Amphetamine

Reflection:

1. Scientific enquiry:

In general, I have described my aims and hypothesis in the introduction and related it in the discussion part. My demonstrator said that I needed to get improved in writing the hypothesis (even though it was good), explained the term of minimal nutrients and be more specific. Back to my hypothesis, I agreed that what I predicted was not much detailed and I need to follow the comments and instructions of my lab demonstrator. I tried to read through some lecture notes and some scientific articles about biosphere in the bottle in order to have more ideas how to clearly stated the hypothesis (Obviously I did always stick with the comments made by my demonstrator). Finally, I did put some extra information, explain further about the term of minimal nutrients and elaborated on it.

Refer to the discussion part, I tried to read it over and over again and wrote down my demonstrator’s comments on the paper, which was easier for me to understand what I need to improve. In the discussion, I had linked my explanations to the literature very well (according to my demonstrator’s comments), however, one thing that I needed to get improved on is using references when I suggested future research and consider knowledge gaps in the literature. I though it deeply, did my research, read some articles and ended up adding extra information in the final paragraph.

1. Comprehension, Knowledge and Synthesis

Following the demonstrator’s comments, I considered and did add extra reason that the ecosystem in the bottle was conducted under sunny condition.

For the discussion part, I have interpreted all the results well and linked it to the finding literature. However, there has been some changes that I made to improve the specific of limitations of the experience as well as used references to support my idea (it would have been stronger argues when I added the reference in).

1. Writing

In general, I believe that one of the main areas which are the most important and priority that I need to get improved is my writing skill. I always made mistakes in writing such a long sentence and when writing a paragraph, sometimes I forgot to state the topic sentence. This leads to the misunderstanding of anyone who read my report. English is my secondary language, so I need to improve it by writing short sentences in correct grammar and I will spend more time to read scientific articles to learn scientific language because according to my teaching associated, English gets trickier once I start learning scientific language on top.

 “How do Abiotic components – pH, oxygen level, salinity and nutrient level affect the survival of Biotic factors?”

Abstract.  During the four weeks of an aquatic self-sustaining ecosystem experiment, pH, concentration of dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature and nutrients (Phosphate and Nitrate levels) stored in a jar to take measurements for verifying the relationship between biotic and abiotic factors. The results showed the modification in the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water, temperature and the phosphate nutrient levels (except Nitrate). Through extrapolations, the results highlighted the interaction of many different processes such as photosynthesis, decomposition, nutrient frequency and the other external components, for example, pH, temperature, salinity, etc. had a major impact on the living organisms. It could be seen that the superabundance of primary producers could have led to the missing of bioavailable Nitrate and loss of primary consumers (worms and shrimps). This discovery indicated how the absence of nutrient levels could lead to the loss of living organisms as the ecosystem is made up of biotic and abiotic components which have affected to each other.

1. Introduction

Living environment is defined as the variety of factors around the creature, which has a huge and mediate impact on the existence, growth and expanding of living organism. As a functional unit, an ecosystem encompasses the interaction between biotic and abiotic factors (Molles 2013). In general, Campel et al. (2005) stated that ecosystems are divided into two main environments, aquatic and terrestrial, which were structured according to the flow of nutrient and energy levels (Absorbed mostly from the sun).

Oceanic biological communities cover the biggest zone of the biosphere and are beyond separated to two classifications: freshwater and marine. According to Smith & Smith (2012), the numerous manufactured components such as phytoplankton and algae, primary and secondary consumers (e.g fish and crustacean), the coexistence of fungi and bacteria (decomposers), in a background where the modification of water, pH, light, temperature, concentration of dissolved oxygen, nutritive substances, salinity playing a vital role in sustainable developing and reaching maturity of living organisms.

The aim of the “Ecosystems in a bottle” experiment is to create an unshakeable freshwater aquatic and observe abiotic components (concentration of dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity and nutrients ) have exerted an influence of biotic factors. The experiment was predicted that biotic factors would  be maintained with plentiful primary producers and minimal nutrient levels to ensure that there is no competition between the organisms (Figure 1.1). Within the terms of minimal nutrient, the prediction was made to show that the amount of water filled in will provide a rapid cycle nutrients for living organisms but it was predicted to take few days for the nutrient cycles to adjust the new environment. The vallisneria was predicted to grow more after four weeks of the experiment by not only taken nutrient from water but also from the sun – which is an ultimate source of energy (This states the reason why the ecosystem experiment had been conducted under sunlight as the sun provides energy for primary producers), photosynthesis happened every day time to ensure there would be more dissolved oxygen to satisfy all living organisms. At the end, the experiment was predicted that all creatures were alive.

[pic 1]

Figure 1.1. Food Web Prediction

1. Materials and Methods

The ecosystem (Table 1, Figure 2.2) was created by putting sediment and one rock at the bottom of the jar, and the jar was filled up with 1.25 litres of pond water which taken from Manly dam. Then, five aquatic components included primary consumers and producers which are an aquatic snail, shrimps, worms, Vallisneria and duckweed were placed into the column after weighing and taking measurements. Aquatic snails eat algae and dead material and found to be commercially grown. Similar to a snail, shrimps (assorted macroinvetebrates) also eat algae and detritus and found to be commercially produced. About Vallisneria, it is a rooted plants which is vegetative reproductive behaviour, really sensitive and stationary to fast flowing waters of both coastal and inland river systems.