Week 5

Oh my gosh we have growth!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED!

Here is a picture of our entire terrarium

This is the bottomtier. As you can see, the water appears to be more clear, 
and our elodea seems to be a more vibrant shade of green

Here is a picture of one of our sprouts! When we took our terrarium from the window,
the sprout seemed to be reaching towards the window

In this picture, you can see there is some mold growing on the soil of the top tier

Observations:

• We observed a lot of condensation on the top tier of our terrarium
• We measured the water level to be the same as it was on 10/15
• After adding some water to our top tier last week, we have observed the growth of 3 sprouts!!
• We observed some white mold on the soil in our top tier
• The elodea seems more green
• We cannot see the snails at all. We are inferring that our snails are below the rocks. 
• We observed that the water appears to be more clear. There are particles in the water still, but the water doesn't seem to be quite as foggy
• We observed condensation in the top and bottom tier

Additional wonderings:

-I wonder if the additional water and plant growth in the top tier, contributed to the increased clarity of the water and the growth of the elodea on the bottom tier

Week 4

Our 2-tiered terrarium has been sitting by the window for 3 weeks now. Our observations are still consistant with our past observations (and are still still a bit sad).

Our aquatic system appears pretty dead. Our elodea has turned a dark brown color and has not grown any longer. 

• Observations: 
• There has been no growth in the terrestrial level
• We observed no growth in the aquatic level (and even observed what appears to be our elodea dying. The elodia has turned dark brown) 
• All of the snails have moved together! We're not sure if they're dead and someone may have accidently moved our bottle which caused our snails to move, but all of our snails are in different locations than last week! 
• We observed particles in the water (a little more dirty than last week)
• We observed very dry soil
• We can see condensation in the tape that is attaching the two levels
• We can see condensation on the insides of both levels 

Additional wonderings:

-I'm very curious whether our snails moved on their own (after not moving for several weeks) or if perhaps someone may have accidently caused our snail's movements? 

Week 3

Today our 2-tired terrarium has been sitting by the window for two weeks

These are our observations:

We observe no growth on the top tier

This is the bottom tier. Our elodea doesn't seem like it has grown, and our snails don't seem like they have moved. 

Here is a picture of our whole 2-tiered terrarium. We noticed that moe condensation has covered the inside of the top tier, and we observed that there is also a fair amount of condensation  in between our masking tape and the outside of the bottle. 

Observations:

• We measured 0.5 cm loss of water from the bottom ecosystem 
• We observed no top seed growth in the soil. Our top tier still lacks roots or seedlings. 
• Water appears dirty: we observed many floating particles 
• We observed more particles on the string
• We observed a leaf floating around bottom tier of our terrarium
• We can see our 3 snails, however, we are infeering that they maybe dead. We've been trakcing their movement (or lack of movement) and have noticed that they have not moved from last week's position
• We observed that the soil is very dry 
• We observed that there is condensation on the bottom and top tiers of our terrarium

Additional observations and wonderings:

- I wonder if there is an organism that could help make our water in the bottem tier more clear again.

- I infer that some of our water loss in the bottom tier is due to the condensation that formed on the bottom tier of our terrarium. 

- I wonder if any of our seeds will be able to grow into plants in our top tier because the soil appears to be too dry to support plant life?

Week 2

Today, our Ecosystem had been sitting by a window for 1 week.

This is the top tier of our terrarium, there is some condensation 

This is a picture of our whole 2-tiered terrarium.

This is the bottom of our terrarium; so far we observed no growth in our elodea

What we observed

• There is no plant growth on the top 
• The water is clear but had visible particles
• We could no longer see our daphnia 
• We did observe 3 snails 
• Our cotton strings had sunk and is fully submerged in the water
• There is condensation in the soil portion of the bottle
• The soil in the top tier appears to be a bit dry

Additonal wonderings:

-I'm curious where the daphnia may have gone. If they did die, did they become burried in the rocks?

-We observed that our soil in the top tier is a bit dry. I wonder if our seeds will be able to grow in these conditions?  

Week 1

Today (10/01/2015) we started our Ecosystem in a bottle.
Here is what we put inside:

19cm Elodea 

3 snails

3 cotton strings, about a 12in long each 

organic soil

4 daphnia

8 Johnny Jump Up's seeds

1 radish seed

4 Zinnia flower seeds 

600 ml spring water 

gravel 

This is the bottom of our 2-tiered terrarium (the aquatic level)

This is the top of our 2-tiered terrarium (the terrestrial level). We put plenty of seeds; I hope we'll be able to see them grow! 

This is the whole 2-tiered terrarium.

-Our top 1 liter bottle has soil and flower seeds; this represents our terrestrial system.
-Our bottom 1 liter bottle is composed of water, rocks, elodia, snails, and daphnia and represents     our aquatic system.

We put our ecosystem by sunlight and will come back and observe in 1 week.

Additonal observations & wonderings:
-I noticed that the water we placed in our system appeared to be very clear. I wonder how our water clarity will look like over time?
-Although we placed different kinds of animals and plants in our systems, I'm curious how they will survive and grow in our closed ecosystem.