Skip to main content

Blog Post #4 By: Colin McCombs

An Abiotic factor that our Brussel sprouts depends on for survival is water. Water is a non living factor to the environment and everything in it. Plants and animals depend on it to survive animals to hydrate and help there prey/food grow and plants for the process of photosynthesis. A Biotic factor that some plants depend on for survival is human impact. Some plants depend on human impact get water and to be fed and grow in a healthy environment.

Our plants are engaged in competition because there are multiple plants in one area and some plants are doing much better than others. Our plants are competing for room for their roots to grow, soil nutrients, water, and sunlight. Our plants are in completion with the other plants in it's garden bed competing for resources to survive.

Winners and losers in this completion are determined by what plant grows and what plants don't. The winners and losers aren't always crystal clear even though sometimes they can be. This is true because some plants can grow better than the others but the loser might get just enough nutrients to survive or grow.

An interaction that occurs with our Brussel sprouts is parasitism an example of this in the garden the caterpillars are eating their way through our plant's leaves riddling them with holes. Parasitism is when one organism depends on or lives on another organism and harms or kills the other organism without benefiting it. Different caterpillars harms plants more than others but they all feed on plant leaves in groups eating through the leaves leaving significant damage and in some cases if not controlled will kill the plant.

Both Primary and Secondary Succession is occurring in in the garden. Primary Succession is going on the rock around the garden because there is lichen growing on the surface creating the start of soil. Secondary Succession is happening in the barren garden beds where past projects that have died from previous years once grew. I know this because there is already soil in the bed and an ecosystem is starting to be created because there are patches of weeds starting to grow with insects in the area too.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blog post #7

Fertilization occurs in flowering plants through the process of fertilization. The center of the flower has long thin filaments with anthers at the top. This is called the stamen. Four pollen sacks are located in the plants anthers which contain MMCs, Micro Mother Cells. Each of the pollen sacks produces eight pollen grains, the sperm cells from the MMC. Once the pollen grains inside each of the sacks are ready the anthers will burst open vomiting the sticky pollen onto the flowers stamen in a process called dehiscence. The flowers bright colorful pedals lure insects inside to drink its nectar, located at the flowers base. Once the insects climb into the flower the sticky pollen from the anthers gets stuck on its feet, legs, or body. In the process of cross pollination the insect that collects this sticky pollen will transfer it to another flower pollinating it in the process. In the process of self pollination the pollen will be moved from the stamen to the pistol/carpal of the flowe...

Blog Post #5: Lauren Shearer (By Colin Mccombs)

For the Story of the Seed project I interviewed my very close friend Lauren Shearer. She talked about all of the experiences that she had while she was working on the project and her thoughts on the project. She learned about the different variables tat need to be considered while growing the plants. The process of a growing plant differs with each plant, if you change pretty much anything when you tried to grow multiple plants. She was amazed at how fast and tall their "Control group" plant grew. It not only went quick, bit also with the right amount of soil;water, it would be healthy. Sadly, what surprised me that shouldn't have, was that the last pot with Dr Pepper did not grow at all. Lauren was forced to stop and think harder when her team had to figure out the watering schedule for our plants. We had to map out the correct days and the amount of water for each pot so that the project would work successfully. Her entire experience of her project made her laugh be...

Blog Post #8- A Matter of Selection (Jesse Zalk)

1)  The   Brassica oleracea plant, a seemingly boring specimen, does manage to have variation in itself. My team, seemingly lazy at the moment, did not want to join me to the garden excursion, so I went by myself to measure data. The data I decided to record was the width of the Brassica Oleracea and the length of the leaves on the plant (Both Kale and Brussel Sprouts). I decided that the leaf lengths had more variation then the plant height. Here is the data that I collected. Leaf Length Plant 1: leaf 1 - 11,5 cm Plant 1: leaf 2 - 9.5 cm Plant 1: leaf 3 - 13.5 cm Plant 1: leaf 4 -  10.5 cm Plant 1: leaf 5 - 11 cm Plant 1: leaf average - 11.2 cm Plant 2: leaf 1 - 9.5 cm Plant 2: leaf 2 - 8 cm Plant 2: leaf 3 - 8.5 cm Plant 2: leaf 4 - 10 cm Plant 2: leaf 5 - 11 cm Plant 2: leaf average - 9.4 cm Plant 3: leaf 1 - 14.4 cm Plant 3: leaf 2 - 13.4 cm Plant 3: leaf 3 - 12.8 cm Plant 3: leaf 4 - 13.7 cm Plant 3: leaf 5 - 14.1 cm Plan...