Ecosphere (Life in a jar)
Jul 22, 2020 16:53:25 GMT
mousestalker, DragonKingReborn, and 3 more like this
Post by Giant Ambush Beetle on Jul 22, 2020 16:53:25 GMT
So a couple days ago I found a youtube channel of a guy who created dozens of ecospheres, or life-in-a-jars. Small completely isolated tiny ecosystems,only powered by the sun.-
I found that idea pretty cool so I've given it a try. I went to two streams and a small pond to collect samples of plants, soil, stones and water. Finding the plants was surprisingly hard around here, its not easy to find and extract small aquatic plants from a pond or stream, they are not even remotely as abundant as you might think (or accessible, I'm not a diver).
And plants are the most important element, without oxygen recycling its just water and some mud in a jar. You might get a few algae, but that's about it.
Despite me literally grabbing some pond mud and stuffing it into a jar, life is abundant. So far I've spotted 2 diving bugs, a gazillion little sea fleas, 1 small leech (those that only hunt down tiny insects, not the blood of mammals), 4 fly larvae, a weird tentacle mystery worm, and some other worms in the soil that dig tunnels non stop.
As for plants I got duckweed, pygmy weed and an unknown plant species.
So anyway, this is it, my ecosphere, day 0. Size: 3 liters, or 0.8 gallons. Population: tons.
(The water is murky because all the tiny particles have not yet settled.)
A small leech attached to the glass. It likes to climb around on the glass, it has a suction foot on both ends.
Some duckweed. I hope it will reproduce for oxygen recycling and providing some natural shelter for the species. I didn't find a lot of it.
The mystery worm. It half buried in the top layer of soil, sometimes it sticks out a long red tentacle and waves it around most enthusiastically.
Since it does not have any filtration fins I think its trying to catch sea fleas.
If anything, such project makes you appreciate and value animal and plant life a lot more.
I found that idea pretty cool so I've given it a try. I went to two streams and a small pond to collect samples of plants, soil, stones and water. Finding the plants was surprisingly hard around here, its not easy to find and extract small aquatic plants from a pond or stream, they are not even remotely as abundant as you might think (or accessible, I'm not a diver).
And plants are the most important element, without oxygen recycling its just water and some mud in a jar. You might get a few algae, but that's about it.
Despite me literally grabbing some pond mud and stuffing it into a jar, life is abundant. So far I've spotted 2 diving bugs, a gazillion little sea fleas, 1 small leech (those that only hunt down tiny insects, not the blood of mammals), 4 fly larvae, a weird tentacle mystery worm, and some other worms in the soil that dig tunnels non stop.
As for plants I got duckweed, pygmy weed and an unknown plant species.
So anyway, this is it, my ecosphere, day 0. Size: 3 liters, or 0.8 gallons. Population: tons.
(The water is murky because all the tiny particles have not yet settled.)
A small leech attached to the glass. It likes to climb around on the glass, it has a suction foot on both ends.
Some duckweed. I hope it will reproduce for oxygen recycling and providing some natural shelter for the species. I didn't find a lot of it.
The mystery worm. It half buried in the top layer of soil, sometimes it sticks out a long red tentacle and waves it around most enthusiastically.
Since it does not have any filtration fins I think its trying to catch sea fleas.
If anything, such project makes you appreciate and value animal and plant life a lot more.
