Week 2: 10/6/2015

We observed our terrarium for the second time today.  We saw a lot of similarities with the first week  but there are some noticeable differences as well.  To start off, we have four sprouts in the top tier that have grown out of the soil, two flower sprouts and two bean sprouts.  While the water is still clear for the most part, there are some particles floating around that we observed.  There is also some condensation in both the top and bottom tier.  Plants release water vapor into the air (transpiration) when there is light and heat present. Since the terrarium is an enclosed environment, when the water vapor leaves the plant (evaporation) and comes in contact with the side of the container, it forms droplets of water on the side of the container (condensation).  Once enough water accumulates or the temperature decreases, the condensation will then fall back (precipitation) down the sides of the container into the soil.  The water gathers on the ground whether in the soil, a body of water or elsewhere (collection), until it evaporates and the water cycle continues.  If the daphnia are moving, they are moving significantly slower than they were last week and one of them is potentially not alive anymore.  Our elodea is still very green although the tips of it are starting to become brown, but the majority is still green.  There are some strings growing off of the elodea that are growing down towards the rocks at the bottom.  The elodea is still submerged in the water.  We have found and spotted all three snails, one of them is moving more than the other.  The strings that are connecting the two terrariums have become somewhat dirty and have black specs on them.  The black specs are of unknown material.  The water is at 10.1 cm.  Here are some pictures of our second observation.

We predict that the plants in the top tier will continue to grow well, since they have sunshine, soil and water. We predict that the plant in the bottom, water tier may grow some type of roots and continue to do well. We think that the daphnia and snails might not make it because there is no food that we can see, for them to eat.

Questions for thought: 

This is a close up version of our two-tier terrarium.

The sprouts are starting to grow out of the soil (the top portion of the terrarium).  

The water portion of our terrarium, here you can see the mostly green elodea plant and the string.  

You can get a clearer view of the condensation and the strings connecting the top and bottom tiers.  

In this bottom picture, you can see our snail submerged by the rocks.  In all of the pictures, the strings are still very white and clean as well as the water.  We had some slight plant growth that you can see in the first two pictures.   

Week 1

Today we created our two-tier terrarium, our "ecosystem in a bottle."  We assembled it following the directions from the lab.  The top tier has soil in it that we planted 6 seeds, 3 summer sunshine flower seeds and 3 green beans.  The bottom tier has gravel, water, a green plant (elodea) and tiny animals (3 daphnia and 3 snails). There are cotton strings (3 each 30 cm long) running from the top tier of soil into the water on the bottom tier.  The water will be pulled up into the cotton string and will provide some moisture for the seeds in the soil in the top tier.  We will store our terrarium on the window sill, so that it is exposed to sunlight which will provide some heat as well. 
We can see the daphnia swimming around throughout the water in the bottom tier and we can also see the snails, that are moving just a little bit.  It moves slightly through the gravel. Our plant is very green, with just a few brown spots, and seems healthy.  The water is very clear, making it easy for us to see what is going on in our ecosystem. In the top tier, the seeds we planted last week have not sprouted yet. We will attach a picture from our first day. 

We predict that the seeds will sprout in the top tier and that the daphnia and snails will swim around in the bottom tier. The green plant will probably stay green for a while.

Questions for thought:

Do you think the plants and animals in our fully enclosed, 2-tier terrarium will survive?

Why or why not?

This picture shows the full two-tier terrarium. As you can see, the bottom half has the water ecosystem and the top half is the land ecosystem.  

We just put together our terrarium on this day so the only growth that is found is from the organisms and plants that we got as our starting resources.  We worked together to put the terrarium together and will watch the development of the plant growth and animal growth and reproduction.