Eco Column Lab Report

For the column project I was trying discover and understand the balance between terrestrial and aquatic habitats, how they support each other by the transmission of nutrients and oxygen between the two habitats. The goals that were devised in class were to observe the various cycles such as the nitrogen cycle, the phosphorus cycle, etc. My hypothesis for this experiment was that the terrestrial habitat would support the aquatic habitat by transmitting nutrients and other abiotic necessities, I also thought that the fish would survive and that my terrestrial plant would be better for wear instead the fish died and the plant ended up looking very droopy. The purpose of this experiment was to better understand the relationship between terrestrial …show more content…
For the aquatic environment an Amazon Sword (Echinodorus amazonicus), a Common Goldfish (Carassius auratus), gravel, and tap water. The procedure that i followed when building the eco column are: Step one, for bottle 1 use a tape measure to measure 1inch from the bottom to the top then mark it, for the second bottle mark at the bottom of the label, cut both bottles at the mark all the way around, after the cuts grab a straight nail with some pliers and then heat the nail with fire and use the heated nail to poke some holes on the cap of bottle 1. Put the cap on the first bottle and fill it about 2 ½ cups of soil, then put in the plant and use as much soil as needed to cover the plant, put specimen A and specimen B and cover. For the aquatic environment put a small layer of gravel first then add the aquatic plant, use some more gravel to cover the roots up, add water until it covers the plant then add the fish. I did not join the top or bottom in any way (glued it or taped it) so that during testing I could have easy access to the water, and so with easy access of water I can test on it quicker. I tested the