MicroAquarium Observation #2

Drew Bogert

Blog Entry 2

MicroAquarium Observation #2

To start my second observation, I visited room 507 in the Hesler Biology Building (McFarland, 2013)  on Wednesday, October 16 at 3:30 pm. I went over to the plastic tray that was the containing unit for the our aquariums, removed my aquarium carefully, and walked over to a microscope with a camera on it. Dr. McFarland helped me with the setup of the camera enabled microscope. These are some steps that I made for setting this microscope up:
          1. Make sure all equipment (computer, camera, and light source on microscope) is turned "on".
                        -Turn computer monitor to "s-video", which will enable you to watch a stream from the                           camera.
          2. Adjust the light setting on the side of the microscope until you can start to see a very unclear                   image of something-anything.
          3. Adjust the larger knob on side of microscope to improve clarity. Once you find something a                   little more in focus than before, switch to the smaller knob to fine tune your microscope.
          4. Once you see a living organism, start following it around and observing it.
                        -Grab the *remote for camera and snap a photo using the "Photo" button. The camera                              will save it to its memory card.
          5. Once you have captured a few interesting, high quality images, turn the monitor back to the                   computer CPU.
                        -Insert camera memory card into slot on the front of the computer. Find the card on the                            computer, select ONLY the images YOU took, cut and paste them into a folder with YOUR name.
*remote: I find that using the camera remote aids in clarity of the picture because your hand is not touching the camera or microscope. Just a tip...


After observing my MicroAquarium for around 2 hours, I had successfully seen and identified 4 to 5 different organisms with the help of Dr. McFarland and http://www.fcps.edu/island creekes/eco logy/ water_mite.htm . Here are 3 different organisms I identified:

  Cyclops:

 Nematode:

Water mite:

• All organisms were professionally identified by Dr. Ken McFarland and water mite* is cited from http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/water_mite.htm

Bibliography: 

McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited 27 October, 2013]. Available
 from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/

Moran, Mark. "Water Mite." Study of Northern Virginia Ecology. Fairfax County Public Schools, n.d. Web. [cited        27 Oct. 2013]. Available from  http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/water_mite.htm.

          

My Micro Aquarium Setup and Observation #1

Drew Bogert

Blog #1

MicroAquarium Observation #1

        To start my MicroAquarium, Dr. McFarland gave me a base, an aquarium, and a cap. We were instructed to put paper sticker dots that correlated to lab section, table number, and seat number. After this, we wrote our initials on this stickers. On each table, there was a bowl of water (total of 12). Each bowl was from a different water source around the Knoxville TN area. I chose bowl number 6, which came from "Spring Creek running through Dean's Woods Road frontage" (McFarland, 2013). After we chose which water source we preferred, we used a pipette to put 1/8th of an inch our sediment and filled our aquarium 3/4s of the way full of the water source. After this, we had the choice of 3 different mosses to add the aquarium. I chose to add the following 3 mosses:

       1.    Amblestegium varium (Hedwig) Lindberg. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/13/2013

                                             (McFarland, 2013)

      2.    Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivorous 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. 10/13/2013

                                            (McFarland, 2013)

     3.    Fontinalis sp. Moss.  Collected from: Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under I 40 Bridge Partial shade exposure Holston River water Shed N36 00.527 W83 49.549 823 ft 10/13/2013

                                            (McFarland, 2013)





     
         After placing three pieces of three different mosses in my MicroAquarium, I took the aquarium and set it under a microscope. While observing it for just under 20 minutes, I saw a nematode. Dr. McFarland clarified that it was a younger nematode because its movements were so spastic and quick. By this time, my lab time ended, and I had to leave. We were instructed to cap our MicroAquariums and set them in a plastic container.

Finished MicroAquarium

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