like worms or spiders in with some food for
them to survive.
4) With another top of the bottle, put it upside down on the other bottle. This
chamber is called terrestrial. Be prepared to have plants like grass (all the way down to the root).
Make sure to add right amount of soils that will cover the root of the grass.
5) Finally, making the eco column is done.
Data
Date
Dec 12, 2012
Dec 15, 2012
Dec 19, 2012
Dec 20, 2012
Jan 6, 2012
Jan 13, 2012
Jan 18, 2012
Jan 23, 2012
Jan 27, 2012
Feb 3, 2012
Feb 10, 2012
Feb 17, 2012
Feb 24, 2012
Mar 2, 2012
Mar 9, 2012
Mar 16, 2012
Mar 23, 2012
Mar 30, 2012
Apr 11, 2012
pH of Aquatic
System
Worms Lumbricus
terrestrius
Grass Aegilops
Grass Aegilops
cylindrical (# of
cylindrical (length
leaf)
of leaf)
15
7cm
7
3
6.9
3
15
7cm
7
3
15
8cm
7
3
15
11cm
7
3
17
11cm
6.5
3
25
15cm
6.5
3
25
15cm
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
25
30
30
34
36
36
36
36
41
42
42
27
16cm
18cm
20cm
22cm
27cm
33cm
42cm
49cm
50cm
55cm
55cm
33cm
Graph
60
54
48
42
36
30
24
18
12
6
0
12/12
12/20
1/18
2/3
2/24
3/16
4/11
pH of Aquatic System
Worms Lumbricus terrestrius
Grass Aegilops cylindrical (# of leaf)
Grass Aegilops cylindrical (length of leaf) *cm
Conclusion
Therefore, as we
said if we create
our bottled
ecosystem
properly, then it
will provide
factors that are
necessary for life
because there
would be a direct
12/19/2012
3/2/2012
4/11/2012
or indirect link between different organisms in a different environment. We think our hypothesis
was right. Our bottled ecosystem underwent through precipitation in the second chamber which
showed the fact that our bottled ecosystem worked just like our world. We had once put a flying
bug hoping it to survive, but it died right away. We still didn’t figure our the problem to make
our eco bottle sustainable. Eggs we put in the aquatic chamber have not hatched and so we have
to replace them with other fish that could survive in our eco bottle. To make the Triop eggs
hatch, we must place in bright incandescent light 24 hours a day if room stays cool. However, we
could not provide those environment for the Triop eggs. On the other side, our plant grew
successfully. As you see the graph the plants grew up to over 50cm. The plants grew so fast that
we had to replace the small top bottle to bigger one. In my opinion, because we put a worm on
our terrestrial chamber, with all the nutrients the worm was giving to the plants, the grasses were
able to grow better and bigger. This factor showed an interaction between the plants and the
worm. Our pH number fluctuated between 6.5 to 7 but mostly it remained at 7. In our aquatic
chamber, the mosses grew with the grasses that were starting to grow.