Journal Entry #2

1. Give a detailed qualitative analysis in narrative format (paragraphs) of changes that have occurred in your flasks since your initial construction and the addition of producers. Write to give the reader a mental PICTURE of what’s going on in the flasks. What are the similarities and differences? Be sure to remind the reader about what constitutes your control and experimental groups.

There has been much change in our ecoflasks. Both flasks have profuse growth of algea however the control flask has much more algea because i believe the snail has died. Since the snail feeds off the algea and the control snail is dead the algea remains, while the experimental snail is still living most of the algea is gone. In both flasks, however, there is considerably less algea then before.
The variable in our experiments, the anacharis, has changed as well. The decaying bottom half has either been eaten or has fully decayed because it nolonger exists. The living portion has reproduced considerably since the last entry with at least 5 new buds. This is a good sign because the nutrients are now in the water from the dead part and the living part is buffering the pH and providing food. Since my last entry we have seen considerable change in the duckweed. While last time the duckweed seemed to be thriving now half seems to be dead. This is indicated by the white coloring (indicitive of the lose of chlorophyll). This death in the duckweed is somewhat disturbing in the fact that we dont know why a large portion of our producers are dying.
The addition of organisms other than our producers is a huge differance. And already we have seen deaths in our control flask. The pond snail has died and so has much of the copepods. This may be due to the reletivly low dissolved oxygen level in the flask. It is impossible to see the hydra on the ground but we can only hope that they are doing well. That is just about all of the changes that we have seen in the flasks since last report. All that is left to say is that there has been a rise in the amount of debris on the ground in both flasks.

2. Which two tests did you run? What were the results for each flask? Did they fall within acceptable ranges? If a test fell within range, give two reasons why you believe the test result was favorable. If not, give two posssible reasons describing why the test result was unfavorable.

We ran the dissolved oxygen and pH tests. The control ecoflask had a pH of 8.09 and a dissolved oxygen level of 5.8. The results for the experimental ecoflask showed a pH of 9.59 and a dissolved oxygen level of 10.2. For pH the healthy levels are between 6.0 and 6.5. Neither of our flasks were considered healthy pH wise. One possible reason for the bad pH is that we didnt add enough pebbles. We have only a small layer of pebbles in our flasks and pebbles act as ph buffers. It is also possible that the addition of organisms has raised the pH. The animals feed off of the plants and the plants work to buffer the pH of the water. Thus the lower levels of plants do to the animals eating them would cause the pH to be erratic. The healthy range of dissolved oxygen is between 5.0 and 11.0. Both our ecoflasks were healthy in this aspect. This is probably because the algea, duckweed and anacharis are thriving and photosynthesising. Photosynthesis releses oxygen raising its level into the healthy zone. Since the control doesn't have anacharis, which is a great oxidizer, its oxygen level is considerably less than that of the experimental. Another reason for the favorable dissolved oxygen levels might be because some of the animials have died already and are not breathing the oxygen in, which is bad.

3. Have any plant/producer deaths occurred? Give three hypotheses as to WHY using scientific reasoning.

Up till now, no plants have died. The anarcharis died on one half but is thriving on the other. One reason that no plants have died might be that the levels of dissolved oxygen are normal, and the pH is barable. Good levels of both these factors are imparitive to having a living plants in our ecoflasks. Another reason might be that many of our consumers have died and if the plants have no predators they will not die. A final reason for the livlyhood of our plants may be that there is no real compatition for nutrients in either flask. In the control there is simply duckweed and algea. In the experimental there are those two plants as well as anacharis. Neither flask has a competetive nature about it all the nutrients get absorbed by this reletivly low plant population and recycled.

4. Which consumer organisms (and how many) are you ordering to be added to the column? How is your order different from your original proposal? Why are the organisms that you are adding different in number or type from your proposal? What do you expect to happen upon addition of these organisms?

This is what we decided to put in the ecoflask:
5 mL of paramecium to each ecoflask
5 mL of euglena to each ecoflask
5 mL of amoeba for each ecoflask
5 mL of copepods to each ecoflask
5 mL of green hydra to each ecoflask
1 Pond Snail to each flask.
This order varies greatly from our origianal proposal of 30 mL of each orginism and 2 pond snails each. We made these reductions because we feared that too many producers would kill off all of the producers. Also since the pond snail can eat everything we decided agains having two. With two snails there is the chance that they could reproduce and wipe out our entire ecoflask. When we add the consumers in, I think that everything will go according to plan. We did all of the necissary research and based our consumers off that. Of course science that should work always does. right? RIGHT?

