Objective: to successfully plan and grow a terrarium that sustained our chosen plants and gave them a healthy environment to thrive. We had to create a proposal that was to be checked and approved by Ms. Flasher.
Hypotheses: I think our terrarium will thrive for a few weeks, but eventually die because we do not have enough components such as herbivores, carnivores, or decomposers in our terrarium.
Procedure:
1. Get our medium sized bowl
2. Put rocks as the first layer
3. Put a small layer of charcoal as the second layer
4. put soil on the top as the third layer
5. Plant the moss
6. Plant the grass
7. Add some rocks on the top layer
8. Continue to water as needed
Analysis: Our terrarium had a few limiting factors, both biotic and abiotic. Our biotic factor was our plants. We had a long grass and a moss. Our abiotic factors were temperature, soil, watering, sunlight, charocal, and rocks. The watering, sunlight, and temperature had to be consistent in order to keep the plant's routine undisturbed. If one of these factors were to be interrupted, it could throw off the plant and its growing routine. We put our terrarium close to the window to try to ensure that it got a maximum amount of sunlight. We used just enough water so that it wasn't soaking, but not too little that it dried up.
There were many nutrient cycles that took place in our terrarium. They were the water cycle, the carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle. Whenever we would water the environment, the water would slowly evaporate from the bottom of the container, back into the soil, and out the top. When the plants absorb water, they transpire the it, which also gets rid of some of the water. Next was the carbon cycle. The first step was that the plants absorb sunlight through photosynthesis. Next, the plants produce oxygen that could be inhaled by earthworms if there were any. Some of this oxygen also goes into the classroom. The plants also produce energy, also called glucose, that other organisms can eat, and they then gain that energy. The, the plants and organisms die, which adds energy to the geosphere. This cycle continues in this pattern until something dies or thrives unpredictably or out of the ordinary. The final cycle is the nitrogen cycle. Plants absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere, and then expel ammonia. In our terrarium, there is natural denitrifying bacteria, which converts ammonia to nitrates, which is the process of nitrogen fixation. This bacteria absorbs the ammonia, which harms the animals. The ammonia then disappears and the nitrates thrive, which then produces proteins. Other proteins produce nitrogen in the atmosphere, which is a process called denitrification.
I made a Terrarium with Lauren Whyte. In this we made a small terrarium out of a coffee pot. Originally, we wanted to make a dual terrarium where we would add fish/ snails in water and also have land. We decided against this because the fish would not have a stable biome. Instead of having our coffee pot ecosystem thrive in the first week someone flooded our coffee pot. This making it impossible for the native plants in California that were easily accesible to us. If we planted plants that were used to being over watered in a wet biome like in the north east they could have prosperred.
Hypotheses: I think our terrarium will thrive for a few weeks, but eventually die because we do not have enough components such as herbivores, carnivores, or decomposers in our terrarium.
Procedure:
1. Get our medium sized bowl
2. Put rocks as the first layer
3. Put a small layer of charcoal as the second layer
4. put soil on the top as the third layer
5. Plant the moss
6. Plant the grass
7. Add some rocks on the top layer
8. Continue to water as needed
Analysis: Our terrarium had a few limiting factors, both biotic and abiotic. Our biotic factor was our plants. We had a long grass and a moss. Our abiotic factors were temperature, soil, watering, sunlight, charocal, and rocks. The watering, sunlight, and temperature had to be consistent in order to keep the plant's routine undisturbed. If one of these factors were to be interrupted, it could throw off the plant and its growing routine. We put our terrarium close to the window to try to ensure that it got a maximum amount of sunlight. We used just enough water so that it wasn't soaking, but not too little that it dried up.
There were many nutrient cycles that took place in our terrarium. They were the water cycle, the carbon cycle, and the nitrogen cycle. Whenever we would water the environment, the water would slowly evaporate from the bottom of the container, back into the soil, and out the top. When the plants absorb water, they transpire the it, which also gets rid of some of the water. Next was the carbon cycle. The first step was that the plants absorb sunlight through photosynthesis. Next, the plants produce oxygen that could be inhaled by earthworms if there were any. Some of this oxygen also goes into the classroom. The plants also produce energy, also called glucose, that other organisms can eat, and they then gain that energy. The, the plants and organisms die, which adds energy to the geosphere. This cycle continues in this pattern until something dies or thrives unpredictably or out of the ordinary. The final cycle is the nitrogen cycle. Plants absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere, and then expel ammonia. In our terrarium, there is natural denitrifying bacteria, which converts ammonia to nitrates, which is the process of nitrogen fixation. This bacteria absorbs the ammonia, which harms the animals. The ammonia then disappears and the nitrates thrive, which then produces proteins. Other proteins produce nitrogen in the atmosphere, which is a process called denitrification.
I made a Terrarium with Lauren Whyte. In this we made a small terrarium out of a coffee pot. Originally, we wanted to make a dual terrarium where we would add fish/ snails in water and also have land. We decided against this because the fish would not have a stable biome. Instead of having our coffee pot ecosystem thrive in the first week someone flooded our coffee pot. This making it impossible for the native plants in California that were easily accesible to us. If we planted plants that were used to being over watered in a wet biome like in the north east they could have prosperred.