Day 55

When I returned after the holidays, I found that my mesocosm was still alive and thriving. Although one of the ferns is starting to turn brown and die, the other plants have grown a lot, especially the grass. I haven't seen the cricket, so I think it is no longer alive. This isn't that surprising, though, as crickets only have a life span of maximum 3 months, and this experiment has been going on for almost two months.

One of the ferns that has grown a lot

The grass

Day 32

The mesocosm is still going well. The cricket is still alive, and seems to have grown a bit since the start of the experiment, and the plants are thriving. The ferns are growing new leaves, even though other parts of the fern are turning brown. I think my mesocosm will survive for quite long.

The cricket in the centre of the picture

New leaves starting to grow on the fern

Day 22

Today I realized my other cricket had died, because it had gotten stuck in a little piece of duct tape the was exposed to the inside of the mesocosm. Next time, I will have to make sure that the sticky part of the duct tape isn't exposed. However, my other cricket is alive, though I wish I had put in more crickets to see if maybe they could repopulate. I also found out which plants the cricket ate, which is shown in the picture below.  A few new plants are starting to grow, which is pretty exciting as it shows my mesocosm is thriving. Although a few leaves of one of the ferns is becoming brown, I'm not very worried, as the rest seems to be doing fine, and if the leaves start decomposing there will be more nutrients in the soil.

Cricket on the fern bottom center

The leaf being eaten by the cricket

Two small plants

Day 14

Today i checked on my mesocosm again. and it seems to be doing well. I saw one cricket, alive, which probably means the other one is alive too. I could see some roots growing that weren't there before, and the grass looks a little longer. There is a lot of condensation on the walls of the bottle, showing that the plants are doing transpiration. I'm optimistic that my mesocosm will survive for a pretty long time.

The grass roots visible

One of the crickets

As you can see, there is a lot of condensation

Day 7

Today I checked on my mesocosm, and it seemed to be doing well. The plants were all green and strong, without any wilting or turning yellow. Because of this I decided to add some animals and then seal it off. Initially I had planned on adding earthworms and little snails, but as I couldn't find any today, I put 2 small crickets in it instead. I also put in 1 small earthworm, 3 medium sized earthworms and 1 big earthworm. Before sealing it off, I added some water to make sure there was enough water for the plants before I sealed it off. I covered the top and side openings with duct-tape.

A picture of one of the crickets

Day 1

Today I researched on how exactly to make a mesocosm. A mesocosm is an enclosed environment that should be able to live on its own without adding water or air. Some of the sites I visited were:

http://www.realestate.com.au/blog/make-a-self-sustaining-terrarium/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5164713_make-ecosystem-bottle.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bottle-Garden/?ALLSTEPS

From this, I made my plan on how i was going to set up my mesocosm. I decided to go for a terrestrial one instead of an aquatic, as the resources for a terrestrial mesocosm were more easily available. This was the method I was going to use.

1. Cut a hole in the side of a plastic 18.6L water bottle
2. Fill with small stones till you have a layer of about 5cm height
3. Fill with earth till you have a layer of about 20cm height
4. Add in the plants, firmly patting the soil around them.
5. Add a little water to the soil
6. Leave the mesocosm without sealing it off for a week, or until the plants seem to have adjusted to their new environment
7. Add any animals you have decided on. Count the amount of animals added and record it.
8. Seal off holes with duct tape
9. Record results every week, qualitative data including: growth of plants, growth of animals, any death of plants, condensation inside bottle
10.  At the end of the experiment, after a few months or so, open the mesocosm, and count the number of animals.

 I also set up my mesocosm today. I added 6 different types of plants: two different species of ferns, moss, grass, a plant with medium sized leaves and a plant with small leaves. I chose these plants because there were a lot of them in my garden, suggesting that they were more resilient and less likely to die. The gravel at the bottom was added for drainage, to make sure there wasn't too much water present.

An Inside View