Week 8

(Field Trip on Monday, week 7)

Plant on top: 3 leaves have died on the very top. The leaves left brown residue on the lining of the bottle. This residue has slipped down the bottle and ran through the tape (from condensation). The bottle has some brown leakage/fluid on the outside. There are still 3 healthy leaves, and the plant looks overall alive and thriving. The 2 shorter sprouts are still growing white spores/mold from the stems.

Soil: looks like it has decreased/meshed together. The soil is very wet and appears packed down. There is a lot of condensation on top. The fly is still hanging out in the top of the bottle!

Water: The water level is 2 cm. below the bottle cap. The water quality is still good. It appears clear, with few "floatages." The string between the bottle cap and the water level is dark brown. The string in the water is falling apart and disintegrating. 

Elodea: Grown so much! It appears to have almost doubled, or even tripled in overall length. 

Roots: The root from the top of the soil has wrapped around the elodea twice, in two different spots. It is touching the gravel at the very bottom of the bottle. 

Snail: 2 big snails at the bottom. One of the big snails is laying face up and appears dead. There are 3 baby snails on the elodea. They are moving slowly. 

Daphnea: still cannot see

Predictions: I predict that the eldoea will keep growing and growing. This seems to be the healthiest life in the entire bottle. I think the tallest plant on the top, with the dying leaves, will start the decay. The 2 smaller sprouts should keep growing and getting taller. The snails might start to die because I can hardly see any algae or food for them.

Week 6

It is really interesting to see how much our ecosystem has changed each week. The most surprising thing this week was that we had a new sprout, with fuzzy spikes on it. Michelle told us that these fuzzy spikes were actually (antelary?) roots. This sprout was was about 3 inches and is most likely the sprout of a pepper. The tallest sprout is completely touching the top of the bottle, and the laves are spreading over the top. Dead leaves are still falling off of this tall plant, and there are 8 leaves covering the top of the bottle. The plants seem healthy, doing well, and receiving enough sunlight and water. There is still a lot of condensation, making it difficult to take pictures. On the bottom half of our ecosystem, our elodea is doing great. This plant grows each week, and has sprouted 2 additional plants off of it. There are 3 snails observed, 2 large snails and 1 baby snail. We still are unable to find any daphnea. We have not spotted our daphnea since our first observation. There are 3 long roots that are dangling from the top of the bottle (soil) and touching the bottom gravel in the water. Our string is eroding from the water as well. The white growth that we found on the elodea from week 4 is not there anymore. This was possibly mold, rootage, or a piece of string. 

Week 5

-We still have three sprouts.  The newer ones are about 2.5in and 1.5in.  Our first sprout has some dead/yellowed leaves at the very top of the bottle. It still has eight healthy leaves.  We are not sure what has caused them to die.

-Lots of condensation in the top bottle.

-The soil still looks wet/black.

-The gnat that was flying around the 3 liter bottle (top bottle) is not visible today.  

-There are a few spots of mold near the top of the 2 liter bottle (the bottom bottle), where condensation has formed.

-The root that grew through the hole in the bottle cap has now grown down, through the gravel, and wrapped itself around the elodea twice.

-The elodea is still pretty healthy and green, but slightly translucent.  It has grown more and has more/new leaves.

-There is still an unknown, white growth on part of the elodea that is pressed against the bottle.  The growth has not grown in size.

-The water level is a little more than 1/2in below the cap.

-The water quality still looks good/somewhat clear.

-There are some things floating in the water.  They appear to be small and brown.  Not sure is they were part of the elodea?

-We have three new baby snails.

-The daphnia are not visible.

(THANKS AMBER- FOR THESE OBSERVATIONS!)