Journal Entry #1 (final part)

1. 1. Give a detailed qualitative analysis in narrative format (paragraphs) of changes that have occurred in your flasks sinceyour initial construction and the addition of producers. Write to give the reader a mental PICTURE of what’s going on in the flasks. What are the similarities and differences? Be sure to remind the reader about what constitutes your control and experimental groups..

Response: Both flasks seem to be doing growing quite remarkably. The biggest differance in materials (actually its the only differance) is that the experimental flask has 30 mL of Elodea canadensis (elodea). The duckweed has been growing rapidly in both flask. It looks like the anacharis in the experimental flask has budded and is reproducing on its top half. It looks as though it might be dying and decomposing on the bottom half however. In both flasks algae has grown signigicantly. In the control flask the algae has grown more and it has sprouted out of the soil.

2. Which two tests did you run? What were the results for each flask? Did they fall within acceptable ranges? If a test fell within range, give two reasons why you believe the test result was favorable. If not, give two posssible reasons describing why the test result was unfavorable.

Response: Two tests were preformed to help give us an idea of how healthy our ecoflasks were. Our first experiment was a pH test. The pH test found that the controlled flask had a pH of 8.09, and the experimental flask had a pH of 9.59. For the controlled flask the pH fell inside the healthy zone. This is because the pebbles act as a pH buffer. Also there are no plants in the flask that would have a great effect on the pH. As for the experimental flask we concluded that the anacharis is making the flask more basic. This is not very good because many organisms live healthily at a pH between 7 and 8. The anacharis acts as an oxidizer raising the oxygen levels and lowering the hydrogen levels. Low hydrogen levels attrubutes to a more basic pH. Our test results may not have been accurate because we had a hard time determining exactly what pH the test was indicating (the colors were so close in each vial). We also performed a dissolved oxygen test. The results came 5.8 for the control and 10.2 for the experimental. As you can see this is a drastic differance. However both fall into the healthy range of 5-11. The reason the experimental dissolved oxygen is so much more than that of the controll is because the elodea (found only in the experimental) is a huge oxygenator. Another reason for the healthy ranges of both of the flasks is because all of the plants are photosynthesising and putting oxygen back into the water in a healthy cycle.

3. Have any plant/producer deaths occurred? Give three hypotheses as to WHY using scientific reasoning.

Response: We have had no plant deaths. Probably because we only put in plants that could succesfuly live in the ecoflasks and succesfuly live together. Green algae is a very flexible plant and the only thing that could kill it is the anacharis. This is evident by the fact that there is less algea in the experimental than the control. Another reason why the plants haven't died is because they live in an environment that has plenty of sunlight. Acording to the tests we have ran the pH and dissolved oxygen levels are good enough and that probably contributed to the so far long jevity of our plants.

4.Which consumer organisms (and how many) are you ordering to be added to the column? How is your order different from your original proposal? Why are the organisms that you are adding different in number or type from your proposal? What do you expect to happen upon addition of these organisms?

Response: The orginisems we ordered are paramecium, euglena, amobea, water fleas, pond snails, green hydras, copepods, and flatworms. We plan to add 30 mL paramecium, 30 mL euglena, 5 mL amoeba, 5 mL water fleas, 1 stagnant pond snail, 5 mL green hydras, 5 mL copepods, and 3 flatworms to each flask. These numbers drasticaly differ from what we put in our proposal (30 mL paramecium, 30 mL euglena, 30 mL amoeba, 20 mL water fleas, 15 mL stagnant pond snails, 25 mL green hydras, 25 mL copepods, 20 mL flatworms ). These numbers are different becuase we found that adding this much of each animal would force us to empty about half of our ecoflask. Looking back it seems that these numbers are ridiculous becuase they are so hight that i doubt there would be enough left for the other groups. Also i don't understand how you can measure pond snails in mL (?). When we add these orginisms i accpect a natural food chain to take effect. The animals populations will be diminished by preditors and be rejuvinated by reproduction. Homeostasis should ensue.

