Today we decided that over Christmas break we would seal off our bio-dome and see if it survives again. We finally figured out what the mysterious plant growing underground was today!.. It was an onion!.. We came to this conclusion by getting a closer look at the sprouts barely coming out of the ground. We also took on another organism. One of our fellow classmates decided they no longer wanted Lilo, our fire bellied toad that we had in the beginning, so we put her along with some crickets into our bio-bubble. 

We opened our ecosystems today!!! All of our organisms survived! We found the fish under some bark in the water. The salamander we found burrowed under the bark. The toad was just sitting around as usual. We were so happy that we could actually see our animals alive and well, for the bean plants had made some sort of canopy and we couldn't really see inside. We changed out the fish's dirty water and gave her some fresh which she seemed to be thankful for. We also noticed that our animals looked like they were in better shape than the animals of our fellow classmates ecosystems. Also, before we opened the ecosystem today I saw little insects flying around on the inside. I think that maybe they are what the toad and salamander ate while it was sealed off.

Day 17-
Today we didn't do much. I wish the opening date would get here sooner. I miss opening the ecosystem and interacting with all the organisms inside.
Co2- .99%
Oxygen- 10.85%
Temperature- 72°F
Day 18-
Today we talked about photosynthesis and cellular respiration a little bit. We learned that photosynthesis is the opposite of cellular respiration. Our bean plants seem to be growing more.
Co2-.99%
Oxygen- 10.36%
Temperature- 68°F
Day 19-
Today we were absent, but we had our other partner record the data.
Co2- .99%
Oxygen- 10.41%
Temperature- 70°F
Day 20-
Today we noticed that our beans have grown magnificently! They are as tall as the roof of the bio-dome. We also noticed that we have some sort of plant growing under the dirt, it seems to be making its way slowly to the surface.
Co2- .99%
Oxygen- 10.26%
Temperature- 72°F

Today we noticed that the Co2 is a little bit lower and the Oxygen is a little higher than it was yesterday. We learned that Secondary Succession happened in our bio-bubble today, because we caused a human disturbance by clearing everything out and starting over. For it to be Primary Succession the ecosystem would have to have no dirt in it at all. There seems to be no crickets left in the bio-bubble as we can see. We think that the toad is eating plants along with the Salamander because they are still very active and seem to be growing every day.

Co2- .99%
Oxygen- 10.88%
Temperature- 70 degrees Fahrenheit

Today we estimated the beans height to be around 8-10 inches in height. Our oxygen and Co2 stayed about the same today. The Salamander stays in the water more often than he usually does here lately. The fish is still alive. The water cycle at work constantly. There seems to always be condensation on the top of the bio-bubble.

Co2- .99%
Oxygen- 10.65%
Temperature- 72 degrees Fahrenheit

Today we observed that about 20-30 more bean plants have sprouted. We measured our Co2 and Oxygen levels today as well. There is a lot of condensation on the roof of the bio-dome. Our bean plants range from barely poking out of the ground to over 6 inches in height. Our spider plant seems to be getting larger in size as well. I didn't see any crickets today either. Some limiting factors in our ecosystem include food, water, space, and population size. Our carrying capacity is one frog, one fish, one salamander, and many insects. The salamander seems to have burrowed again. The fish is as active as ever, and the toad is sitting around as normal having an occasional trip around the ecosystem.

Temperature- 72 degrees Fahrenheit
Co2- .99%
Oxygen- 10.66%

Today, we dumped about 40 crickets into our bio-bubble because the toad ate them all the last time we put crickets inside of the ecosystem. We also observed that many of the beans have sprouted and many more are growing. I planted about 20 more beans today as well. We sealed the vent on the top of the bio-bubble so that no outside air can get in.
    Abiotic Factors-
Light
Soil
Water
Temperature
Climate
    Biotic Factors-
Salamander
Toad
Plants
Fish
Worm
Bark
Crickets

Today we observed that many of the new seeds have already sprouted. We took our Fire-bellied toad out when we decided to keep the Common Brown Toad instead. We also dumped about 30 crickets into our ecosystem. We decided since the Salamander and the fish use the water that we probably needed a bigger pond, so we took the old one out and replaced it with a slightly wider and deeper one. Water condenses on the lid of the bio-bubble and then runs down as precipitation. The seal date has been changed to Monday instead of today.

Today we observed that many of our plants are sprouting. We also noticed that now that the mouse is gone the Salamander stays out a lot more. We tested our soil today. It said that the pH was neutral. We also received a visitor from one of our fellow classmates ecosystems. It was a common brown toad. Our ecosystem is doing nicely now that the mouse has been removed. All of our plants are still rooted in the ground and dirt is not slung everywhere. We are going to completely close the ecosystem off tomorrow from what I understand.

Today we came to find our ecosystem in ruins. Turns out Nani (our mouse) destroyed everything! He dug up all of our plants and dumped them into our pond. We know it was the mouse because we watched him do these things ourselves. Finally we decided that maybe a mouse really wasn't a good thing to have in there. So we took the mouse out. We dug under the dirt regaining all of our seeds back that the mouse had placed in his tunnels. We also found the Salamander by digging up our dirt. We replaced all of our seeds and began reconstruction. We are going to seal the Bio-bubble off on Wednesday. Our temperature today was around 70 degrees.