October 27

This week I continued to observe more the organisms mentioned in last week’s post (rotifers, seed shrimp, etc) in greater numbers as well as activity. I observed a few new organisms and captured an interesting video of a rotifer.

A few of the things I observed this week:

-I counted four more seed shrimp

Photo reference: Seed-shrimp [updated 2003]

-I noticed a wealth of new rotifer life in the aquarium. I specifically counted twelve new rotifers.

-I continued to notice small green organisms inside the trap leaves swimming around quickly.

-I observed many, possibly hundreds present, of tiny, transparent round organisms swimming about in random directions.

-I noticed much more plant growth, which has begun to turn dark green in color.

-I began to observe one or two small worms swimming around within the plant fibers located towards the bottom of the aquarium. The plant fiber here was deposited with the water when it was extracted from source 5 on the first day of the project.

-I observed Spirogyra algae located near the bottom of the aquarium along the brown plant fiber mentioned above. Spirogyra is an interesting form of algae in that its chloroplast form bands that run back and forth across the length of the organism (Egmond [updated 1998]). Photo reference: Egmond [updated 1998]

-I observed approximately two Cyclops, a massive organism in relation to the rest of the aquarium, as I could see these swimming about without the assistance of the microscope. These are fascinating, albeit frightening looking organisms found in many types of standing water or weeds. I believe this to be a male Cyclops, due to the absence of egg sacs on the rear of the organism (opposite the "bullhorn" like antennae). It's namesake is derived from the fact that it only has a single eye, however it also sports twelve pairs of legs! (Morgan [updated 1996]). Photo reference: Morgan [updated 1996]

-The most interesting observation of the day was a transparent rotifer inside a tube attached to a piece of plant fiber. I observed the corona in motion collecting food for the organism as well as the various activities performed by the rotifer inside its ribbed, jelly tube. After further reference, this rotifer was identified as a Philodina, possibly first forming which would be the reason that it is in the tube (Covich and Thorp 1991). When the aquarium was disturbed, the Philodina seemed to "take cover" inside the tube as if it felt threatened. Photo reference: Covich and Thorp 1991

-Most of the life I am observing is located mainly around the plant material that was deposited on the first day of the project. Of this plant material, the brown debris located towards the bottom of the aquarium seems to harbor the most life.

October 20

-During the second week of the project I further observed the growth and activity of the micro aquarium. I witness an increased amount of biological activity, observing several small organisms moving about among the water and plant life inside the aquarium. At the end of the observation period for this week, I added a small food pellet into the aquarium before putting it away.

A few of the things I observed this week were:

-I witnessed about 2 small, brown organisms crawling along plant fibers. Shaped similarly to a seed, I observed these organisms as being both large and small in size and brown or green in color. Dr. McFarland revealed to me that these are known as Seed Shrimp. A seed shrimp (also known as Ostracod) is an extremely small organism that can live in a variety of environments from ponds to the ocean. A bottom dwelling organism, seed shrimp have seven pairs of legs, using only two to move around while the others serve a variety of purposes from feeding to cleaning. Two antennae are found on the seed shrimp that stick out from the small chitin shell (Seed-Shrimp [updated 2003]). These are ancient organisms, going as far back as the Cambrian period over 500 million years ago (Cambrian [updated 2000]). Photo reference: Seed-Shrimp [updated 2003]

-I saw many more small, “fuzzy” organisms spread throughout the entire span of the aquarium. As I observed closer I noticed that these organisms are made up of many small circles or spheres located very close to one another.

-I continued to observe the trap leaves mentioned in the previous week’s blog post. Again these plants continued to house hundreds of small green organisms swimming about inside of the leaf.

-I observed small, elongated transparent-like organisms swimming about freely in the aquarium. After further observation and reference I identified these organisms as rotifers. Rotifers are tiny, transparent, fast moving organisms with a relatively small number of cells compared to larger organisms. Using a group of cilia, the rotifer is able to move quickly about its surroundings, also with the help of a sticky tail. The cilia also allow the rotifer to feed. Rotifers are found in virtually any aquatic setting and in many different shapes and sizes (Egmond Rotifers [updated 1998]). Their quick movements make them especially difficult to observe and photograph. Photo reference: Egmond Rotifers [updated 1998]

-Other organisms I identified but were unable to photograph were some green algae, small worm-like pink/transparent organisms swimming freely in the water, and very small transparent organisms moving along plant fibers and slowly swimming freely in the water.

October 13

Today was the first day of our Term Project for Biology 111.
I began the project by extracting a sample from a water source using a pipet and deposited the sample into our miniature aquariums marked in a color code to indicate lab, table, and seat number.


For me, Water Source 5 from the Mead's Quarry in Knox County on Island Home Avenue, image and information found here http://botany1112009.blogspot.com/

I filled the aquarium almost to the top, leaving a few centimeters of space. After water had been deposited, and the small fibers found in the water had settled at the bottom of the aquarium, I selected two small, about one inch long pieces of two plants, known simply as plant A and plant B, and placed the two samples into the aquarium.

Plant A is an Amblystegium varium from the natural spring at Carters Mill Park on Carter Mill Road in Knox County. Plant B is a carnivous plant from the south shore of Spain Lake east of Sparta TN in White County grown in tanks outside of the Hesler Biology Building at the University of Tennessee
Information source here http://botany1112009.blogspot.com/.

Once I had completely set up the aquarium, I placed it under a microscope and began to record my first observations.

Some of the things I observed were:
-A roundish, golf ball like structure containing hundreds of green, swimming cells. The structure itself was pale white and was not moving around. Dr. McFarland described this to me as a trap leaf.
-Dark black donut-shaped structures. Non moving, spread thinly throughout the aquarium.
-small, fuzzy cells, many in number, spread throughout the aquarium. Again, non moving.
-Another round, golfball like structure, this time green in color, possibly due to the trap leaf containing hundreds/thousands of more green cell organisms.
-small, transparent organisms swimming around freely within the aquarium

These were all the observations I made for this week.

Bibliography Post
(The date on this post is intentional so it remains at the bottom of the blog. As I continue to find new sources, I will add their formal citation here, with the parenthetical within the blog posts themselves up above.)


Cambrian [Internet]. [updated 2000 Jan 21]. The Everything Development Company; [cited 2009 Oct 20]. Available from http://everything2.com/title/Cambrian

Cladocera [Internet]. [updated 2004 Oct 7]. Homepage of Rudiger Rudolph; [cited 2009 Nov 7]. Available from: http://www.cladocera.de/cladocera/cladocera.html

Covich AP, Thorp JH. 1991. Rotifers. In: Covich AP, Thorp JH. Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates. San Diego: Academic Press Inc. p. 189.

Egmond WV [Internet]. [updated 1998]. Green Algae. Microscopy UK; [cited 2009 Oct 29]. Available from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/smal1.html

Egmond WV [Internet]. [updated 1998]. Rotifers. Microscopy UK; [cited 2009 Oct 20]. Available from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/smal1.html

Morgan M [Internet]. [updated 1996]. Cyclops. Microscopy UK; [cited 2009 Oct 29]. Available from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ponddip/cyclops.html

Seed-Shrimp [Internet]. [updated 2003 Jun 18]. The Everything Development Company; [cited 2009 Oct 20]. Available from http://everything2.com/title/Seed-shrimp

Vinyard WC. 1979. Diatoms of North America. Eureka (CA): Mad River Press Inc. Fig. 11 p. 87

Ward HB, Whipple GC. 1918. Cladocera. In: Ward HB, Whipple GC. Fresh-water Biology. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Ch 21 fig. 1050. p. 677.