Week 5

This is the final week of observation and many changes have occurred since the initial observation. The largest observational differences has been in the growth and development of the plants that have been placed in the micro aquarium. In the five weeks of observation it has doubled its size and greatly influenced the habitat in the micro aquarium. In this final week of observations it is apparent that many life forms have developed in the micro aquarium. In this last week it seems that the most present kind of organism is the stationary Green Algae. In the previous weeks it seemed that the most abundant organisms were the mobile micro organisms but green algae have taken over. The mobile organisms that are still present seem to be located around the plant structures. The plants may play a role in sheltering the organisms as well as possibly providing nutrients to survive. Since the micro aquarium is a closed environment the nutrients available must come from photosynthetic organisms.

Smith, Douglas. Freshwater Invertibrates of The United States. 4th. Print. 

Week 4

 Image 1: Copepoda ( 489 Smith)

 This week there was an apparent increase in the level of activity in the mobile organisms in the micro aquarium. This continued growth could still be attributed to the addition of the food pellet that would add nutrients to the environment and spur growth. The two plant species have also appeared to have some level of growth. These plants obviously play an important role in this ecosystem because most of the activity of the mirco organisms tend to be centered around the plant

Image 2: Diatom (Lund)

 structure. As always both chorophyll containing organims as well as clear mobile organisms were observed.

A new organims that was observed was an Aeolosoma. this organism was one of the largest mobile organisms that were present in the micro aquarium so far. food for them is taken in through their head muscles and use of cilia (276 Smith).


Organisms shown in image 2 and 3 are both photosynthetic. You can deduce this because of the green pigment found in both, that is the   

Image 3: Netrium (Lund 53)

chlorophyll. The organism found in image 2 is a Diatom. Diatoms have a silica outer shell that is often found on the bottoms of water sources after the organism dies. The organism in image 3 is a green algae. Both of these organism play a major in the micro aquarium ecosystem.










Smith, Douglas. Freshwater Invertibrates of The United States. 4th. Print. 

Lund, John. Fresh Water Algae. Hong Kong: Biopress Ltd., 1995. Print. 

Week 3 Observations

This week there is increased activity in the micro aquarium compared to the previous two weeks. This could be due in part to the addition of the food pellet that was added at the beginning of this week. The heavies areas of mobile organisms are around the remaining of the food pellet and around the plants that we placed in the micro aquarium. The micro aquarium is now heavily populated with diatoms and many different micro invertebrates. Near the bottom of the micro aquaruim I observed many organisims that appeared to be consuming dead organisms and others appeared to be consuming material from the soil placed at the bottom of the micro aquarium. Near the top of the micro aquarium little to no organisms were observed. A key difference from last week aside from the increase in life in the micro aquarium was that the plants that had been placed in there have began to grow and form new growth.

Week 2 Observation

Today I observed my micro aquarium and observed a large number of active organisms. The organisms varied greatly based on the position of the micro aquarium that was observed. Few organisms were seen on the upper level of the aquarium few organisms were observed but near the middle (near the plants placed in the aquarium) and the bottom sediment layer many organisms were observed. Near the middle of the aquarium organisms such as Copepods and Clausterium Acerosum were observed. More Algae type organisms were seen near the bottom sediment layer. These Algae were stationary in the aquarium. the Copepods were very mobile and sometimes difficult to follow in the aquarium.

Week 1

Set Up
To begin the term project we set up our Micro Aquarium that was provided by our instructors. In my Micro Aquarium i placed water source 1. To the micro aquarium i also placed plant material from two different provided sources.

1. Tommy Schumpert Pond, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge

1. Tommy Schumpert Pond, Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge, Kelly Lane , Knox Co. Tennessee. Partial shade exposure Sheet runoff around sink hole. N35 57.256 W83 41.503 947 ft 10/10/2010

 

Observations

In this water source I observed under 10x power many micro organisms and noticed different species living at different levels of micro aquarium.  The different levels seemed to be between the bottom soil level, the middle level with the added plant material, and the top layer of the micro aquarium. 

 

Citation:

Class Blog Site: http://botany1112010.blogspot.com/