Leaf Litter Decomposition

In the woods, the decomposition of leaves is one of the major sources of nutrients for the forest.  Leaves are broken down by insects and other various decomposers.  The organic nutrients are returned to the soil as free ions.  The nutrients are used by plants as a form of natural fertilizer.  

As the diagram shows, the leaves go through a transformation from fresh leaves to unrecognizable plant material.  As the decomposers decompose the leaves, the leaves break down slowly loosing their defined shape until they look like dirt. The final product, dirt, is simply the broken down nutrients of dead leaves, trees, and other various organic material.   

My Baby

Over the past few weeks, my plant has grown unbelievably fast.  He has been temperamental, and stubborn, but for the most part, we have gotten along fairly well.  This past weekend we hit a rough patch.  I woke up to and saw that he was dying, wilted and sad.  I was shocked because the night before I had watered him and he was happy.  I gave him some water and less than 2 hours later it was as though nothing has happened.
He also loves the sun.  Every day he tries to reach out and grab the sun and no matter how many times I tell him that the sun will bun him to a crisp, he just does not want to listen.  I have to watch him every day and make sure that when he gets too close to the sun to turn him around and tell him the dangers.
He has a lot of friends too.  Within the first week together, he had invited four other friends to stay over. No matter how many times I ask them if their parents miss them, they just don't want to leave.  I guess I'll just have to adopt them too.
I am glad that they area ll growing strong and tall.
I'll post back in a week or two with more updates.


UPDATE

As the semester comes to an end, I am surprised that my plant has survived.  They have had some rough times and are still struggling.  Over Thanksgiving they got very sick, and have never really recovered.  Of the 5 plants that I had, two are almost dead, one is on its way, and two seem to be thriving.  All five of them have flowers on them but none of them are fully open.  What is odd is that they stopped growing towards the sun.  In fact, it seems as though they have stopped growing at all.  I don't know what caused that, but it is kinda strange.  I hope that they make it through the end of the semester so I can say that I successfully kept a plant alive for a semester!

Lab 4

This week we studied community gardens.  We saw eggplants, peppers, and snap peas along with various other plants.  We also looked at the various soils in the area.

To see the different components of the soil in the area, we took a shovel full of soil and placed it in the soil sieve.  We then passed it around shaking it to allow the soil to fall through the mesh until it was in the correct level.  When we opened the sieve, we could see the different roots, grasses, and soil types that were in the shovel of dirt.

We then took a few shovel full's of soil and placed in in a box and added water to make mud.  After mixing it up, we each took a handful of dirt and identified what kind of dirt it was using the dichotomous key.  We identified the soil as loamy sand.

In addition to identifying the soil we found, we also learned about the 12 soil orders of the world.

Aridisols is a type of soil that is common in the desert.  It is extremely dry and not useful for the growth of plants.  It commonly has such minerals as gypsum and calcium carbonate in it.

We also meet Mark Vanderhook who is in charge of www.maconroots.org.  He helps organize different community gardens around Macon and is helping to beautify Macon.



PART 2

Negative Feedback Loop- The output of the system opposes the input of the system.  This system helps to balance and stabilize the system.

In class we monitored Dr. Rood's blood glucose level before he ate a snickers and the resulting levels at five minuet intervals for the remainder of class.

 When we consume sugar the sugar level spikes.  A negative feedback loop reaction occurs because the insulin level rises in order to decrease the level of the sugar in the blood.