Our group constructed our ecoflask on Nov. 9, 2005. We changed several materials that were to go into our ecocolumns.Here is the list of the new materials that were put into our ecocolumns:
The Control Ecocolumn:
1. 25 mL of Lemna minor
2. 325 mL of water
3. 65 g of pebbles
4. 15 mL of Cladophora
5. 30 g of soil
6. 65 mL of Chlorella
The Experiment Ecocolumn:
1. 295 mL of water
2. 65 mL of Chlorella
3. 15 mL of Cladophora
4. 65 g of pebble
5. 30 g of soil
6. 25 mL of Lemna minor
7. 30 mL of Elodea canadensis

There were also some changes to the actual material from what was written in our proposal compared to what was put into our ecoflasks. Instead of just putting 75 mL of Chlorella, we decided to add two kinds of green algae, 63 mL of Chlorella and 15 mL of Cladophora. We increased the amount of algae because we concluded that the amount of algae we had originally proposed was not enough for the consumers to live of off. Once the all the algae was eaten the entire ecosystem would collapse and destroy our ecoflasks. We used two kinds of algae because we felt it was safer to put in two kinds in case one kind died out. Other changes included the addition of soil and a drastic increase in the amount of pebbles. It seems that we had greatly overestimated the size of each pebble and the ten pebbles we had originally designated were not sufficient. Consequently, our group decided that more pebbles were needed and decided to add 65 g. The soil was added to the ecocolumn because we thought the producers would need a fertilizer and dissolved nitrogen. We concluded that soil was needed and the amount that was chosen was 30 g.

Journal Entry #1

Original Proposal Copy:EcoColumn Experimental Proposal

A. Purpose and HypothesisThe purpose of this experiment is to find how ecosystems sustain themselves. This world is one big ecosystem and in order to understand the world we need to understand a simpler ecosystem. The experimental variable we decided on is Anacharis. In our controlled flask, we will exclude Anacharis and in our experimental flask, we will add Anacharis. Anacharis oxygenates and purifies the water, but it kills green algae. We will observe whether the ecosystem does better with green algae, or Anacharis and barely any green algae. If Anacharis is included in a self-sustaining ecosystem, then it will kill green algae, but the organisms will still live.

B. Background Research

1.A self-sustaining ecosystem is an ecosystem that must provide a continual source of energy, recover from external forces, and function as a unit. In a self-sustaining ecosystem, there needs to be a balance of life. This balance of life is between the predator, prey, consumers, and producers. For a self-sustaining ecosystem to survive it needs to be able to live on its own without any help from the outside. For example, our ecosystem will not be provided food or anything from our group because it needs to provide for itself. Sunlight will be the continual energy and the producers will convert the energy for other organisms to use. Our ecosystem must also recover from external forces like us turning the flask around. Finally, the organisms must work as a unit and help each other in order to survive.

2. We will include eight organisms. There will be three protists: paramecium, amoeba, and euglena. We chose these organisms because protists are an essential food source for the other consumers. The amount of them also reflects this fact as we put more protists than any other organisms; 30mL Parameciums (Paramecium putrinum) are protists that move with cilia. They often attach to the floor or to plants. They, along with amoebas, reproduce by binary fission. Amoebas (Amoeba proteus) have a pseudopod that stretches and compresses. Amoebas use a pseudopod to move and surround food then absorb it. Amoebas also often attach to the floor or to plants. Euglenas (Euglena gracilis) are interesting because they are both consumers and producers. They can also keep algae inside their body and use it to make food. They move with a flagellum, which is a long hairlike structure that extends from its body. Euglenas also reproduce by mitosis.Our ecosystem’s snail will be the stagnant pond snail (Lymnaea stagnailis), which is an egg-laying organism. It uses antennae to see and leaves a slime trail to catch prey. For oxygen, it climbs up plants to the surface or makes a slime rope that it climbs up. The snail will act as the top consumer to control the population of the green hydra. However, because there are no predators for the snail, we only put in 15mL.We have four organisms that all eat each other. The food chains will go into detail later on in the proposal. Another factor we chose to control the population. Since they eliminate themselves pretty quickly, we put in a fair amount, 20 to 25mL.The water flea (Daphnia ambigua) is an organism that thrusts down its antennae to move. It uses its 10 legs to breathe and collect food. It’s important because it takes nutrients from algae and passes it to predators. The flatworm (Proctotyla fluriatilis) is a relatively large organism with eyespots on top of its head. It can’t swim, but it can release sticky mucus and glide on top of it. When flatworms reproduce, they both lay eggs. It can stretch its mouth to suck juice from prey. The copepod (Macrocyclops albidus) is a tiny crustacean that uses its abdomen as a rudder when swimming. It has 10 legs and its eggs take 12 hours to 5 days to hatch. Large numbers of copepods can even eat fish. The green hydra (Chlorohydra viridissima) is a long, skinny organism with stinging, paralyzing tentacles. It uses its sticky body to attach to objects where prey comes by. It uses budding, where a small bump grows larger, then grows tentacles, then pinches off as a new hydra. It can swim like an inchworm. Green hydras are green because they eat chlorella algae.Paramecium, water fleas, and pond snails use duckweed for shelter.There are also some abiotic factors in our ecoflasks. A normal PH level will balance the column. Light from the sun will help the producers. Room temperature will help promote growth and stability. The pebbles will act to keep the submerged plants from floating around.

