My Own Mesocosm!

A Mesocosm is an experiment carried out for studying the development of nature under controlled conditions. It is really useful for testing the changes that organism will undergo under certain circumstances.

Last week in Biology we created our own mesocosm. It was simple, we picked up a bottle, added some small rocks, some sand, some compost, some water and the plant that we wanted to. I chose to put germinating peas into it. Then we sealed the bottle with some tape. As we studied in Photosynthesis, the plants would get Water, CO2 and sunlight to form glucose, creating Oxygen and water vapour as byproducts. Then, the bacteria from the compost would use the oxygen and produce CO2, which will be used by the plants, completing then the cycle. Then, even if the small ecosystem was isolated, it should be able to survive. The only element that should be getting in and out would be energy in the form of sunlight getting into the bottle and kinetic energy in form of 

heat.   

In theory this works, but in practice this is not so simple. The plants could die due to many reasons: Too much water, not enough CO2, not enough compost and therefore bacteria for producing oxygen… Etc. So I wasn’t really sure if my plants were going to survive.

I have to say I got really excited when one of the germinating peas started to root. That was three days ago, now a couple of germinating peas have already grown up. It may seem like a kind of childish experiment but if you think about it’s really interesting and it has so many applications. Now everyday the first thing I do in the mornings is check how my plants are, even knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything about it because is completely sealed, but still it makes me feel really excited.