Week 1 Observations: Getting to know the Citizens of the Deep

My goal for these first few weeks is to gather and identify the various lifeforms I am seeing, in addition to observing general changes in the environment overall. On 10/19/10, after a week in a dark corner of a lab here at UTK, I had the opportunity to observe the mirco-denizens for quite sometime, making rough sketches of the various life forms which were quite abundant there. In later posts (after getting a good general library of the critters in my aquarium, I'll go into more detail - perhaps attempting to identify species etc.

Figure 1: Rotifers


Perhaps the most easily seen, these little guys are everywhere. They appear to be harvesting as the swim and crawl in and out of soil particles and among the plant stems. Reminiscent of fleas, these creatures appear to be collecting food with the shortest of the leg appendages that extend from beneath a shell-like structure. Also impressive are the apparent tail-like appendage extending from the rear of the creature - which is actually two tails side by side - perhaps used from steering as the jet through the water in search of the next meal.

Figure 2: Paramecium


Up next, these paramecium were quite prevalent. They would jet across my field of view from time to time. I was able to watch them en-masse within some kind of pod-like structure on the stem of the plants, when I noticed blurred movement along the edges of the inside of the pod. Upon adjusting the focus, 100's of these could be seen gathered within the pod, all vibrating maniacally.

Figure 3: Desmid

Found this thing out in the middle of the water off on it's own - striking symmetrical bump in the middle made it stand out - turns out to be a desmid, which is a type of algae. Perhaps pleuratonium->ehrengergii, though I'd need to spend more time in the Handbook of algae to be more sure.

There were other strange beings I have yet to identify out there - more next time!

The MicroAquarium(TM) Project Begins!

On 10/12/10, we began our Botany 111 term project. I set up a micro aquarium using sample water from sample #12.

After dispensing three layers of water into the microaquarium, I observed the seemingly lifeless sample under the microscope and was pleased to see quite a bit of activity. Small, flea-like creatures burrowing into the sparse soil at the bottom. Even smaller creatures clinging to the leaves of the larger of two plant samples which were inserted into the aquarium to help oxygenate the water.

I will be posting images and descriptions each week as I observe this miniature world over the next four weeks. Looking forward to seeing what develops!