Ecosystem in a Bottle: Week 10

Week Ten
November 11, 2013

WATER: the water is still clear. There is still condensation present in the top and the bottom of the system. We drew a new line to mark the water level (since we poked a hole in our system and we want to see if it gets lower). Our water is currently 9.8 cm from the bottom of our system

ELODEA: The elodea is very large and seems to be the only thing in our ecosystem that is really thriving. In the fourth picture, the new line we marked (labeled 'hole') will help us see how much the water goes down.

SNAILS: both snails are in the gravel. we are not sure if they are still alive.

DAPHNIA: We believe the daphnia are long gone as we have not seen them since the first couple of weeks. The exoskeletons of the daphnia are no longer present, even when we swirl the water in the bottle around. This is interesting as usually we could at least see the REMNANTS.  

SEEDS/LEAVES: All of our leaves are highly see-through. They are stuck to the side of the bottle and they are very brown. The stalks themselves are still standing, but they are breaking and wilting. The top limbs of the stalk are browning, and very spindly. It is clear that our ecosystem is not very healthy anymore.

SOIL: THE ROOTS OF THE BEAN PLANTS ARE STILL VISIBLE IN THE SOIL. THERE ARE still ROOTS THAT ARE POKING OUT OF THE TOP OF THE SOIL. No real change is visible. 

UPDATE: We are opening our closed system by heating up a large nail to poke a hole into the top of our system. We are curious to see if this improves the health of our plants, as well as what other changes might occur.