Background Information:

An ecosystem is defined as where plants and animals interact with their chemical

and physical surroundings. In order to replicate an ecosystem there must be biotic and

abiotic factors. Creating an Eco Zone simulates how organisms interact with each other

and their environment. Ecologists create Eco Zones to observe these interactions and

understand different symbiotic and mutualistic relationships that occur within

ecosystems. The observations and studies conducted while running an Eco Zone can help

understand how to solve problems when applied to real life ecosystems. Nutrients and

organisms can travel in and out of each chamber while the three chambers remain closed

to outside interaction. This allows observers to understand how a closed ecosystem

interacts. Conducting these studies allows scientists to learn about the natural world.

Since there is no control earth, these Eco Zones are important in understanding how

certain the absent human actions may help or harm the environment.

In an Eco Zone project three chambers are set up for students to duplicate the

interactions that occur within ecosystems. Students have a choice to create different

biomes such as terrestrial, desert, aquatic or decomposition chambers. Throughout the

process of running three different biomes, students collect data to help understand how

healthy their Eco Zone may be. In collecting data, students learn what factors contribute

to a thriving ecosystem. Students will collect qualitative and quantitative data on their

three chambers. Using tools to calculate how much oxygen, carbon dioxide or nitrogen is

in an Eco Zone will help students determine how healthy and productive their biomes are.

Along with quantitative data, students will qualitatively describe the flora and fauna of

their ecosystems to identify which animals and plants are alive and thriving.
 In designing our Eco Zone, we considered the different types of relationships that

occur in an ecosystem. When choosing different plants and animals we thought about

what benefits that each plant or animal would bring to each biome. We decided to create

an aquatic, decomposition, and terrestrial biome for the three chambers. Since each plant

and animal needs a source of food to survive, we needed to understand the interactions

that occur between different organisms. For our aquatic, we used an Anacharis, an

aquatic plant, to produce oxygen for the other aquatic organisms. The Anacharis helped

maintain an acceptable amount of carbon dioxide in the water and help the ecosystem

remain balanced. For our animals, we purchased aquatic snails, shrimp and fish. The fish

(white clouds) consumed the aquatic plant and the ghost shrimp consumed algae to keep

the tank clean. We decided to use succulents and aquatic plants as our producers. They

produce oxygen that benefited every organism in the Eco Zones, but also they were

sources of food. For our terrestrial, we brought in succulents as another producer. The

succulents will provide oxygen for all three chambers and help keep the biomes alive. We

rotated the Eco Zone so that the aquatic plant and the succulents had even exposure to the

sun-simulating lamp. In the right conditions, ecosystems can prosper with recycling

nutrients and interacting organism relationships.

By measuring the amount of nutrients present in our Eco Zone, our group made

inferences on the effects certain factors have on ecosystems. Since our data varied, it

better helped us understand which factors help benefit the productivity of animals and

plants. The interactions in an ecosystem are crucial for the survival of species and

determine how productive an ecosystem may be. By measuring different variables like

dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, turbidity and nitrogen in our ecozones helped our
group determine the healthiness of our plants and animals. Measuring carbon dioxide and

oxygen levels will represent the productivity of plants and the healthiness of organisms in

the ecozone. With high levels of oxygen my group can interpret that the plants are

producing oxygen for the consumers in the experiment. Determining the turbidity of the

water can help discover how much sunlight reaches plants and other organisms in the

ecosystem. This measurement is important in determining how light availability affects

plant growth and productivity. Determining how much nutrients are present in an

ecosystem is crucial when understanding the abiotic and biotic interactions in an

ecosystem. These measurements help determine the health of our Eco Zone and these

discoveries, when applied to real life ecosystems, can help determine the productiveness

of a system.