Zigzigler's+River+ecosystem

[[image:2_students_gathering_creatures.JPG width="320" height="240" align="right" caption="2 students gathering creatures from the river"]]
**__//Introduction//__**

Hi I’m Zigzigler from the 6th grade at the [|Amigos School] in [|Cambridge, MA]. My class visited four different ecosystems this year. The ecosystem I chose to write about is the [|Charles River ecosystem] because there are so many different creatures in and around the river. When my class visited this ecosystem in particular, I found many interesting plants and animals.

__**//Abiotic//**__

My class went to the [|Charles River ecosystem]. Our school is so close to the river that we were able to walk there. Some of the natural abiotic characteristics of this ecosystem are the cold water in the river, the dry sand at the shore, the hot sun in the sky, the moist soil under are feet, the hard rocks on the river bank and the cool air all around us. Some of the artificial abiotic characteristics are the fast cars rushing by us, the hard pavement of the sidewalk, the empty plastic bottles hiding in the grass, the brick bridge connecting one side of the river to the other, the wood benches that ga ﻿ e me a rest from walking around, the stone houses across the street, the metal cans on the side of the rode and the styrofoam cups under the benches. I saw many different animals such as many insects flying around, green oss, on the tree bark and the bright sun partly covered by white clouds. I heard colorful birds chirping, the cool wind blowing on my face and my feet crunching against the fall leaves. Some grate smells were the fresh air and the moist soil. Wile working I felt some of the following textures the wind blowing on my face, the rough tree bark, the slippery algae on rocks, the moist soil and the sticky bear-bur seeds on are clothes. To gather this information we first had to walk around the side of the river and write down any observations that we saw, like if there was a plant or animal, we write it down. Then we use a microscope to observe the plants, and then we draw a detailed sketch of the plant. Finally we all write a paragraph of what we saw and what we learned.

**__//Biotic//__**

When my class visited the Charles River ecosystem we found lots of biotic life. Three interesting producers where the butter cup, the sunflower and the oak tree. The butter cup was very bright, and it attracted lots of light. As oppose to the oak tree that created lots of shade and was only brown and green. The sunflower is also very bright, but because it was in the shade so there was less light shining on the flower. Three interesting decomposers where the centipede, the worm and the bacteria. You can’t see the bacteria, but you know it’s there. The worm and the centipede both kind of move in the same way, except for the fact that the worm moves side to side, wile the centipede moves up and down wile moving forward. Three interesting primary consumers where the geese, the sparrow and the caterpillar. I only cought a glims of the sparrow because it was flying overhead, but I the feathers and they were brown and covered all of the bird’s body and most its face. The caterpillar was munching on a leaf. The geese were all around us, somewhere walking next to me, some were flying above us and some were swimming in the river. Three interesting secondary consumers were the zooplankton, the crow and the squirrel. We couldn’t see the zooplankton, but we knew it was there. The squirrel was in a tree, in his home, eating a nut. The crow was flying close to the ground. Three interesting tertiary consumers were thespider, the fish and the cormorant. The cormorant was swimming at the shore, were the water meets the shore. It was also making a terrible noise that sounded like a super ninja about to attack. The fish was swimming rapidly around in the river, in and out along the rocks. The spider was on its spider web when I found it. It was a black spider with lots on hair and fore sharp teeth in the front. In this ecosystem the food pyramid is simple. On the bottom there is the sun because without the sun, there is no ecosystem. Then there are the producers, like algae and grass. After that there is the primary consumers, like the sparrow and grasshopper. Next there are the secondary consumers, like the crow or squirrle. Finally, there’s the tertiary consumers like the spider or cormorant. So basically, the tertiary consumers eat the secondary consumers,that eat the primary consumers that eat the producers that get their energy from the sun. When any of these animals die the decomposers eat and decompose them.

**//__Summary__//**

When my class went to the Charles River ecosystem I did learned lots of fun things. One of those things was creating are ecosystem webs and are food pyramids. Another was gathering the information. When we were gathering all of this information I had so much fun! What we had to do was walk around the side of the river and if we see anything that could go on our list, then we write it down. So if someone saw something then they would scream out at the top of their lungs, “I found something!” Everybody would rush over and say, “What, what, what is it?” I also learned that without decomposers, even though they are not a very important part of the food pyramid, we depend on them and they depend on us. If it weren’t for them, then the whole world would be covered in waste and scraps. If it weren’t for us we wouldn’t make scraps for them to eat and decompose. Another thing that I learned on this field trip is that in the world everything has a reason and every reason has a reason of doing something. For example, a bearber tree creates seeds so that the seeds can reproduce and become seeds. A bearer seed is too heavy to be carried by the wind like other plants and trees, so the bearber seeds evolved and formed sticky arms that can stick to almost anything. So that hopefully the seeds will stick to something and go somewhere else. There are many ecosystems all around us, although we might not think that they are important, the world needs them aslwell as they need the world.