Bibliography

Week One-Given information for Water source and plants

Source- Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Rock Quarry N35 57.162 W83 51.960 880 10/9/2011

Plant A . Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011 and 

Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous 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

Week Two

"Cyclops" Cyclopoida sp..Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing. 204 p.

"Water Mite" Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing. 238 p.

Week Three

"Vorticella" Vorticella sp.Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing. 104 p.

Week Four 

"Clam Shrimp" Lynceus sp. Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing. 222 p.

"Paramecium" Paramecium sp. Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing. 107 p.

Week Five

"Algae" Closterium sp. Prescott, G.W. 1954. The fresh-water algae.W.M. C. Brown Company Publishers. 71 p.

"Flatworm" Plenaria sp. Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing. 172 p.

"Nematode" Rainis, Kenneth G.1996. The guide to microlife. Framklin Watts division of Grolier Publishing.230 p.

Observations Week 5

A great tragedy happened when I went to check my aquarium for the last week. Almost all of the water except for a small portion had evaporated out of the tank. When I observed the tank under the microscope, it appeared that the loss of water had severely changed the progress of the ecosystem. Life was booming inside the tank, but now only the plants and a few sparing organisms are alive. I observed two types of worms this week. One was quite larger than the other and moved rather slowly and I believe was a flatworm, Plenaria sp. The other type of worm had a small, thin body and moved very fast and whip-like. It seamed to "wiggle" its way around. This organism I believe to be a nematode. I was also able to give a name to the triangular shaped photosynthetic organisms I first observed last week. This organism is the structure known as a desmid of the algae species Closterium sp. I wish such a tragedy had not happened during the last week because I will never know the potential of the Microaquarium.

Week 4 Observations

I was anticipating this week for there to be a greater number of organisms in the mircoaquarium because of the addition of the food pellet on October 21st, and after looking into the water through a microscope my hypothesis was correct. There were numerous amounts of what I believe are Paramecium sp., although I need to find a confirmation of this with a citation that will follow in a final Bibliography blog post. Along with these organisms, I discovered a small green rectangular organism with tri-angular ends. The green means that it was photosynthetic and I believe it to be some sort of algae forming in the water. I also saw something with the naked eye that was fluttering around the leaves of the Amblestegium sp. When I observed this "critter" through the microscope it looked almost like a clam feeding on the material around the plant. I hope I can find it again next week so I can formally identify it. The last observation that I was able to make, was a new sprout of the Amblestegium sp. growing up from the dirt/soil at the bottom of the aquarium. This made me believe that I have a healthy ecosystem forming within the tiny tank.

Week 3 Observations

On Friday October 21, 2011 "ONE" Beta Food Pellet was inserted into each microaquarium. The food pellet was "Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%. Information about the added food was given on the class website. This pellet provided nutrition to the growing amount of organisms within the water of the aquarium.
This week there were still a small amount of observable organisms, most of which were larger versions of the few that have already been observed. However, I did discover an organism that I believe to be Vorticella sp. This observation needs to be confirmed with a citation that will follow in a final bibliography post. This organism was stationary on the side of a plant, and looked almost like a "cup" attached to a string. The organism was also very sensitive to motion of the microscope which lead me to believe it "fed" on other organisms by acting like a trap.
I hope the addition of the food pellet brings forth a new array of organisms to discover.

Week 2 Observations

The second week of observations became a learning lesson for future weeks observations. To the naked eye I was able to see that the water became murkier, as well as some air bubbles formed along some of the plant material inside. While exploring with the microscope I discovered the air bladder to the Amblestegium sp. Shortly after I was instructed on how to use the camera/microscope and was able to get some cool pictures, as well as a new hobby. I misspelled the Identification  forgetting the "L" in Amblestegium. Bibliography for the identification can be found in a following posting.

Setting up the microaqarium

So far the first day we set up our Microaqariums using the procedure explained in our lab manual. We had to pick a water source from the 13 sources that were available. I chose #5, the source being Meads Quarry, Island Home Ave, Knox Co. Tennessee Partial shade exposure Rock Quarry N35 57.162 W83 51.960 880 10/9/2011. We also placed some living plants into the aquarium. Plant A . Amblestegium sp. Moss. Collection from: Natural spring. at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road, Knox Co. TN. Partial shade exposure. N36 01.168 W83 42.832. 10/9/2011 and Plant B. Utricularia gibba L. Flowering plant. A carnivous 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.  After the setting up was completed, we viewed our tanks under a microscope to see if we could find anything in our water source. I discovered an ancient looking creature that was ovular shaped and had a spiny whip tail used for propulsion. I hope i can find it again.