HarisonGrey's+Ecosystem+Wiki

Ecosystem Wiki
 * // Intro //**
 * Here you can see my introduction video. Konnichiha! I’m a 6th grade student from the bilingual, Spanish immersion program at the Amigos School. The purpose of this Wiki is to exhibit and share my knowledge and studies on the Charles River Ecosystem. The 6th grade went on a field trip to the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where we studied the producers, consumers, and decomposers of the ecosystem.**


 * // Description of Abiotic //**
 * The 6th grade traveled by foot to the river about three blocks away from the school. There were not many clouds the day we traveled; it was very windy and extremely sunny. The water temperature was 14ºC and the turbidity was 40 JTU. The dissolved oxygen of the water was 4 PPM and[[image:Harrison's_Shot.jpg width="320" height="291" align="right" caption="Two students filling out information about river ecosystem"]] the air temperature was 15ºC. We used a few different little informational texts. One was about different flowers all around the world. Another was about the different trees. We also used a thermometer and plankton net.**


 * // Description of Biotic //**
 * The Charles River was a very interesting ecosystem. At this ecosystem we saw a lot of grass. In this environment the grass was bright green, with some dew dripping off the tips of the plant. We noticed there were also a lot of acorns on the ground. We were in an area where there were many trees.**
 * The acorns were brown, very pointy, and so extremely hard to sit on. In the environment there were ferns up along the shoreline.** **These ferns were dying. They were as brown as dirt. But there is good news; they were decomposing.**

**The Charles River ecosystem had many consumers. As you might or might not know there are three levels of consumers. There are primary consumers that only eat plants, there are secondary consumers that eat both plants and animals, and there are the tertiary consumers that are the top of the food chain and only eat meat. Some consumers caught our eye more than others. One primary consumer that caught our eye was the geese that were swimming on the river. They were American geese, black and white feathers with a black beak. We also noticed dragonflies. Most were bright blue but some were darkish red. In the environment we also saw butterflies. We only saw one kind of butterfly and that was monarch butterflies.**

**While looking and studying the ecosystem we observed there were more than just primary consumers. We saw flies, which are secondary consumers. They were pitch black with wings the size of the end of a pencil. We also saw pigeons gobbling up little worms from the ground. These pigeons were blue and black with a white dot around the eye.** **Another secondary consumer we observed was zooplankton. These were microscopic plankton that eat other plankton. At the Charles River we also noticed tertiary consumers such as spiders, mice, and fish. The spiders were daddy long legs. They had extremely long black legs like most daddy long legs do. The mice were small but fast. Their fur was gray like the color of the sky on a rainy day. And the fish were blue with orange spots on their tails. These were just some of the many consumers we saw.**

**In this ecosystem, like many other well-nourished ecosystems, you could also give the information in the form of an @energy pyramid. In our ecosystem it all begins with the sun. The sun gives energy to the producers and the producers give energy to the primary consumers. Then they give energy to the secondary consumers which in turn give energy to the tertiary consumers. All the levels in my energy pyramid release heat. And all the levels give energy to the decomposers.**


 * // Conclusion //**
 * The sixth grade traveled by foot to the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We observed and studied the different abiotic and biotic things in the ecosystem. One thing we did was collected plankton with the plankton net. One person would hold the end of the rope then would throw the net into the river. Then they would slowly drag the plankton back towards the shore. Then the person would pick the net up and they would have plankton. I also learned that the river was way more acidic than I had expected. Another thing we did was measure the turbidity of the water. We scooped up a cup of water with a dot on the bottom. We had a page from the World** **Water Monitoring Day web site which had the different shades the dot would be. We decided that the turbidity was 40 JTU. All in all the field trip that we took was one of the best. I think everyone had a really good time. For more information about the Charles River Ecosystem check out my web.**