Ecosphere Report

<Ecosphere Report By MCDC>

Group 4 (Dayeon Jung, Wenyi Fu , Mariam Elias, Conner Laursen)

On April 4th, 2016, our group set up a self-sustaining ecosystem in a jar in order to observe how the ecosphere works; we all hope our ecosphere jar will persist, grow and possibly even flourish throughout the whole quarter. Other group also did the same experiment, but they have different ingredients. Therefore, we have different results. This week, MCDC is going to compare our ecosphere jar with other groups. Before starting the experiment, our group carefully discussed what organisms that we would like to put in the ecosphere jar. During the experiment, we followed the procedure which  was provided by the instructor and recorded all the materials that were put into the ecosphere jar. Our group started with 3 mermaid (autotrophs) and we still have 3. We started with 1 snail and now have multiple snail offspring which can be seen crawling on the side of our ecosphere. We hope to observe, compare and contrast our ecosphere with others from our lab.

Figure 1:Ecosphere Jar Set-up On April 11, 13, 18

Our ecosphere jar was very cloudy and dark when we first sat it up. This is because soil was the last thing that we added. According to the materials, we added a lot of organisms into our ecosphere jar but we could not see them clearly. After one week, our ecosphere jar became clear and clear. We think this is because all the sediment and soil settled down.

on  April 4, the first day that the our class did the experiment, our jar was very cloudy and full of dirt floating around. Also, some groups jars were not as cloudy as ours but some of them were  more cloudy than ours but as time went on, our jar cleared up more and more until it was similar to the light color jars, but the darker jars just kept getting darker and more cloudy until now. Fortunately, we just realized that we have many snail offspring in our jar. This was something that we did not anticipate happening. We are still wondering how just one snail can produce baby snails but itself. Maybe it was already pregnant. We are still working on the answer.

Figure 5:Ecosphere Jar Partial view On April 25, May 2 and May 18

The snail is still alive and Mermaid and the aquatic floating fern keeps living. On that day, we compared our snail and other organisms with other group’s. The other group’s snail was dead already but ours was still alive and it was moving. We assumed that we put enough soil and peas for the snail to live. The dark and blurry water got cleaner and everything settled down.  

                      Snail from MCDC                 Snail from Other Group

                     Baby Snail from MCDC       Baby Snails from Other Group

Comparing with other group that also have snail. Our most notable observation of our group and other groups with a snail is that all of us have baby snails. For our group, we did not have babies snails until recently; however, baby snails showed up from other group shortly after.

Conclusion

All the organisms we put on the first day are still alive; even the snail. On the first day, our team thought we put too much soil and peas and we were worried the snail would be dead within few days. However, the water got cleaner and cleaner and the snail’s movement was pretty good. To breed living organisms was pretty interesting. Also, to observe it every week and to check what organisms prevailed and which passed away was amazing.

How do snails reproduce?

Some snails are considered to be hermaphrodites. This means that every snail will have both male and female reproductive organs (snail-world). Snails reproduce similarly to almost everything else does - they mate and lay eggs. Some snails are hermaphrodites, though (have both male and female sexual organs in the same individual), which means that two snails can fertilize each-other (scienceline). Work Cited “How Do Snails Reproduce?” Snail Facts and Information. Web. 18 May 2016. “UCSD Science Line.” UCSD Science Line. Web. 18 May 2016.

                                        Group Funguy                                   MCDC

Figure - Ecosphere from group Funguy

Materials : pond water, water & minerals, gravel, soil, sand

Autotrophs: Anabaena, Volvox, Selenastrum, Aquatic floating fern, Water sprite, Bacopa

Heterotrophs: snail

Description : The group FunGuy Ecosphere is kind of different from our Ecosphere, as they got Alga in their ecosphere and that's why it looks kinds of greenish. They also have a snail and its still alive but we aren’t sure if they have any baby snails or not. FunGuy group, let us know please.

                                      Group SALT                                          MCDC

Figure : Ecosphere from group SALT

Materials : pond water, water & minerals, gravel, soil, hay

Autotrophs : Anabaena, Selenastrum, Water sprite, Bacopa

Heterotrophs : Shrimp, Daphnia

Description : The group SALT’s ecosphere bottle looks fresh and clean. However, after few weeks since they made this ecosphere bottle, the shrimp died. For us, MCDC, we have a snail and it still lives today.

                                 Another Group                                           MCDC

Figure: Ecosphere from other group

Materials: water & minerals, gravel, soil

Autotrophs : Anabaena, Mermaid, Floating fern

Heterotrophs : Snail, Shrimp, Daphnia

Description : The shrimp is still alive. They have similar autotrophs to ours, but they only have one mermaid compared to our 3. They also have a similar floating fern, that is why they look alike.