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Hannah Whitenight
This experiments main purpose was to give us an opportunity to explore different types of
ecosystems, the living things in each column, conditions that are required to keep the living
organism stable, and the connection between every column in the ecocolumn. This project was
given to us to show the way each population connects to each other and depend on each other to
help one another to live. This relates to the real world by giving us a good example on how the
earth’s populations depend on each other to keep living organisms alive. Showing us that the earth
depends on us but also its own living organisms. The only downside to this ecosystem is that it is in
a closed space. There is no danger, expect for Harry the bunny, otherwise, there is no predators,
changes in the weather, and ect. Plus, keeping up with our ecocolumn gave us a better
The smell rank is a scale of the worst smell to the freshest smelling in each section of the
ecocolumn. The smell rank might not be exactly correct due to other members of the group smelling
each of the sections. Especially when there is allergies going around and we are limited to our
smelling abilities. On some days the smell was fresh, on other days the smell was unbearable. It
depended on the temperature that was kept within each section of the ecocolumn. We figured out
the hotter the temperature of the ecocolumn the smell would get worse. The Aquatic was the worst
of them all, because of all the water filtering from each section of the ecocolumn, it carried other
smells. Letting other smells enter the bottom of the ecocolumn, the aquatic habitat. Surprisingly, the
decomposition habitat was not the worst, the smell was probably the best smelling out of all of the
habitats. In the terrestrial habitat we had the second to worst of the smell rank, this may be due to
the water build up of water in the bottom of the terrestrial section of the ecocolumn.
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In all of the sections of the ecocolumn they stayed relatively the same temperature
throughout this experiment, the biggest jump between a temperature was in the terrestrial habitat
from 21 degrees celsius to 24 degrees celsius. The temperature was not a big effect on most parts of
our lab. It would have been different if we had weather changes, but due to the lack of weather we
needed to make it like the real world, we only got to experience the warmer sides of the
temperature. The downside to having different climate changes is that living organisms can be at
risk. In this project we had just the right amount of heat for our living organisms to adapt and
survive in their environment. Once again the only effects to having the temperature in the middle is
In each section of the ecocolumns we tested the pH levels. Most of the habitat were neutral
throughout the whole experiment. The highest the pH scale that it has reached was 9 which was still
basic, that was in both terrestrial and decomposition habitat. 7 was neutral, and most of the time, the
pH level was a 7. The carbon dioxide entering the ecocolumn helped the pH levels stay relatively
neutral. The pH only changed from usually a pH of 7 to a pH of 8, the average between all of the
ecocolumns is a pH of 8. The decomposition section as well as the terrestrial had a somewhat close
pH scale. The aquatic habitat stayed at a pH of 8 throughout the entire experiment, it had the lowest
pH scale. The pH helps the ecocolumn remain a stable environment to each habitat of the
ecocolumn.
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The turbidity of the water was mostly the same throughout the entire experiment, the reason
for the changes of the turbidity was the filtering of the water through each ecocolumn. Which each
water is going to consist of some parts of each section of the ecocolumn, you are getting water
being filtered through your terrestrial, down to your decomposition, finishing into your aquatic
space, going through each section. In each section, the water is picking up particles from each
habitat. With the water absorbing what it’s allowing to be taken in. By the end of each habitat the
water has picked up particles from each of the top ecocolumns, causing the turbidity of the water to
change. The filter would not always pick up everything it wants to pick up, which is one of the main
problems to the change of the turbidity. Which means the particles cause the water to get colour
The nitrate concentration in each section of the ecocolumn stayed the same throughout the
experiment, the only time the nitrates changed was both in the terrestrial and decomposition
sections. While the others were 0ppm the terrestrial made it to 5 ppm, this only happened once on
each sections of the ecocolumn. The aquatic habitat was able to stay at 0 ppm because of the aquatic
plant, providing the water more oxygen and carbon dioxide to the aquatic habitat. The
decomposition and terrestrial habitat were most likely to have that 5 ppm because of the water
filtering and not having any living plant that can help produce more oxygen and carbon dioxide.
