Observation 5

          The observation began at 2:00 on Wednesday. The first organisms I saw in the micro aquarium were Euplotist (Patterson 124) swimming by the plant life. I saw one Euchlanis Rotafer (Pennak 171). Several necked amebas were seen along the edge of the plants. The amebas (Rainsis and Russell, 157) moved by slowly changing there shape. The whole aquarium was filled with motionless diatoms. After looking in Diatoms of the United States I identified these to be Ankistrodesmus diatoms (Patrick, Ruth, and Charles W. Reimer pg. 85).  After moving the observation to the sediment layer I saw an enormous Aeolosoma, possibly one the same ones I saw in observation four.
         The observation was moved to a camera microscope after looking through the sediment layer.
The camera microscope observation was not through the sediment, and was limited to around the plant life. the first identifiable organisms were small botos (Patterson, fig 67 pg 50), single celled organisms with two flagella  With the camera microscope I was able to get a closer look at the diatoms I mentioned earlier. It was here that I was able to identify them as Ankistrodesmus.

   (Fig, 1)

Under the camera microscope, more Euplotist were seen and A nematode (Rains and Russell 63) .
 (Fig. 2)
             
                Throughout the observations the organisms in the in the micro aquarium remained mostly the same.  Rotifers and Euplotest were seen fairly consistently. Overall both of these species saw growth. The major changes in the micro aquarium did not occur until observation four. In observation four both nematodes and Aeolosoma were first identified. Clearly these organisms had to be in the micro aquarium before observation but it was not until later that they grew and took a presence in the aquarium. This may be a result of the food pellet added a week before observation four. This added a source of carbon and may have feed these organisms allowing them to grow and take a presence In the aquarium.

Works Cited

Patterson DJ. 1992. Free-Living Protozoa, A Colour Guide. Washington DC: Manson Publishing.

Patrick, Ruth, and Charles W. Reimer. The Diatoms of the United States : Exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii. Philadelphia, PA: Acad of Nat. Sci., 1966. Print.

Pennak RW. 2001. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. New York (NY): The Ronald     Press Company.

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

observation 4

               I began observation four at 5:00 pm on Thursday. I first started to view around the plaint life by the upper part of the micro aquarium. The first major difference I noticed in the water was the large amount of dead unidentifiable algae. I believe this is caused by the food pellet that was added just before my last observation. Perhaps this pellet caused a miniature "bloom" in algae. Once the carbon source started to run out there was a large die off. The dead algae I see may be a result of this. Along with the algae I saw the first Aeolosoma (Rainis and Russell, 76) in the micro aquarium. This was a large worm like invertrabrate that moved with a wriggling motion. It was much thicker than any nematode and had a faint brown color to it. There seemed to be segments to its body divided by small tuffs of hair like cilia. Moving along the plant life I also saw the first nematode in the micro aquarium. It appeared to be a Turbatrix Nematode, (Rains and Russell 63) and like the Aeolosoma moved in a wriggling motion. I also saw some more  Euplotes Protista. (Patterson 124) along the edges of the aquarium but significantly less than before. These can be seen in figure 5.
  
           Once I started to view the soil I saw several much larger Aeolosoma. My guess that these soil dwelling aeolosoma were up to 5ml long. These have been by far the largest organisms seen in the aquarium and I will observe if they grow even larger. With these large Aeolosoma near the soil, Several more nematodes were visible. Over all, there was far less of a diversity in micro life. Nematodes and Aeolosoma seemed to dominate the environment when they were previously not seen.
         Last week I took several pictures with the microscope camera of the organisms seen. I briefly misplaced the flash drive these pictures were on and was unable to add them to the earlier blog.
here they are now
 (Fig 1)
 (Pennak 96)
 Fig. 2)
(Rainsis and Russell, 157)

 (Fig. 3)
 (Patterson 149)

 (Fig. 4)
(Pennak 171)

 (Fig, 5)
(Patterson 124)
  


Patterson DJ. 1992. Free-Living Protozoa, A Colour Guide. Washington DC: Manson Publishing.

Pennak RW. 2001. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. New York (NY): The Ronald     Press Company.

