Observations #4 11/7/12

   
     On November 7, 2012 from about 3:35 pm - 5:30 pm is when my fourth observation took place. As usual, my observation took place with the assistance of Dr. McFarland in room 202 of the Hesler Biology Building on The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s campus. The materials that were used during this observation were a CH30 Olympus microscope, a Sony Camera (HDR-HC9), a corresponding remote, and a Dell Computer. As a reminder, the water in my MicroAquarium is from source 10 which was taken from a water pool below spring; Lynnhurst Cemetery (McFarland 2012). To begin observing I removed the stand and lid from my MircroAquarium tank. Then I carefully laid the tank on the microscope stage with the open end away from me (Cook and McFarland 2013). It became very clear that all of my large amounts of big organisms from last week were gone. However, most organisms appeared to be near the bottom.


     According to Dr. McFarland, the first organism that I observed was an Amoeba. It was clear and stretching with so many organisms visible on the inside of it. The Amoeba was very flexible. The foot of it was pushing things to the top of it. Dr. McFarland classified its movement as being cytoplasmic and he explained to me that there are more Amoebas in a pond than there are of us humans on Earth. Also there were a few nuclides visible that were on the inside of the organism. Throughout my observation there were so many of these Amoebas found everywhere in my MicroAquarium. I found at least 6 although I am quite sure that there were many more.

Below is a picture of an Amoeba from my MicroAquarium.

       The next organism I observed was an Actinosphaerium (Hedley and Patterson 1996). It appeared very still and had little to no movement. There were many ciliates floating around it. I observed so many of these organisms, it was so hard to keep count. There were well over 7 found during this observation. Most of the Actinosphaeriums were found along the bottom of my MicroAquarium near the mud. Dr. McFarland explained that these organisms have a big ball on their side which is a vacuole that pops and disappears. During this observation, he took an extended approach and decided that we should measure the size of a big Actinosphaerium and a smaller one. So, by using the microscope Dr. McFarland came to the conclusion that under the 10x and 40x lense the bigger Actinosphaerium was 0.14 micrometers (57 units using 40x and 14 units using 10x) and the smaller one was 0.02 micrometers (.8 units using 40x and 2 units using 10x).

Below is a comparison using the 10x lense of a big Actinosphaerium and a smaller one. If you look closely at the image below the vacuole on the small Actinosphaerium is visible.

      The next organism the I observed was a Rotifer. I seen about 2 throughout my observation on this week. It was hanging on to the Utricularia gibba plant by its tail (McFarland 2012). This is the carnivous and flowering plant that was placed in the MicroAquarium during the initial setup (McFarland 2012).

Below is a picture of the Rotifer that I observed during my observation.

 

 

      The next organism I observed was very unique and Dr. McFarland identified it as chained Spirillum bacteria of something small although the scientific name was not evident. This was the only pair of the organism(s) that I seen and there was little movement between the organism(s). 

 

 

Below is an image of the chained bacteria Spirillum.

 

 

 





 

       The final organism that I observed during the week was a Halteria. It was located near the bottom. I only seen one of this organism although I am sure that there were many more. It was very hard to capture an image of it because it moves so quick. According to Dr. McFarland, under the 40x lense it was about 10 units and 0.24 micrometers.

 

Below is an image of the Halteria. 

 

 

 

     Throughout my observation(s) on this week I observed a few other organisms (Midge, flagella, and a water flea) that I was unable to capture pictures of due to their fast movements. The Midge appeared to be eating on the Amblestegium sp. which is from the moss collection (McFarland 2012). According to Dr. McFarland, it belongs to the Phylum Arthropoda. Also the water flea was down near the mud and had a red dot on it which helped Dr. McFarland identify it. It moved extremely quick. Moreover, I also observed some worm castings near the mud. There was also some flagella that were very small and each possessed a tail trailing it. Dr. McFarland stated that they eat small particles. 

 

 

     All images from this observation were edited using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0. In addition, at the end of my observation(s) to replace the water that may have been lost in my MicroAquarium  somehow, I added more to it with the clear water bottle that Dr. McFarland provided.

 

References (CBE Style):

 

Cook R, McFarland K. 2013. General Botany 111 Laboratory Manual. 14th ed, Knoxville (TN).155-157 p.

Citation: (Cook and McFarland 2013)

McFarland K. Botany 111 Fall 2012. [Internet]. 2012. Available from: http://botany1112012.blogspot.com/

Citation: (McFarland 2012)

 Hedley S and Patterson D. 1996. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa "A Colour Guide". Corringham Road, London: Manson Publishing. 169 p. Figure 394.

Citation: (Hedley and Patterson 1996)