Botany 111 Term Project: Microaquarium

Lucas Hietala, Section 002, Lucas I.Wb.H,

Post 2: Observation 1

   Approximately 12:10-3:30pm Wednesday, October 23, the MicroAquarium™ was observed for a second time, and organisms were recorded. With the assistance of Dr. McFarland, a select few of these organisms were identified for this record, and changes in the overall status of the aquarium were noted.

    The level of water in the aquarium remained fairly constant, though it is unknown whether this is due to the seal of the aquarium's lid or the addition of water by laboratory staff. The plants that had been added during the initial setup had little to no change observed, with the exception of the A. varium, which has developed a necrotic space approximately 1/16th of an inch long where the section that has been placed into the aquarium was severed from the rest of the plant. Hypothetically, this can be attributed to the trauma of being removed from the parent plant. All other plants (Fontinalis sp. and U. gibba) appear to be thriving or at least surviving in their new environment.
    The soil in the bottom of the aquarium has settled down, and less particulate matter is floating in the water above it, though this was somewhat obscured until closer observation was made, as the numerous and varied diatoms obfuscate this fact. Judging by the time it has taken to reach this level of clarity, and the fact that the aquarium is only rarely disturbed, the water and soil are likely to almost completely separate themselves by the end of this project.

    During this particular observation, several organisms were noticed, other than the seemingly innumerable diatoms. One was identified by its characteristic colors and shape, as well as the fact that its single-celled body was making a slow but steady pace through the water. A species of amoeba (Amoeba sp.), brightly colored and sparkling in the light of the microscope (Patterson, 1992). As an organism without chlorophyll, amoebas must take in nutrition from outside sources, in this case left over detritus and likely other organisms that make their home in the aquarium. It is unknown what the exact species of the amoeba might be, but its attractive coloration and seemingly singular nature is interesting. It stayed in the middle layer of water in the aquarium, but never seemed to stray far from the Fontinalis plant, which leads to the train of thought that the creature's prey, if indeed it is predatory, would likely be found near the same plant. 

    The other organism that caught the eye was very small, almost too small to see on the scanning objective, and would have appeared to be yet another species of diatom if it had not moved as rapidly as it did. This rapidly moving creature was identified with Dr. McFarland's assistance as a  Tachysoma sp. (Patterson, 1992). Miniscule in size, the little creature had a green coloration, though it does not seem likely that something of that nature would have chlorophyll. This statement is made because of the rapidly moving cilial mouthparts it possessed, which rotated or simply moved rapidly enough to look like they were, pushing water and debris into the organism. Every few seconds, the Tachysoma  moved explosively in a new direction, which was explained to be the creature violently ejecting water from its body and into the surrounding environment. Due to the law of osmosis, water enters through the single-celled organism's membrane in an attempt to create an isotonic solution. To counteract this, the water is shunted into a vacuole inside the creature, and then ejected. The speed and agility of the creature made it difficult to follow in the aquarium, but this movement is detailed in the following video. 

 (Video to be Uploaded at a later date)

Bibliography

Patterson, DJ, Free-Living Freshwater Protazoa. 2nd Edition. ASM Press, 1992. 223 pages.

 

Botany 111 Term Project: Microaquarium

Lucas Hietala, Section 002, Lucas I.Wb.H,

Post 1: Setup and Initial Observation

    On the afternoon of October 15, 2013, the botany class that I'm enrolled in was assigned the construction, maintenance, and observations of a miniature aquarium each, called a MicroAquarium™. This container is a pair of glass, or possibly plexiglass, sheets that are sandwiched together, leaving enough room in between for a bit of water, dirt, and whatever else the student might wish to add. Upon arrival in the secondary classroom where this continuing experiment, we were assigned random locations from which we would derive our water and soil samples, and in the case of observations for this blog, that location was Mead's Quarry, Island Home Ave. (full location specifics are given below). 

    The MicroAquarium™, approximately four inches long, two tall, and possessing a functional area of about 1/8th of an inch wide, more precise measurements will be taken at a later date. Into this MicroAquarium™, a thin layer of soil taken from the water and soil sample container was placed, followed by roughly equal amounts of water from the middle and surface layers of the water provided. Thus filled with water, three different plants were added to the aquarium's environment. These too are detailed below.

    After the initial setup, each student was instructed to use a light microscope to observe any organisms that might be in their aquarium. Upon doing so, several things immediately became obvious:

1. The water and soil that had been placed into the aquarium were, in fact, teeming with microscopic life of many kinds.

2. Some of these microscopic organisms had come in on the plants that had been placed in the aquarium, rather than the soil and water, as obviated by the fact that they were firmly ensconced inside the leaves of one plant in particular, the A. varium. 

3. I was now very, very happy that there are water filtration systems. 

    Unfortunately, during the initial setup of the aquarium, no books or other sources were provided with which to identify the organisms that were observed. However, a generalized observation was made. In the A. varium leaves, several small arthropods were observed, mostly keeping relatively still inside their protective cocoons. Tentatively, they could be identified as the larval form of an insect, as their six legs and general form conjured the image of mealworms or other beetle larvae.

    Other arthropods were likely crustaceans. An oval-shaped transparent creature with several feathery legs dashed around in the water, making it all that could be done to get a glimpse of it here and there. A strange horseshoe-crab monster with long antennae and two sacks of what might have been eggs trailing behind it stopped and started rapidly before hiding in the dirt. Even on the first day, at least half a dozen different forms of diatoms were noticed, though whether this is a misidentification or not is to be seen upon future observations.

    The first day of observations and setup ended approximately an hour and a half after it began, and the aquariums were placed with lids inside a communal container, where the class was told they would be kept safe and not dry out in the weeks to follow. 

    This is a list of the plants that were placed into the MicroAquarium™:

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)
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)
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)

    This is the source of the water used:
Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Rock Quarry N35 57.162 W83 51.960 880 10/13/2013 (McFarland, 2013)

Bibliography

 McFarland, Kenneth [Internet] Botany 111 Fall 2013. [cited 10/26/2013]. Available from http://botany1112013.blogspot.com/