TERRARIUM LAB
Objective/Introduction:
The objective was to work with a partner of our choosing, in this case Shasta, to design and create a terrarium and use it to study the ecosystem we have made.
Materials(for original terrarium):
Fish tank
Smaller cylinder container
Soil
Moss
Platt's black
Annelids
Sand
Pebbles
Water
Elodea
Water snails
Fish
Procedure(for original terrarium):
1. We used two small containers to plant our platt's black and moss in and placed our earthworms in there too.
2. Then we got a fish tank and filled it with rocks, then with water
3. We let the fish get used to the water then put them in along with the snails and underwater plants
4. Finally we tied our two plant containers to the sides and let them hang with the bottom underwater
Results:
Day 0- We had all of our materials present, but all we did was figure out where we were going to put everything.
Day 1- We filled our tank with water and added the fish and underwater plants. We also attached our land "islands", with our worms and plants in them, above the water.
Day 7- We came in to find that the a pair of snails were mating and that there were 4 egg sacks dispersed on the plants around the tank.
Day 13- Our water has become very murky and gross from the lack of cleaning to our tank, but also because people have been feeding our fish beta fish food. It would just sank to the bottom and get all over our plants and made our entire terrarium stink. Shasta and I had to take apart our terrarium and restart it due to these problems.
Day 14- Two of our fish died so we came to the conclusion that we were no longer having anything aquatic in our terrarium and transplanted our plants and worms into another container.
Day 21- Our plants have re-rooted and are looking healthy. Nothing more to report.
Day 25- Someone put the lid on our terrarium and we came back to find our plants flattened and a small rubber snake sitting on top of them. Our plants ended up being okay in the end though.
Analysis:
There were many limiting factors, both biotic and abiotic, that affected our terrarium over the past month. Some of those limiting factors for our terrarium were the lack of both space and resources, and our inability to maintain and keep our original "mini ecosytem" clean and functional. Of course we could not control the light and some days we didn't water it, but we could have limited the problems that caused us to restart an entirely new terrarium. For example, we could've done a much better job of cleaning the tank for the well being of the fish, snails, and plants. And as for space, the definition of a terrarium is an partially or fully enclosed container that holds only a limited amount of space, but our plants would've definitely benefited if we had had a larger container for them to grow and thrive in.
The nutrients cycle (as seen just below) occurred in our terrarium. There was a "precipitation" from the water Shasta and I watered nearly every day of class. There was both carbon and nitrogen from the air that transferred to our plants and soil which transferred to our worms. There were also decomposers, or our worms, that broke down the organic matter and growth of plants that occurred.
The objective was to work with a partner of our choosing, in this case Shasta, to design and create a terrarium and use it to study the ecosystem we have made.
Materials(for original terrarium):
Fish tank
Smaller cylinder container
Soil
Moss
Platt's black
Annelids
Sand
Pebbles
Water
Elodea
Water snails
Fish
Procedure(for original terrarium):
1. We used two small containers to plant our platt's black and moss in and placed our earthworms in there too.
2. Then we got a fish tank and filled it with rocks, then with water
3. We let the fish get used to the water then put them in along with the snails and underwater plants
4. Finally we tied our two plant containers to the sides and let them hang with the bottom underwater
Results:
Day 0- We had all of our materials present, but all we did was figure out where we were going to put everything.
Day 1- We filled our tank with water and added the fish and underwater plants. We also attached our land "islands", with our worms and plants in them, above the water.
Day 7- We came in to find that the a pair of snails were mating and that there were 4 egg sacks dispersed on the plants around the tank.
Day 13- Our water has become very murky and gross from the lack of cleaning to our tank, but also because people have been feeding our fish beta fish food. It would just sank to the bottom and get all over our plants and made our entire terrarium stink. Shasta and I had to take apart our terrarium and restart it due to these problems.
Day 14- Two of our fish died so we came to the conclusion that we were no longer having anything aquatic in our terrarium and transplanted our plants and worms into another container.
Day 21- Our plants have re-rooted and are looking healthy. Nothing more to report.
Day 25- Someone put the lid on our terrarium and we came back to find our plants flattened and a small rubber snake sitting on top of them. Our plants ended up being okay in the end though.
Analysis:
There were many limiting factors, both biotic and abiotic, that affected our terrarium over the past month. Some of those limiting factors for our terrarium were the lack of both space and resources, and our inability to maintain and keep our original "mini ecosytem" clean and functional. Of course we could not control the light and some days we didn't water it, but we could have limited the problems that caused us to restart an entirely new terrarium. For example, we could've done a much better job of cleaning the tank for the well being of the fish, snails, and plants. And as for space, the definition of a terrarium is an partially or fully enclosed container that holds only a limited amount of space, but our plants would've definitely benefited if we had had a larger container for them to grow and thrive in.
The nutrients cycle (as seen just below) occurred in our terrarium. There was a "precipitation" from the water Shasta and I watered nearly every day of class. There was both carbon and nitrogen from the air that transferred to our plants and soil which transferred to our worms. There were also decomposers, or our worms, that broke down the organic matter and growth of plants that occurred.
FIND A SOLUTION VIDEO
This was a partner project where were to choose a local park and come up with possible solutions to better the ecosystem's ecology and overall well-being. We decided to use O'hair Park as our site and decided to tackle the problems of destruction of native species of plants and erosion of the paths. Our less-than-satisfactory video is below for you to view, or not.
ECOLOGY UNIT REFLECTION
During the ecology unit, I learned a great deal about ecosystems such as the interactions of animals and plants within specific environments, ecological succession, and abiotic and biotic factors. My favorite activity that we undertook would have to be the Terrarium Lab. Even though Shasta and I had troubles with our terrarium, such as our incapability to keep the fish alive and well, it was a simple, controlled way to experiment and learn about the ecology of our "ecosystem". On the other hand, I did not enjoy the numerous worksheets we had to complete throughout the unit. They were tedious and got in the way of completing our more important projects. In the future, I will be more conscious about how my actions can affect the environment around me.