Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition 2007
Homemade EcosphereBy
Ho Fung College
Chan Hei Ting SHEERALo Tin Long KYAN
Lau Hiu Ching TRACY
Commercial
Our “ecosphere”
Why did we design an Ecosphere?
Glass/Plastic Bottle
Duckweeds (Producer)
Decayed leaf (Dead organic matter)Stream water
Snail (Consumer)
Shrimp (Consumer)
Algae (Producer)
Bacteria (Decomposer)
ECOSPHERE: Our Set Up
Algae & Duckweeds
Algae
Duckweeds
Algae
Shrimps & Snails
Shrimp
Shrimp
Large Stream Snail
Large Stream Snail
Semi-decayed leaf
Bacterial Culture
Collect solution from ecosphere Transfer solution to a beaker
Gently daub on agar plate Appearance of bacteria after incubation for 3 days
5 areas of investigation
•Population of consumers•Amount of duckweed•Air-to-water ratio •Size of Bottle•Light Intensity
Population of consumers
1. Effect of the population of the consumers in ecosphere
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
1 shrimp + 0
snail
2 shrimp + 0
snail
3 shrimp + 0
snail
4 shrimp + 0
snail
% survive after1 week
Data 1
* The dead shrimps are removed
Population of consumers
Effect of the population of the consumers in ecosphere
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
1 shrimp+ 0 snail
1 shrimp+ 2 snails
1 shrimp+ 4 snails
1 shrimp+ 6 snails
1 shrimp+ 8 snails
% survive after1 week
Data 2
* The dead shrimps are removed
1 Shrimp + 2 Snails / 1 shrimp + 0 Snail
Amount of duckweeds
0
5
10
15
20
50% coveredwater surface
100% coveredwater surface
200% coveredwater surface
Effect of the amount of duckweeds
1 shrimp + 2 SnailsData 3
>15 days
Duckweed (100% covering water surface)
Air-to-water ratio
0
5
10
15
Day
s of s
urvi
val
0.5:1.5 1:01:00 0.65:1.35 1.5:0.5
Effect of Ratio of air to water in ecosphere
1 shrimp + 2 Snails
Data 4
>14 Days
Air-to-water ratio=1:3
Size of Bottle
0
5
10
15
Day
s of s
urvi
val
2L 1.5L 0.75L
Size of bottle> 15 Days
1 shrimp + 2 Snails
Data 5
The bigger the bottle, the longer
the ecosphere survives.
Light intensity
0
5
10
15
Direct sunlight Diffused sunlight Dim light indoors
Light intensity
> 15 Days
1 shrimp + 2 Snails
Data 6
Diffused sunlight
ImprovementWhy do we add the land environment? To make it more close to the nature !!
NEW Set Up
• Glass bottle of 6 Liters • Land: water: air Ratio= 1:3:1• Inner container • Garden soil • Small plants • Small animals
Organisms
Water: duckweeds, algae, shrimps, pond snails
Land: snail, slug, earthworm,millipede
Main concepts
Interesting Video
References
www.eco-sphere.com/ www.abundantearth.com/store/ecosphere.htmlwww.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecospherewww.watersavers.com/docs/otherwatersaver_ecos_ball.shtmlwww.ecospherics.net/pages/MosqEcoFun5.htmlwww.open2.net/diyscience/ecospherewww.trendhunter.com/trends/ecosphere-self-contained-ecosystems