What is the purpose of the ECO-column lab?
What is the purpose of the ECO-column lab?
Ecocolumn Lab PURPOSE: Create a self contained, sustaining, ecosystem. Identify biotic & abiotic factors within each ecosystem. Identify producers, consumers, and decomposers within each ecosystem. Identify and describe food chains and food webs with each ecosystem.
What can you learn from eco-column?
10 Scientific Concepts in Ecocolumns
- Data collection, graphing and analysis.
- Nutrient Cycling.
- Nitrogen Cycle.
- Limiting Factors.
- Decomposition and Detritivores and Leaf Litter.
- Water treatment and wastewater treatment.
- Food Web.
- Water Quality: Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Nitriates.
Is an eco-column a closed system?
Since it is mostly a closed system, the environment within the eco-column is required to function and stay alive with the cycles and processes it must undergo.
What are the limiting factors in your terrestrial chamber?
Temperature in all chambers is a limiting factor because if the temperature were to get warmer or colder, the organisms in the chambers could increase or decrease. However if the temperature is constant, the population of organisms will stay the same.
How does nitrogen cycle through an eco column?
The nitrogen cycle started in our decomposition chamber through the decaying matter. It flowed to the rest of the column through the water we poured on it daily. As the nitrogen soaked into the soil through the water and the plants, our worms absorbed it through the soil and the matter that they were feeding on.
How is an eco column like an ecosystem?
An eco-column is a self-sustaining ecosystem on a small scale, made of plastic soda bottles. This eco-column has 3 chambers: the terrestrial chamber, the decomposition chamber, and the aquatic chamber. All three of these chambers make a “mini-ecosystem” that you can observe at home or in a classroom setting.
What is eco column?
An Ecocolumn is a model of an ecosystem on a small scale, and generally includes a terrestrial habitat, with a compost unit, and an aquatic habitat.
How do you make an eco column?
Stocking Instructions
- Add a layer of sand or topsoil (2-3 cm) to the deep base.
- Add a layer of gravel (1-2 cm) on top of the sand or topsoil.
- Add water to a level about 1cm below the cap of the lower deep funnel.
- Plant aquatic plants with roots in the bottom sediment.
How is an eco column a model ecosystem?
An ecosystem can be defined as a community of organisms along with their physical environment. An Ecocolumn is a model of an ecosystem on a small scale, and generally includes a terrestrial habitat, with a compost unit, and an aquatic habitat.
How does the biogeochemical cycle work?
biogeochemical cycle, any of the natural pathways by which essential elements of living matter are circulated. In order for the living components of a major ecosystem (e.g., a lake or a forest) to survive, all the chemical elements that make up living cells must be recycled continuously.
What is the purpose of the eco column lab?
Eco-Column Lab. The purpose of the lab was to create an independent, self-functioning ecosystem from which the chemical cycles could be observed and recorded for analysis. The eco-column was constructed from non permeable plastic bottles. This ensured that the ecosystem was closed from outside influence.
How was the eco-column constructed?
The eco-column was constructed from non permeable plastic bottles. This ensured that the ecosystem was closed from outside influence. The base was made from a large water jug and housed the aquatic portion of the eco-column. The rest of the column was constructed from carefully cut two liter soda bottles.
What happens to the chemicals in an eco-column?
Nothing from outside the eco-column is able to penetrate the plastic bottles housing the eco-system, except for sunlight. The fact that it is a closed ecosystem make it so that all of the chemical cycles work independently from the outside environment. This means that all of the chemicals in the eco-column stay there and may just change form.
Does the eco-column need to be sealed?
Once each level was filled and stacked, we taped off the system except for one slit for testing the water. This made the Eco-Column not a completely closed system, being sealed the majority of the time except for our testing periods.
