Ecological Succession Lab

Succession, the process of a community changing over time, can be broken down into sub groups such as ecological, primary, pond, and secondary. Ecological succession being the most basic. In the Succession Lab, we observed a community in a ecosystem. As we recorded the data each class, we observed that succession takes place with rapid speed for in each observation, a new specimen is identified. A niche is how the organisms live, what their role in the community is. For example, an ecological niche is how a certain organism reacts to limited resources and competitors. Another definition for a niche is the role that an organism plays in a food chain. When the resources are abundant, less competition in the community, or even when their predators
are scarce, they grow in size because their living conditions improve. For example, a niche of a bacteria is a decomposer. In the lab, the level of population increased in a short period of time. In the second day the population of paramecium was 800. On the third day the population increased to approximately 2,000. As paramecium are increasing, the cynobacteria are decreasing. They are the food source for the paramecium. On a single slide, we observed at least one or two cynobacteria. These organisms were observed within the first hour of the experiment therefore making it very difficult to identify organisms. On the second day, there was not much difference seen with the naked eye. But when a slide was created, we identified very small bacteria with limited movements and medium sized protists with lots of movement. After 48 hours, it can be concluded that the level of diversity increases as new specimens take part in the food chain. A chain of cynobactera was also seen under the microscope. After 96 hours on the third day, there was an increased population of bacteria, protist, and paramecium. The bacteria found were easier to identify than previous observations and the protists were more active. After 168 hours, we identified a new organism that was nothing like the previous specimen.
We identified the eubranchipus, a organism with similar characteristics to one of a shrimp. Another name for it would be the fairy shrimp. During this observation, only two eubranchipus were identified. We did not have as many eubranchipus as the other groups but we were able to put one under the microscope. This organism has very fast movement and many legs. Another observation we made was that they swim upside down instead of right side up. Bothe of he fairy shrimps were translucent. The colors of them are determined by the food supply of their environment. These organisms started off as dried out eggs but as soon was we added tap water, it made food sources available in order to survive , therefore allowing the eggs to hatch. On the fifth observation, one of our eubranchipus died as another one grew bigger. The surviving shrimp started off as being 0.8 cm and increased to 1.2 cm. This is probably because of the lack of resources and competition - survival of the fittest. Less protist of the same size were found and the water was more still due to the limited organisms living in it. The population of protists are decreasing because it is the food source of the eubranchipus (also cynobacteria). Again, this is because of the existence of a food
chain. We added outside resources to the experiment in order to disrupt the community. When we observed it on the last day of the experiment, the 6th time, more bacteria and paramecium were swimming around. When looked under the microscope, these organisms were translucent and round. One thing we noticed was that all the Eubranchipus has decomposed and there was a new specie. It was the Daphnia, also known as the water flea. The amount of Daphnia was scarce like the Eubranchipus. They were harder to capture with the pipette because it moved in a extremely fast jerky motion. This animal, under the microscope are translucent. Because of this, their body structures (exoskeleton) are outlined clearly. With their hearts on the top of their backs, they have a visibly altered heart rate. Alike with the Eubranchipus, there was not a high population of Daphnia in our experiment. The reason for this is probably because there was not much food sources to start off with in order for the organisms to survive.