Week 2 Observations

In this second week of observations, I saw a lot more in my microaquarium than the first week. There was a lot more movement inside, and a significant increase in organisms living inside. One of the first things I noticed was an amoeba called Chaos sp. The video below shows the movement of the amoeba as it branches out. The black dots inside are debris from the environment and their movement shows the movement of the cytoplasmic movement in the cell along the microtubules. 

Another organism I was able to capture a picture of is the following, an Actinosphaerium sp. This one appears to bringing in an organism to eat. They do this by pulling in the organism with their extensions and slowly pull them inside to digest (Patterson 169). 

 The second picture shown below is of Gloeotrichia sp. algae. It starts growing off on of the plants in the environment, and will grow into a ball on its own (Prescott 928).

 This last picture, shown below, is a Paramecium sp. This is a unicellular protozoa commonly found in ponds and marine life, especially stagnant water (Patterson 343-359).

Other organisms that I found, but were not able to capture on the camera include various rodifers, a Litonotus sp. (Patterson 133), pond scum, and a Stentor sp. ciliate. Stentor sp.'s are sensitive, so when the environment is shaken, it will fold up, and slowly come back out. It looks like a funnel when it unfolds. I'm excited to see how everything grows and develops.

Bibliography

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited 10/23/2013]. Available from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/

Cook, Rebecca and Kenneth McFarland. 2013. General Botany 111 Laboratory Manual. 15th edition. University of Tennessee.

Patterson, DJ. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. Manson Publishing: Washington DC. 1996.

Prescott, GW. Algae of the Western Great Lakes Area. WMC Brown Company Publishers: Iowa. 1962.

Rainis, Kenneth G and Bruce J Russell. 1996. Guide to Microlife. Franklin Watts: Danbury, Connecticut.

Week 1 observations

For this first week I set up my microaquarium and made initial observations of the environment.

To set up the microaquarium, I used a pipet to first extract mud from the bottom of my sample environment and form a base of my microaquarium. Next, I transferred water from the top and middle of the container via pipet to fill the tank 3/4s of the way. Finally, I added in plant life so that my microaquarium can thrive. These plants included:
Utricularia gibba which is a carnivous, flowering plant. Originally from Spain, this was taken from a greenhouse at the University of Tennessee. It is light green, stringy, and held many black spored throughout the mass of plant.
Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg is a moss that was taken from a natural spring at Caters Mill Park  in Tennessee. This moss had long stems with small, hairlike leaves coming off and was dark and light green.
Fontinalis sp. which is another moss but from the Holston River. This appeared much like the previous moss, but much darker in color and almost black in sections of the plant.
All of these plants were collected on 10/13/2013 and added to the microaquarium on 10/16/2013 (McFarland 2013).

The environment my microaquarium was taken from container #9-Pond at Sterchi Hills Greenway Trail found in Knoxville, TN, also extracted from the environment on 10/13/2013 (McFarland 2013).

Upon initial viewing of the microaquarium, few microorganisms were visible. There were small dots that would move around, but nothing at a stage that could be identified. As the food is added and the organisms have time to adjust to the new environment, I'm sure much more life will start to appear