observation session 5

Thursday, November 10, was our last required observation. In these weeks I saw my MicroAquarium follow an expected trend. I watched as it seemed to go from no organisms present, then to a community of organisms grown, then after they were fed, to a huge abundance of organisms. After that I saw the number in organisms decrease but the variety largely increase, and then to what I saw in this last week. When I got my aquarium out, the water level had dropped dramatically, leaving it just around half way full. My plants looked about the same the week before, but then something occurred to me about the plants. The Utricularia gibba, the flowering and carnivorous plant, was the one that did not shrivel up, but possibly even flourished. This made me form a hypothesis because the main observation I made was the large decrease in the number of organisms. It seemed like a massacre as the once dominant rotifers and vortacella were practically nonexistent, and replaced by slightly bigger nematodes and diatoms. Even though this follows the trend of where the observations were heading, it still made me wonder if the carnivorous plant was eating some of these smaller organisms. I did see some skeletons of these organisms, but not nearly as many as I saw alive. However, I did see many dead skeletons down under the soil, including the still abundant diatoms. Over all, for whatever reason, I saw a large number of organisms die off, and the population largely decreased.

Observation session 4

My fourth observation came on Thursday, November 3. The first thing I saw, without even looking in the microscope was that a green web-like structure had formed around some of the Utricularia gibba, flowering plant. The moss plant, Amblestegium, looked a bit more shrivelled up than usual, and the beta food pellet was still present. At the first glance under the microscope, I could tell that there was not as much activity as the week before. There was not movement throughout the entire aquarium like there had been in my third observation, and I saw many more dead skeletons of organisms. The dominant species that I had been seeing were still the greatest in numbers, and were for the most part hanging around the same areas close to the food. However, despite the fact that there seemed to be a smaller number of organisms, there was undoubtedly a larger variety than before. The new organisms that I discovered seemed to be down near the dirt and sediment. I saw a large organism that seemed to be burrowing in the dirt, and also another very large organism jumping around the aquarium. I saw worm like creature, and different clear simple organisms. I unfortunately was not able to capture a picture of all of these different organisms, but there was defiantly a larger variety. The first image of a Chaetonotus (Pennalz p. 165 fig. 7) depicts a slower moving, clear-green organism, with many small flagella along its sides. The second image is of a Nematode (Pennalz p. 228 fig. 1). It is a very fast moving, worm like, organism. You can clearly see inside of it and see some of its inner make up and what it has consumed. These are just two of the many new organisms I saw that have added to the diversity of my micro-aquarium.

  

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.