Observations for week 1

Week 1: I was able to observe many new organisms that I did not see my first week when I initially set up my micro aquarium. There were multiple protozoa and  a diatom that I was able to identify due to Professor McFarland's help. I spent a good amount of time trying to identify and watch each organism under the microscope and understand how each one moved about and participated within the micro aquarium. There were a few organisms that I observed but have yet to be identified as they were moving too quickly within the micro aquarium for me to be able to take a picture of them. But from the ones I did observe and identify each organism had very unique traits from one another including how they moved about in the aquarium, which is further described under each figure. 

 Image 1.  Identified protozoa is Anisomena sp. as shown in Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide by D.J Patterson, pg. 54, Figure 78. Anisomena are abundant throughout my micro aquarium as I observed  multiple of them. They are not known to have any ingestion so with that, they absorbed wastes that they cannot rid of which I watched them do under the microscope as I saw this protozoa take in substances that you could still see within it.

 Image 2. Identified protozoa is Euplotes sp. as shown in Free-living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide by D.J Patterson, pg. 124, Figure 260. Also saw multiple of these organisms throughout my micro aquarium and learned that there use their central cirri for movement. The central cirri I learned in Patterson's book are the little white legs that you can see in image 2 and when I observed this organism I was the most intrigued by their legs and how they moved around with as it was quite the sight to see.

 Image 3. Identified diatom is Nitzschia Paradoxa as shown in Diatoms of North America by William C. Vinyard on pg. 178 ,Figure 141. I observed the Nitzschia Paradoxa for a while as this was the only one I saw and I waited to watch as its parts dissembled and the Nitzchia Paradoxa went from being a mass to a thin line as it pulled apart. The Nitzschia Paradoxa at first did not move a lot until it started to change shapes and dissemble and that is when I saw a lot of spastic movement from this diatom.


Bibliography

Patterson, D.J. 2013. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. 5th impression. London (UK): Manson Publishing Ltd.

Vinyard, William C. Diatoms of North America. Eureka, CA: Mad River Press Inc. 

Observation 1

Water Source used: #5 Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave

5. Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Rock Quarry N35 57.162 W83 51.960 880 10/12/2014

Lab section:blue
Table: red
seat number: blue

Procedure:

On 10/15/14 the process of setting up and starting the micro aquarium experiment began by first setting up the micro aquarium itself. This was done by adding a base to hold up the aquarian and then a lid to seal the water in. After this, each student was given a 3 sticker color combination to clarify each aquarian from another. My micro aquarium specifically had a blue, red, and another blue sticker on the left side and each sticker was labeled with my initials (PA) to make it more distinct from the other lab students aquariums. After this, each student chose their own water sample and applied a sample into the aquarium. My water example came from water source 5 otherwise known as the Meads Quarry. In order to put a diverse water sample into the aquarium, water was extracted from the dirt and mud at the bottom of the Meads Quarry water source, off of the leaf extracts in the water and then just off of the surface of the water. All these samples were dripped into the micro aquarium. After that, two water weeds were added to the micro aquarium to oxygenate the water. After all these aspects from the water source were added to micro aquarium we then observed our samples under a microscope to begin to understand was is in our micro aquariums.

Observations: 

When observing my micro aquarium, there seemed to be multiple unidentified one celled organisms swimming around. They were a dark brown color and would move around very quickly and seemed to be swimming around the water mosses and were hidden behind the mosses at certain points. While observing their actions, these organisms seemed like they were eating/collecting substances from the water as it looked like they would vacuum these substances into them. 

Information on the plants used in the Micro Aquarium:

Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg. Moss.
Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/12/2014


Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A
carnivorous 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.
10/12/2014