Bibliography

Patterson, D.J. 1992, 1996. Living Freshwater Protoza, A Colour Guide. Wolfe Publishing Ltd.

Smith, Douglas Grant. 2001. Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States: Porifera to Crustacea. 4th ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Hayden, F.V. 1879. Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, Volume XII. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Pennalz, Robert W. 1989. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States, Third Edition. New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 

Observation session 3

On Thursday, October 27 I went for another observation session in the lab. This week, Dr. McFarland fed the aquariums two beta fish food pellets, and it really sped up the micro-organisms multiplication. The information on the food pellet is as follows:"Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%. When I put the aquarium under the microscope I could not believe how many more organisms there were. This week I was able to really get down to identifying organisms and was able to capture pictures of most of what I saw. First off, I saw many of the same rotifers that I saw last week and figured out that their name is Euchlanis(Smith fig.7.2) . Also I saw and confirmed my finding of Vorticella (Patterson im. 232) with in the small ecosystem. Then I got into finding new organisms by first identifying an Artocrea (Hayden plate XXX) while under the normal microscope. Unfortunately, I was not able to capture a picture of this, but it was a circular, yellowish organism with dots in the interior of the body. Then a camera linking microscope opened up and I was able to go in and find the first two organisms I mentioned. This was easy because they had multiplied to such high numbers. As I looked around under the camera, I was able to find an Epalxis (Patterson im. 311) which I also observed the week earlier. It was more difficult to take a picture of because it is a fast moving, small organism with many little flagella out of the back and a foot on the front. I then found another brand new organism called a Raphodocystis (Patterson im. 408). It is a circular organisms with spike like radiations coming out from all sides. Down at a lower level there were extremely small organisms moving very fast, but would be nearly impossible to identify at this time and under this level of magnification. Over all it was impressive how many more organisms there were from one week to the other. It went from really having to search for organisms, to not being able to look under the microscope without seeing any. Above are the pictures of the organisms I have found so far.

Observation session 2

On Thursday, October 20 I went down to the lab to observe my MicroAquarium. I quickly noted that I had lost a lot of water leaving my aquarium only about half way full. I went to the microscope and started looking on the 4X setting. Here I could not see a whole lot, but I was able to see some small clear organisms swimming around. I could not tell much about them except that they had some small flagella or tail like parts. I could also tell that a lot of the material had been scattered around in my aquarium. It defiantly settled all around he container instead of just at the bottom where I expected it to. I then switched to the 10X setting to get a closer look. Here I saw some smaller, clear, floating organisms that seemed a lot more simple than the other I had seen. Cyanabacteria was everywhere, being seen in long, clear, strand like structures. On the plant Utricularia gibba, I could see bubble like structures around the stems. It had a lot of activity around these parts. Much more than the moss Amblestegium, or in the dirt had around them. At this point, Dr. McFarland came over to help me identify the organisms I had found. The first organism I found that was clear with a small flagella, was a Rotifer. The smaller, more simple organism was an Epalxis (Patterson im. 311), and together we found another organism. This was a disc shaped organism with a long flagella that would open at the top to consume substances called a Vortacella (Patterson im. 232). Over all, I saw a lot more diversity on this observation then the first one.

MicroAquarium

On Tuesday, October 11 in botany lab we started putting together our MicroAquarium projects. To do this we were supplied with small, glass slide containers, a glass lid, and glass stand. We started by labeling our aquariums with color coded stickers that indicate what section, time, and person your container belongs to. After this, we were ready to pick a water source that we wanted to observe. The idea behind this is that we will be able to place a water sample into our aquariums with some dirt and other natural factors, and be able to observe the small organisms living inside it through a microscope. To be able to choose what water source we wanted, Dr. McFarland gave us a run down of the water sources he obtained samples from around the area, and told us to get some from the bottom dirt level, middle level, and top level of the samples. I chose the sample from the water pool below spring at Lynnhurst Cemetery off of Adair Drive. I chose this because the body of water was unique and interests me, and is also very close to my home out in Fountain City. We followed Dr. McFarland's instructions in obtaining our samples and filled our aquariums up almost to the top. After this, we went back to our lab stations and placed two small samples of different plant species down in our aquarium slide. The two plants were as follows. Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure N36 01.168 W83 42.832. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous plant. Original material from south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35" W088o20' 47.00), Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta Tn. in White Co. and grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building. The University of Tennessee. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. This meant we were all but done making our samples, so we carefully placed them on the microscopes and viewed them up close. I unfortunately did not find any moving micro organisms that day, but will be monitoring them over the next few weeks to see what comes out and grows in my aquarium. For the time being, I enjoyed looking at the plants I had placed in there on a microscopic level. Lastly, we put our lids on our projects, and took them to their holding containers to grow and exist for our future viewings.