Environmental Sciences Lab Report

Eco-column (Bottle Biology)

The effect of sunlight due to the activity of ecosystem

Kim Angkasirisan

Introduction
Ecosystem in ecology, the word eco means environment or nature and the word system
means coordination. So, an ecosystem means an interaction between things include both biotic
and abiotic factors in a place. This report is doing about the carbon dioxide in the ecosystem. An
ecosystem with the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were tested in the plants
making energy process, photosynthesis. Letting the system run by its own cycle process from
both between terrestrial ecosystem, which means on ground, and aquatic ecosystem, which
means in the water, without interacting with outer factors which are not in the ecosystem.
Making the ecosystem absolutely closed, to be able to measure the amount of carbon dioxide
correctly.
The hypothesis of this experiment is to test, if the plants are able to photosynthesis
without sunlight by measure the amount of carbon dioxide in a condense ecosystem in a water
bottle. Determining how the organisms can fit the bottle.

Material and Methods

The materials that need to be prepared to make an ecocolumn are a scissor, a tape and
rope, two empty-cleaned six-liters plastic bottles and the bottles caps, wicking material-braided
manson cord, water, gravels, soils, leaves, sticks, fish and plants, ruler, permanent marker,
straight pin, and a hole punch. After all the materials and equipment have been prepared,
experimenters started doing this experiment by pouring all of the water in the two bottles off to
use these bottles as an experimental base. Then, cutting both bottles by using permanent marker
to label the direction (above the shoulder part of the bottles). The bottles are separated into two
parts, longer part and the shorter one. Next, make a hole at the center of a bottles cap, and make
sure the hole is big enough to insert twelve ropes in. Each ropes must have 20 centimeters long
approximately, these ropes are used to wick the water up from the Aquatic ecosystem to the
Terrestrial ecosystem. Cut 12 of ropes, placed them all in the same position and put the ropes
inside the water bottle cap tightly, make sure all the ropes fit into the water bottle cap. Use the
permanent marker mark four sides of the first upper bottle. Then, cut every edges of the upper
part of plastic bottles that was marked at first. Next, fill the soil into the first upper bottle by
using the two of small plot of plant and then tried to balance the surface of soil. After that
experimenters put one-hand of a coconut spathe into the first lower part of the bottle and covered
those coconut spathe with the soil that composed with a little amount of fertilizer. The next step
is to put all the trees in the bottom of the upper bottle which named Sword-brake and Snakebeard trees. Dig out the trees from its flowerpot, be careful its root. Placed the trees in the bottom
of the upper bottle and added more remained soil for balancing the surface of amount of soil in
the bottle. Pushing the surface of soils by hand and water the soils generally.

To run on the procedure, experimenters started cleaning another part of the bottle and
making an aquatic part by added handful of rocks which approximately 300 grams into the
bottle, and added algae or any 5-7 aquatic plants which called Hydrilla into the second lower
part of the bottle respectively. Moreover, make sure that Hydrilla can live in the bottle by
watering it with 500 milliliters of water. Then, put a spoon of sodium hypochlorite into the water
bottle for dissolving the chlorine and then waiting for the results around 15 minutes. After that
pour out the water with Sodium hypochlorite in the water bottle. Since all the trees and bottles
are organized clearly, experimenters started catching the fishes by using scope fish. Try to fit the
upper part and the lower part of the bottle together by sticking up both parts with tape. To begin
the aquatic experiment, putting the biological bottle outside for two days and waiting for
checking amount of CO2 via lab quest. To test the processing, try to put the same biological
bottle outside but far away from sunlight for two days and then trying to take an observation and
comparison of CO2 based on location, hypothesis.

Result
This experiment is to test the amount of carbon dioxide before and after placing the
ecocolumn within no sunlight area. The ecocolumn was closed with plants in the system. Plants
were the major factor of this experiment to see if the plants able to do photosynthesis because
carbon dioxide was involved in process of photosynthesis.
Dependent variable of this experiment is sunlight and independent variable is the amount
of Carbon Dioxide. Control group is the same ecocolumn but test it in different time, one
followed by the other. The ecocolumn with sunlight is control group and without sunlight is
experimental group

Times
(s)
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32

Co2
without
sunlight
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6

(ppm)
with
sunlight
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

Amount of Carbon Dioxide in the ecocolumn (low range)

10

Co2 (ppm) 5
0

12 16 20 24 28 32

Time (s)
without sunlight

Column1

From the figure above, the ecocolumn was measured the amount of Carbon Dioxide by
using Carbon Indicator linked to the lab quest. The time at the left was measured in a second,
which the amount of carbon dioxide does not change because the ecocolumn was closed. As you
can see, the amount of carbon dioxide in ecocolumn without sunlight was higher in the one with
sunlight because the plants did not have sunlight to do photosynthesis and carbon dioxide was
not used.

And the figure below is different from the above just a switch on the carbon indicator
which the above was low range and below was high range. (ppm = parts per million)

Times
(s)
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32

Co2
without
sunlight
153
153
153
153
153
153
153
153
153

(ppm)
with
sunlight
59
59
59
59
59
59
59
59
59

Amount of Carbon Dioxide in the ecocolumn (high range)

200
Co2 (ppm) 100
0

8 12 16 20 24 28 32

time (s)
without sunlight

Column1

Discussion
The hypothesis of this experiment, if the plants are able to photosynthesis in sunlight
more than where there is no sunlight by measure the amount of carbon dioxide and observed the
activities of the organisms, how the place without sunlight and amount of carbon dioxide affect
the organisms behavior and cycle process. The result that had collected from this experiment
shows that the amount of carbon dioxide in PPM (parts per million) had a big difference. The
amount of carbon dioxide of eco-column placed without sunlight had 153ppm in high range and
6ppm in low range which were much more carbon dioxide than the eco-column in sunlight
which had only 59ppm in high range and 2ppm in low range.
The plants used sunlight and carbon dioxide in process to make energy. That means the
plants could not make its own energy by using only carbon dioxide but did not have sunlight, or
the plants could make the energy but much lesser than within sunlight. As in Environmental
Science class, sunlight acts as a thing that change carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and
sugar which means without sunlight the plants cant make the energy. Plants were the major
organism in the ecosystem in this experiment but to be an ecosystem there must has both biotic
factor and abiotic factor. So, plants need soil to place on and other organism to run the nutrient
cycle and complete the trophic level for the ecosystem to be able to run its own in closed system.
Of cause, every ecosystem must have food web, but this experiment, the eco-column had only
fish.

Some organism was dead during the experiment because the knowledge that had
researched to create this experiment about the organism was not enough and some organism was
not be able to put in the ecosystem because the eco-column was the 2 liters water bottle size. And
some organism was too difficult to find or too expensive to buy. Or the ecosystem did not have
proper food the organism needed. From Charles Darwin Theory, the organism that was not able
to live in the environment and did not fit enough would die, because during the experiment there
was a long holiday that had no one take care of the eco-column, and could not breed due to the
natural selection.
From this experiment, some organism was harmed and died. So, to be noticed that before
doing an experiment, the experimenter should be expert on their job, knowing the information
and knowing what to do. If the experiment has scale measurement, the experimenter must use the
proper measurement, knowing how to use the measurement, and measure the result accurately.
Overall, this experiment was successful.