3.In this food chain, amoebas, paramecium, and euglena will all eat green algae and each other. Flatworms, water fleas, copepods, and green hydras will basically eat each other. They will also eat the three protists and green algae. Duckweed and green algae provide shelter for many organisms and since they are the main producers, they will responsible for oxygen in our flasks. Through photosynthesis, these plants will take in the carbon dioxide and release oxygen to sustain the ecosystem. However, there are complications because too little carbon dioxide could result in a decrease in ozone levels, which may raise exposure to harmful UV rays. With green algae, the water will probably be somewhat dirty. With various organisms and plants coming in, random variations in food chains and some bacteria will probably emerge. The variations and bacteria are bad for this experiment because they contaminate the result and may just cause the ecosystem to collapse. Of course, some of these variations are crucial to the ecosystem and in order to mimic the natural ecosystem these things must happen.

4. To have a successful self-sustaining ecosystem, we needed to take in the factors of the number pyramid, energy pyramid, biomass pyramid, abiotic factors, biotic factors, cycles and other factors. A self-sustaining ecosystem is a closed system. A closed system has the outside events separated from the system and the energy inside the system stays the same because it does not lose or gain energy but rather transfer energy within itself. This means that the plants and organisms that go inside our ecoflask will have to not depend on outside events for example adding food or cleaning the water. To establish a good relationship between the organisms we had to refer to the biotic factors of our ecosystem. These factors include the competition and cooperation between the organisms or symbiosis. The abiotic factors in our ecosystem include the pH, water, air, soil, temperature and light. Some of our abiotic factors are our control variables. Instead of soil, we will be using pebbles. The explanation of our abiotic factors can be found in our variables. The pH is referred to in section