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

Observation 3

                  I began observation 3 at 1:30 on Thursday. Before the observation a food pellet was added to the micro aquarium to be a source of carbon. The first micro invertebrates seen were Rotafers (Pennak 171) swimming along the plant life. These were mistakenly identified as Daphnia in the second blog. The Rotafers moved as they did the first week with a whipping motion from there flagellum. At a higher magnification one could see countless Colpidum (Patterson 149) around the plants. These small protest had no visible flagellum and moved in a darting motion along the edge of the plant life. The third micro invertebrate spotted was disc shaped with what appeared to be leg like appendages underneath it. It moved by crawling along the plants and seemed to be single celled. After moving my observation to the base, I saw more of these particular micro invertebrates, I identified them as Euplotes Protista. (Patterson 124)
  
              Also along the base of the micro aquarium were more Rotafers. Moving along the sediment layer was also some Litonotus protest. (Patterson fig.287) These were single celled and moved almost like a nematode. The Litonotus are identifiable by the large vacuole they have along there front edge. Two amebas were seen at the base of the aquarium as well. While one was an unidentifiable necked ameba, one was a Difflugia, (Pennak 96) which is a type of shelled ameba.
               There were clearly a higher verity of microorganisms visible in the micro aquarium and this is the first time organisms have been visible near the plant life. Most of the organisms seen near the sediment were also near the plant life with the exception of the amebas and the Litonotus. Overall there was still more of each species near the sediment. Next week I well see if this pattern of increasing microorganism  life increases          

Works Cited:

Patterson DJ. 1992. Free-Living Protozoa, A Colour Guide. Washington DC: Manson Publishing.

Pennak RW. 2001. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States. New York (NY): The Ronald     Press Company.

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

Observation 2

Observation 2

           
               I began the observation at 5:00 pm on Thursday. No much was seen in the beginning of the observation. This may be because most of the earlier observations were done along the aquatic plaits in the micro aquarium. Once I began to observe the base of the aquarium, near the sediment layer much more aquatic life could be seen.
          
                 The first organisms seen were long green algaes that were later identified by Mr. McFarland to be Dismids. These are photosynthetic and moved none over the course of observation. Several flagellate protozoa were later observed to be moving in a whipping motion. These could perhaps be Daphnia or Rotifer, however more reading on micro invertebrate life would be needed to properly identify these small organisms. A larger oval shaped protozoa or worm was seen coming in and out of the sediment layer. It seemed to have a gliding motion and was perhaps a type of  "flathead".  There seemed to be what I understand to be water net algae along parts of the bottom of the aquarium. It was a layer of cells with a brown color coating the top of the sediment. It was motionless for the entire observation. Next observation I will see if there are any changes to it. Before my next entry I will try to identify this cell layer and hopefully be able to identify the other protozoa's I had seen as well. All in all there were far more micro invertebrates seen in observation two than were seen in observation one.                
                
                There seemed to be no dead micro invertebrates along the base of the aquarium but there was some dead plant life. The decomposing plants may be why many of the micro invertebrates prefer the base of the aquarium. This may change after a week and I will make a point to observe the changes to the aquarium's base.

               Some distilled water was added to the aquarium at the end of the observation to account for the accidental loss of water during the observation.    

lab start

   Last Thursday we began the micro aquarium lab. The micro aquarium was constructed by adding the sample water in-between the micro aquarium viewing slide. There was about two millimeters of space between both sides of the slide giving room for the micro invertebrates from the water to move freely. The water for my micro aquarium was collected in the French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge. as the water set, a thin layer of sediment formed on the bottom of the slide. Two aquatic plants were added to the micro aquarium. These plants are , Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg, a moss collected from natural spring at Caters Mill Park and Utricularia gibba L, a carnivous plant collected from the south shore of Spain Lake. After the plants were added an initial observation was made with the microscope. No micro invertebrates were seen in this observation but that may be on account of how soon it was made after the transfer of the transfer of the water.

Information on collection sites.

- water: French Broad River, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, Partial shade exposure, French Broad river watershed, N35 56. 742 W83 41. 628 841 ft 10/9/2011 Cladophora sp.

Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg,  moss collected from natural spring at Caters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36. 01. 168. W83 41. 832. 10/13/2013

Utricularia gibba L, a carnivous plant, south shore of Spain Lake (N 35o55 12.35     W088o20 47 .000 Camp Bella Air Rd. East of Sparta TN. in White county. And grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology building. 10/13/2013