Week Four

Week Four--the final viewing of my aquarium--rounded the experiment out quite nicely. I saw a large number of familiar organisms, and found a couple of new organisms that I hadn't seen before.

Plant A had sprouted a new branch. Plant B had to a large degree taken over its half of the tank. I noticed fewer algae around it, whereas in comparison, other organisms seemed to flourish around Plant A.

I did not get the opportunity to take pictures, but the new organisms would likely not have photographed well. The first I saw was a paramecium filled with green spots that moved at about medium pace. This organism was paramecium bursana (Patterson 1992). The second organism I noticed was incredibly tiny, moved very slowly, and changed shape regularly. It had black round objects tumbling through it as it moved. This organism was an amoeba, though much different than the other suspected amoeba I had seen.

This week, in addition to viewing the aquarium through a standard microscope, I was also able to view them through a dissection microscope. This microscope was much easier to use in my opinion--the stage did not move; focusing and zooming were both done directly from the lens. This microscope also seemed to have a higher power, able to zoom even closer than usual microscopes (though I could be wrong about that). Viewing different parts of the slide was much easier as well, considering that rather than moving the stage, the observer moves the slide itself across the stage. It was interesting to see the organisms through a different microscope.

Overall, I really enjoyed this term project and felt the experiment was quite an interesting experience. I learned quite a bit about microscopic life forms and just how truly diverse they can get. hope to be able to have similar experiences in Botany 112.

Patterson, DJ. 1992. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. Washington D.C.: Manson Publishing.

Week Three

This week proved relatively unexciting in my aquarium. The entire aquarium was filled with algae and diatoms. Plant B showed continued growth, and this was the first time I saw colonial cyanobacteria occur in my tank. They were small green pellets that lived in clusters.

Cyclopes of all ages were prevalent throughout the water. Trachelophyllia also made their way around the aquarium, as well as rotifers. There was no sign of the amoeba, of the euglena, or of other unique organisms. I saw two deformed desmids next to each other, which I would have photographed were I using a microscope equipped with a camera. One had an abnormal shape, and the other appeared to have a problem with its chloroplast, because the green area appeared shriveled.

I cannot wait to see what I find in the last week of my experiment! Hopefully something truly exciting will come my way.

Week Two

One Beta Food Pellet was inserted into my microaquarium. It was "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%.

This week saw a considerable amount of change in terms of amount of organisms. There were abundant algae and similar colonial bacteria. Plant A and Plant B both appeared to be doing just fine, and seemed to be popular among other organisms; both plants and the food pellet were surrounded. I saw plenty of one-celled organisms, including many trachelophyllium, but could not get a good picture of any of them. I was, however, able to get great pictures of several other organisms.

This juvenile cyclops was slow-moving enough for me to get a great shot of him:

I was also able to get a great shot of a rotifer:

In addition to these two common denizens, my aquarium was littered with a new type of organism that I hadn't seen before. These urchin-shaped protozoa are known as actinosphaeria. This picture is a rotifer coming into contact with an actinosphaerium.

Actinosphaerium (Patterson 1992)

 

Last week I was able to get pictures of a green alga, a zygnema, and an oedogonium. This week, I was able to get an extremely clear shot of a green algal cell, and a great picture of mougeotia. At times it is difficult to tell the difference between these two, but mougeotia are typically more spiraled and their chloroplasts are twisted, giving the irregular shape to the green tint shown below.

Green alga (Frost 1954)

Mougeotia (Frost 1954)

Finally, this week I was able to find a brown, spherical one-celled organism. Dr. McFarland believed this to be an amoeba, noting the irregular shape around the borders of the cell.

 Difflugia (Patterson 1992)

 

I am excited, as this is the first really unique organism I have found. I cannot wait to see what I can find next week.

Frost, HS. 1954. Handbook of Algae, with special reference to Tennessee and the Southeastern United States. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press. p 198, and figures 219 & 401.

Patterson, DJ. 1992. Free Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. Washington D.C.: Manson Publishing. p. 95

One Week After Creation

I was surprised at the amount of change that had occurred after just one week. There was a myriad of interesting organisms in my aquarium, and I was able to take some great pictures (though a few creatures were too elusive for my reflexes).

Plant A had the beginnings of moss growing on it.

Plant B was beginning to bud and had a variety of organisms surrounding it, but otherwise had no particularly defining features.

Plenty of one-celled organisms swam about, as did rotifers. The rotifers I observed today were different than the one I found a week ago; these looked like miniature tadpoles. It was interesting to see them swim about the tank and scavenge. They periodically stopped and ate small particles as they went about. Sadly I was not able to take a good picture of any of them.

I saw several Cyclopes in my aquarium, and tried to take a picture of them many times before finally succeeding with this shot.

Cyclops (Rainis and Russell 1996)

In an obscure part of the tank, I happened across an euglena. It was green and spiraled, and had a noticeable flagellum as it slowly moved through the water. This is not a great picture of the organism, but perhaps I will come across it again next week.

Euglena tripteris (Frost 1954)

I found several green colonial organisms. The first of these is a green alga.

Green alga (Frost 1954)

In addition to the alga, I came across what Dr. McFarland identified as an oedogonium.

Oedogonium (Carter-Lund and Lund 1995)

If these were not enough, in another location I came across a zygnema. It appeared to me that these were somehow hypertonic algae, but the chloroplasts of zygnema cells tend to give them an odd, shriveled shape.

Zygnema (Frost 1954)

I also found a desmid.

Closterium (Frost 1954)

Carter-Lund, H and Lund, JWG. 1995. Freshwater Algae: Their Microscopic World Exposed. Bristol (England): Biopress Ltd, p. 64 figure 102.

Frost, HS. 1954. Handbook of Algae, with special reference to Tennessee and the Southeastern United States. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press. p 198, and figures 219 & 401.

Rainis, KG and Russell, BJ. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Danbury (CT): Franklin Watts, p. 204.

Creation

This week our lab section created aquariums with the purpose of finding interesting organisms within the water source (and the soil or sediment from the same location). For each individual, a micro-aquarium was obtained (this was two thick glass slides glued together by silica) and given a unique color code (for example, mine was orange-orange-orange). Then, we filled our acquaria with water and mud from one of thirteen sources. I chose to use Source 10, pooled water flowing from a spring at Lynnhurst Cemetery.

• Water pool below spring. Lynnhurst Cemetery off of Adair Drive. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Partial shade exposure Spring Feed Pond N36 01.357 W83 55.731 958 ft 10/10/2010.

Next, each person inserted two plants into their acquarium; Plant A on the left side and Plant B on the right. These were as follows:

• Plant A . Fontinalis 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. 10/10/2010
   
• Plant B. 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.

After this was complete, we viewed our acquaria under a microscope. I saw a lot of single-celled organisms--round and fast-moving without visible flagella--but nothing of real consequence except for a small, rotating organism. It was red at the center, had an odd shape with many protruding parts, and constantly rotated in exactly the same direction as it slowly moved.The instructor identified it as a rotifer. It was relaxing to the eye to watch.

The micro-acquarium each was placed in a base and sealed with a lid loosely glued on with sticky tack. Then all of them were stored and are to be viewed again weekly at each person's leisure.

Next week I'll see if anything has changed. I expect there to be more single-celled organisms because of reproduction; I also expect the carnivorous plant to have grown by feeding off of smaller organisms. I wonder if I'll be able to find my rotifer again.