5. We organized our organisms that are going to use in a food web. Beside this food web, we had to create a pyramid of energy, numbers, and biomass to show the relationship between the organisms. A pyramid of numbers provides a visual of how many of each organism is in our ecosystem. The pyramid of numbers closely relates to trophic levels, which are the positions an organism occupies in our food chain. With this pyramid, we are able to create a pyramid of biomass, which is almost the same as a pyramid of numbers but it provides the mass of the entire ecosystem and how much of each organism or plant there is. In a pyramid of energy, predators take some energy from prey, while some of it is lost. When the predators consume the prey, they intake only 10%, which is the average of the conversion efficiency of production, of the energy from the prey and to consume a hundred percent they need to eat 10 organisms. For example, when a Green Hydra eats the water flea, it would need to eat 10 of them to have a complete 100 percent energy level consumption. Water fleas are a great addition to the ecosystem because they pass nutrients from energy to their predators while minimizing the energy that is lost.Inside our ecoflask, we have all types of organisms. We have paramecium, euglena, amoeba, green algae, duckweed, water fleas, and stagnant pond snails, green hydra, copepods, flatworms and Anacharis. These organisms will interact with each other to create a successful self-sustaining ecosystem. These organisms will go through competition and cooperation. All of the organisms compete for green algae so we put 75 mL of green algae, which will sit and reproduce to provide enough for all of the organisms to eat and survive. Our ecoflask will be very competitive because we only have two kinds of cooperation and one of them is when the bacteria decompose the dead organisms. When the bacteria decompose the dead organisms, it provides nutrients for the plants to absorb and grow which helps the growth process of the duckweed, Anacharis and green algae. Then the second cooperation comes into play, when the snails will eat the layer of algae formed on top of the Anacharis while on the other hand the Anacharis will grow better because the layer of algae will be reduced; a mutual relationship.Our ecosystem is a habitat and inside this habitat, there are many different niches, which are basically mini-habitats. Inside a habitat, there are predators and prey, which are the eaters and the eaten. The predators and prey interact with each other, which is known as symbiosis. Predators compete with other predators for prey, which controls the population in our ecosystem. A successful ecosystem has nutrient cycles; these nutrient cycles include the water cycle, oxygen cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphor cycle and sulphur cycle. The water cycle shows that water has three different states, which are ice, fluid, and vapor and how they change between each other. When the sun heats the water inside the flask, the water will evaporate onto the top of the flask and then condense and “fall down” back to the ground. The oxygen cycle provides information on how plants taken in carbon dioxide, create it into oxygen, and then humans and animals take oxygen in and release carbon dioxide, which creates a full circle. The carbon cycle tells us the process that carbon goes through the environment and the same for the nitrogen, phosphor and sulphur cycles. Decomposition is part of the nutrient cycle; the microbes break down dead organisms and the plants absorb the nutrients from the decomposition, which then cycles through the food web. The decomposition process can create a lot of waste. The water in our experimental ecosystem will be purified by the Anacharis, which will clean the water and kill some of the algae growing inside our ecosystem. Our system also has some limiting factors, which are things or elements that there aren’t enough of and the organisms will fight over. In ecosystems, the limiting factors are chemicals that are needed for plant growth but there isn’t enough to keep producing plants. Usually in ecosystems, there is a limited amount of phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon, silica, and iron. Other limiting factors include pH and dissolved oxygen level and in our ecosystem, we will be testing for both to keep them stable for the ecosystem to prosper.5.We will be performing tests to measure the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, and the pH levels of water. We will be performing these particular tests because the dissolved oxygen test will can tell us if the water is safe for the organisms to live in. The dissolved oxygen level shows how healthy and polluted the water is and is essential for the maintenance of aquatic ecosystems In addition, it can tell us how well the plants are functioning since they emit oxygen into the water because of photosynthesis. Healthy pH levels are necessary in order for plants to live in our ecoflask, and without plants, our whole ecosystem would collapse. Healthy ranges for dissolved oxygen are above 5mg/L and under 11mg/L. Healthy ranges for pH levels are 6.0 – 6.5 which means slightly acidic. Both are tested using kits than can be bought. Tests should be run on Monday and Thursday allowing as close to even time periods between tests as possible.

6. We found some very interesting fact on organisms we had in our flasks. For example, hydras can reproduce asexually and can hang from the surface of water. They also reproduce by budding. Pond snails can create a “rope” of slime to climb up to the surface for oxygen. It also seems that euglenas are both producers and consumers since they ingest the algae and acquire the ability of photosynthesis inside their body. Water fleas use their antennas to move around. We also found some related experiments other scientist did that quite interesting. There is an experiment done at a school in Utah and the purpose there was to discover the impact of man-made changes on biological processes in air and water. Their ecoflask was a bottle and they had to a lot of the same process we have to do to make it work.

C. Materials
1. 30 mL paramecium x 2
2. 30 mL euglena x 2
3. 30 mL amoeba x 2
4. 75 mL green algae (chlorella) x 2
5. 25 mL duckweed x 2
6. 20 mL water fleas x 2
7. 15 mL stagnant pond snails x 2
8. 25 mL green hydras x 2
9. 25 mL copepods x 2
10. 20 mL flatworms x 2
11. 30 mL Anacharis x 1
12. 10 Pebbles
13. 325 mL Water x 2
14. Graduated cylinder
15. Beaker16. 2 Ecoflasks

