Andy, Ashley, Federico, RubyPeriod 2

Ecocolumn Final Draft

1. Nature is organized by concepts as simple as the Food Chain, to areas as vast as the biosphere. Through our groups model of three different ecosystems, we attempted a very simplified version of what nature looks like. However, to improve our understanding of how nature works by creating ecosystems, we must first understand what nature is composed of. To do this, we must look at the broad aspects of nature that are vital to nature's existence. This includes aspects such as the biosphere, atmosphere, ecosystems, the Food Chain, soil, energy, and even matter itself. All of which are very complex topics on their own. 2. Scientists have divided the atmosphere into four layers according to temperature: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. The temperature drops as we go up through the troposphere, but it rises as we move through the next layer, the stratosphere. The farther away from earth, the thinner the atmosphere gets. Most of what we call weather occurs in the troposphere. The uneven heating of the regions of the troposphere by the Sun causes convection currents and winds. Warm air from Earth's surface rises and cold air above it rushes in to replace it. When warm air reaches the tropopause, it cannot go higher as the air above it (in the stratosphere) is warmer and lighter ... preventing much air convection beyond the tropopause. The tropopause acts like an invisible barrier and is the reason why most clouds form and weather phenomena occur within the troposphere. The next layer is the stratosphere, which is warmer at the top than the bottom. The lower portion has a nearly constant temperature with height but in the upper portion the temperature increases with altitude because of absorption of sunlight by ozone. This temperature increase with altitude is the opposite of the situation in the troposphere.Directly above the stratosphere, extending from 50 to 80 km above the Earth's surface, the mesosphere is a cold layer where the temperature generally decreases with increasing altitude. Here in the mesosphere, the atmosphere is very rarefied nevertheless thick enough to slow down meteors hurtling into the atmosphere, where they burn up, leaving fiery trails in the night sky.The thermosphere extends from 80 km above the Earth's surface to outer space. last but not least is the temperature is hot and may be as high as thousands of degrees as the few molecules that are present in the thermosphere receive extraordinary large amounts of energy from the Sun. However, the thermosphere would actually feel very cold to us because of the probability that these few molecules will hit our skin and transfer enough energy to cause appreciable heat is extremely low.

3.There are different types of soil, each with its own set of characteristics. Dig down deep into any soil, and you’ll see that it is made of layers, or horizons (O, A, E, B, C, R). O – (humus or organic) Mostly organic matter such as decomposing leaves. The O horizon is thin in some soils, thick in others, and not present at all in others.

A - (topsoil) Mostly minerals from parent material with organic matter incorporated. A good material for plants and other organisms to live.E – (eluviated) Leached of clay, minerals, and organic matter, leaving a concentration of sand and silt particles of quartz or other resistant materials – missing in some soils but often found in older soils and forest soils.B – (subsoil) Rich in minerals that leached (moved down) from the A or E horizons and accumulated here.C – (parent material) The deposit at Earth’s surface from which the soil developed.R – (bedrock) A mass of rock such as granite, basalt, quartzite, limestone or sandstone that forms the parent material for some soils – if the bedrock is close enough to the surface to weather. This is not soil and is located under the C horizon.Put the horizons together, and they form a soil profile. Like a biography, each profile tells a story about the life of a soil. Most soils have three major horizons (A, B, C) and some have an organic horizon (O). But without the soil, there would not be living producers for consumers to live off of, making it a vital part of nature.

4.) The Law of Thermodynamics states that energy can never truly be destroyed, instead it just used in our ecosystems until it's worth almost nothing. This is similar to, but not exactly like, the Law of Conservation of matter. In the Law of Conservation of Matter, matter cannot be destroyed or created. So matter is always recycled by changing forms into another kind of matter. For example, in the hydrologic cycle, water evaporates due to the sun heating up the water molecules. However, when water evaporates, the molecules don’t just disappear. Instead, they become tiny water particles that float up to the atmosphere and condensate with dust to make clouds. Then when the clouds get heavy with water, they precipitate rain water droplets down to earth. Thus, the same water that evaporates, comes down to earth once more.

5.) On the other side we also have the Earth's crust. On the Earth's crust exists a multitude of organisms, so many in fact that millions are unknown to us. In different segments of the Earth, organisms make up ecosystems which rely on Food Chains in order so that organisms can thrive. At the bottom of the Food Chain are the producers. Producers are organisms that provide energy for the rest of the food chain, and are vital to the survival of almost all living organisms. Some examples of producers include grasses and plants. Consumers are next in the Food Chain. Of course all other organisms are consumers, but from there certain organisms rank higher than others, until getting to the highest rank of apex predator. Other types of consumers include detrivores that feed on dead and decomposing matter and decomposers that decompose organic matter of any kind. These organisms are only able to survive due to the soil that exists as a part of the Earth's crust.

6.) Other parts of nature also include concepts we don't normally think about such as energy and matter. Energy is vital to nature in that it is what keeps all organisms alive. However,

through every level of consumers that energy goes through, about 90% of energy is lost between each trophic level. This energy in fact is converted into heat so, strictly speaking, energy isn’t actually ever “lost”. Energy flows through an ecosystem in a linear, one-

way direction. In all ecosystems, energy enters the system as sunlight (radiant energy). Producers (photosynthetic organisms) trap and use about 0.02% of the sun's energy in photosynthesis, and that is where this “loss” of energy begins.

Application: 1.In our AP Environmental Science class, we were tasked to create a model of three

ecosystems that rely on on variable in order to survive. The purpose of this project is to help everyone understand some of the different types of biomes and how they support life. It also gives just a glimpse of what types of materials, soils, and animals needed in that specific biome. It is important to know what type of biomes there are and which ones are suitable for different species in order to understand how complexly life is sustained.

2.)The plastic bottle we are using to cover the ecocolumn represents the atmosphere because it would prevent the insides from getting too warm without making them too cold. The layers of soil are represented by the different types of soil and stone that are in our ecocolumn.

3/4.) In our ecocolumn, the variable that is cycling through the separate biomes is water. However, what we have done in the ecocolumn is actually show the repercussions of not having water flow through our biomes. We chose this method because it is much easier to depict a dead ecosystem and explain what has gone wrong then to recreate an actual working ecosystem. Abiotic factors such as water and soil provide nutrients that are necessary for biotic organisms to continue living. The repercussions include how soil will dry out and become unable to grow plants without the flow of water, how rocks are unable to grow algae to feed consumers if without water, and how bodies of water cannot sustain life such as fish without free flowing water supplying oxygen to the water. However, this means that there isn’t really biodiversity within our ecocolumn.

5.) Biodiversity is where there are many different types of organisms living in the same biome. Each of those different types of organisms have adapt a different type of environment within the biome and serve a specific role in the environment. Biodiversity would increase if the time was given to the species to mutate and adapt to the environment. However, it can decrease if one could not adapt fast enough the the environment or human activities. Our eco column does not allow such biodiversity because we are depicting a lack of it.

6.) Ideally, this is not a good model of the world for several reasons. This ecocolumn would only be representing three biomes when there are dozens of vastly different biomes throughout nature. We also would only be having one connecting variable between these systems, when there are really thousands between every ecosystem. Lastly, our model is really what we hope not to see from the Earth any time soon. Our model depicts a world without cycling factors to keep it alive, something we fear facing in the years to come.