During this experiment, we also had a date were we could not make any observation due to no more
resources to do our lab. During this whole experiment the nitrates stayed at a constant rate of 0 ppm.
With this experiment, I was able to learn on how different populations help each other in a
way. I got to understand the way the earth basically recycles resources to give to their populations.
In the smell rank, we found that the decomposition and terrestrial had a fresher smell to the aquatic
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habitat, the aquatic habitat had the worse smell out of the tree section in the ecocolumn. Then we
found that the temperature did not have a huge affect on the ecocolumn except due to the smell in
each of the sections. The temperature did not raise higher above 24 degrees celsius. The pH of water
from the start was neutral, starting to slightly rise to around eight to nine, which is just basic. At the
end of the experiment, the water’s pH went back down two neutral. The turbidity of the water in the
aquatic habitat stayed usually near the clear side, the darkest the water has probably ever got to was
a five, which is still fine, although it is near the middle we could still see our rocks very clearly. At
the end the waters turbidity reach to level three, saying we could see rocks, plants, and our living
organism just fine. The nitrate concentration stayed at 0 ppm throughout our entire running through
the experiment, except for one day, the decomposition and terrestrial had their nitrate concentration
at 5 ppm. Starting with our aquatic habitat, our producer was the aquatic plant. In the decomposition
habitat there was no producers. The producer in the terrestrial habitat, the succulent was its
producer. In the aquatic habitat the consumer was the fish. In the decomposition habitat there are no
consumers. In the terrestrial habitat the hermit crab was the consumer. The aquatic habitat does not
have detritivores. The decomposition habitats detritivores were the worms and slugs. The terrestrial
habitat did not have any detritivores. In the aquatic habitat, our aquatic animal, our fish, the plant in
the aquatic habitat provided the fish oxygen and carbon dioxide, this plant helped the fish able to
breathe. In our decomposition habitat we had a couple slugs, and a worm. They were there to help
the leaf litter and apple break down, and also for their food supply. There was soil in there were
they could move freely around were ever they could. In the terrestrial habitat we had a hermit crab,
which would bury himself into the soil giving the succulent in the terrestrial habitat carbon dioxide
and oxygen. Producers main purpose are for living organism to take in carbon from other consumer,
which taking that carbon dioxide helping them to breathe. The detrivors purpose is for the to break
down (decomposing) materials for them to become nitrates. In the Terrestrial section of the
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ecocolumn the crab breaks down ammonium which produces bacteria creating nitrates which is
absorbed by the plant. In the decomposition section of the ecocolumn ammonium is being given to
the slugs and worms which is releasing carbon dioxide to the leaf litter and decomposing apples
creating nitrates which are also being created by bacteria in the ecocolumn. In the Aquatic Section
of the ecocolumn, the fish releases ammonium which then releases bacteria, which then against
releases nitrates giving nitrates to our aquatic plant. In my ecocolumn lab, I noticed that our animals
needed a lot more space than what was given, and given to over population which is happening in
the real world, we are running out of room for living organisms to roam freely. There really is now
way to fix overpopulation in today’s date. (Unless you force people to stop making babies) We need
to treat our population much better than we do now as well, you look on the side of the road and
there is trash everywhere polluting the area is going to cause animals to eat what they see. This
project really open my eyes about how badly we are overpopulation leaving no room, and also how
the population works. It was fun to learn in depth on how the earth depends on itself to survive.
MLA Format Not formatted Formatted, alot of Formatted, few Is in format, spell
Your score: 6 mistakes mistakes checked and
gramatically correct
Data Analysis missing some data is Data is graphed but Graphs are made for
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Your score: 6 graphed, graphs are there are some all data. and labeled
not labeled correctly labeling errors correctly
Conclusion missing Data trends are Data trends are Data trends are
Your score: 6 repeated, no attemps repeated some repeated and data is
are made to explain connections made to explained using
links to ecological niche and nutrient knowledge of
niches and nutrient cycles. ecological niche and
cycles. nutrient cycles.
Other connections
and observations are
included.
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