D. Procedure:
1. Gather materials listed in part C
2. Insert 10 pebbles into both flasks
3. Measure out 325 mL of tap water for the experimental flask in a graduated cylinder
4. Pour 325 mL of tap water into the experimental flask
5. Measure out 325 mL of tap water for the control flask
6. Pour 325 mL of tap water into the control flask
7. Measure out 75mL of Chlorella algae
8. Put 75mL of chlorella algae into the experimental flask
9. Measure out another 75mL of Chlorella algae
10. Put 75mL of chlorella algae into the control flask
11. Measure out 25 of Common Duckweed
12. Insert into experimental flask
13. Measure out 25 of Common Duckweed
14. Insert into control flask
15. Separate 20mL of flatworms two times
16. Put 20mL of flatworms into the each ecoflask
17. Separate 20mL of water fleas for both flasks
18. Put 20mL into each the flask
19. Measure out 25mL Copepods two times
20. Put 25mL of those copepods into both flasks
21. From all the hydra separate 2x 25 mL of green hydra
22. Place 25 of green hydra in the experimental and control flasks
23. Take 2x 15 mL of stagnant pond snails
24. In both ecoflasks put in 15 mL of pond snails
25. Measure 30 mL of Amoeba, 30 mL of Euglena, 30 mL of Paramecium do two times
26. Put 30mL of Amoeba, 30 mL of Euglena, 30 mL of Paramecium into each flask
27. Take 30mL anacharis and put in EXPERIMENTAL flask ONLY
28. Place flasks in window sill sitting vertically
29. Let it sit

E. There are many variables that we need to control in order for the results to be conclusive and meaningful. First, the amount of sunlight each flask will receive will be constant because the flasks will be stored in front of the same window. The volumes of water in the flasks will all be 650 mL and the shape of the flasks will be the same because they are the same exact model. The temperature of the flasks will be controlled because they are stored in the same room. The amount of paramecium, water fleas, green hydras, copepods, duckweed, and flatworms that will be put in to the flasks will be the same, # g. The amount of green algae will be more than the rest because it is the food source of all the organisms but still will be constant. There will be less pond snails because they have no predators. They are controlled only by food supply. All the organisms are ordered from Carolina Biological Supply so the organisms will be under the same environment before the experiment. This is because the ecosystem will naturally develop and reproduce into a self-sustaining ecosystem. The type of water is another controlled variable and is controlled by putting tap water in both flasks. The abiotic factors will also be the controlled by having the same pebbles and gravels in both flasks. The time that the flasks will be tipped over for observation will be the same, 10 min. The position that the flasks are in will be the same by putting the flasks upright by the window.The experimental variable will be the plant Anacharis that we will put inside the experimental flask.The dependent variables are the pH level and the oxygen level of the flasks that we are going to measure in the experiment.

F. Errors are inevitable in this kind of a project. For example, the wrong amount of organisms could be added or even the wrong kind since there is many kind/variations of organisms, especially green algae. We might also have made some mistake calculating the pyramid of numbers and the ecosystem could exceed its carrying capacity. Another error could be how we handle the flasks because if we upset the balance of nature too much and the self-sustaining ecosystem cannot recover. An example would be flipping it down for two long and the terrain shift due to it. To minimize random error, we will minimize uncontrolled variables so that the only experimental variable is whether there is Anacharis. We will make sure that the same amount of each organism and plant is put into the controlled flask and experimental flask. Second, we will make sure that both flasks are exposed to the same amount of light and same temperature by putting them both by a window in the same exact room. In addition, we will observe both flasks in the same exact manner, whether it is counting using a certain type of estimation or recording data the same way. We will use the same amount of pebbles and gravels in each flask.G. By observing the flasks, we can learn about our own environment since the experiment has a direct correlation to the real world. If certain factors cause our ecoflasks to die off, the factors can do the same in real environments. For example, by putting too much consumer into the ecosystem, the producers will be eaten and the ecosystem will die. In the real world, if the population of Earth keeps growing then there will be less food and the whole world might die off. If Anacharis puts an end to some organisms by killing algae, we can learn that taking green algae from certain environments can kill organisms. This could also teach us not to destroy a living creature’s habitat because we must not allow any more creatures to become extinct. In addition, the organisms we kill may cause our own extinction since every organism, including human, is connected to the delicate web of life.