Bibliography

Completed Up-to-Date Bibliography

Canter-Lund H, Lund JWG. 1995. Freshwater Algae: their microscopic world explored. 5th Edition. Bristol: Biopress Ltd. 380 pages.

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

Patterson DJ. 2003. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Colour Guide. 1st Edition. Washington, D.C. ASM Press. 233 pages.

Pennak RW. 1989. Fresh-Water Invertebrates of the United States: Protozoa to Mulluska. 3rd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 769 pages.

Rainis KG, Russell BJ. 1996. Guide to Microlife. 1st Edition. United States: Franklin Watts. 288 pages.

Week Six: The Point of No Return

So, guys. This is my final blog post for this project. I want to say thanks to all of my readers and my teachers. You guys are all so awesome!

So, this week is really just a repeat of a lot of previous things, but I do have a couple of new things to introduce to y'all. 

But first, let's go over what we've already seen so far.

So here we have yet another actinosphaerum, one of many that we've seen before.

The little blue arrow is pointing to it. Unfortunately, this one was not dividing like the one I showed you earlier, and as a matter of fact, this little fellow was not moving at all when I found him.

I also saw our friendly little limnus McGee again!! I, of course, had to mess with him a little and make him pop in and out, but he seemed no worse for wear. That is, with the exception of a lot more diatoms making him their home.

I found what I think may have been another limnus at one time, but is now a nice comfy house for a whole colony of little diatoms.

And while we're talking about Diatoms.

There were a ton of these little things hanging around in the MicroAquarium. This picture here is just the best one I could get of them. Plus I happened to really like the flower look this little guy was going for.

And now to say hello to one of our other little friends, a newer one from last week.

Here's a little centrapix, all burdened down by some hitchhikers. I just now realized that I spelled it wrong on the picture, so please forgive me for that! I'm pretty sure the hitchhikers are diatoms, but don't quote me on that!

Okay, now I'll introduce you to the newest edition to the MicroAquarium family, and that would be this lovely little fellow and his brothers and sisters:

I saw at least three of these lovely little amoebas in my MicroAquarium, but here's the best picture that I got. These guys were literally everywhere. And I mean everywhere. And boy were they powering around, just trucking like they were on a little microscopic highway. Of course, I guess in their own way, they are.

So, that's really it for this post. Oh, hey, wait! Just a small note, I updated the post from October 28, 2013 to include the addition of a beta food pellet, which I'm sure all my little organisms were very happy about at the time.

 I know, pretty short for the last one, right? Well, to be honest, I didn't get much sleep last night, and I've had a ton of stuff due today. Plus, finals are coming up, so I'm pretty beat. I think that for now, I'm just gonna sign off and relax for a bit, maybe watch The Avengers or play Candy Crush. I hope everybody has Happy Holidays and be safe if you're travelling.

Signing off for now,

Alison Dyke

Week Five: "So That's What It Does"

Hello, everyone!! I hope everyone is having as great a Monday as I am! Okay, not really, I've been stuck working on two projects all day. No joke; I've literally been glued to my computer. But, anyways, you know how I missed that one week? Yeah, I know, it was really disappointing to me too, and I'm not joking. Man, was I disappointed in myself for doing that. Well, thanks to my wonderful TA and Lab Instructor Ms. Rebecca Wilson, I get to make that lab up! I'm going to do it tomorrow, so look forward to having one more week on this project!!

But before I begin, can anyone tell me in the comments who said the quote that is this week's title? If you can, you get an internet high five!

So now let's get on to the excitement that comes from this week's lab. I actually have some videos to share with you, as well as some awesome pictures!! So let's get started!

There was a ton more life this week, even more than last week! Of course, my limnus was still there (I think I'll call him McGee, because I like to mess with him just as much as DiNozzio likes to mess with McGee on NCIS).

Okay, here he is, in all of his face-paced glory!!

I know, absolutely adorable, isn't he?! And totally fun to mess with. I tapped the glass probably way too much. And I also noticed that he has some diatoms on him, or those little green things that look like crystals on either side of him. Here are some more on what I'm pretty sure are other limnuses... Limnusi? Limnupeople? WHATEVER!!

And... and... and.... I found an actinosphaerum. What is so special about, I'm sure your asking, you've have plenty of those before. I know, I know!! But this is a dividing actinosphaerum!!

I know!! Completely and totally crazy, right? Oh my gosh, that was such an exciting find!! I nearly shrieked with joy when I found that, although I'm certain Dr. McFarland and the other people in the lab wouldn't have been too keen on that. I didn't catch a video of it because it was so slow, but I did see it move some. Wow, just thinking about it gets me all excited.

So another cool thing that I found was a dianoflagellate! He was just swirling around there in the water. Pretty fast too, because I could only get two pictures of him before he zoomed off into the microscope light. The arrow points to the little guy.

This is probably one of the most awesome things I've seen in my MicroAquarium, mostly because I suppose it's kind of hard to find them this way.

Can't guess what it is? Okay, I'll tell you. It's a stentor. That's right, it's one of these little fellas:

Except the video is from the top view of a stentor. I didn't know what it was at first, until Dr. McFarland told me that I was looking straight down into one. I thought that was pretty sweet, and then managed to catch some side action from one so you can see how it moves.

That's some pretty amazing movement for a stationary little fella.

And I found and even more awesome organism hanging around in another part of my MicroAquarium. Dr. McFarland thinks it may be a rotifer that has a mutation, and I agree with him. After all, he knows more about this than I do.

He's hard to see, because he obviously didn't want his picture taken he was moving around so much! So here's the best that I could do.

So, that's really about it for this week. I know I keep promising to come back and add more stuff, and now that I actually have time this week, I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE TO DO SO!!

So, yeah... Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, music suggestions, Agent Coulson, what you like about this blog, what you don't like, favorite book, you know anything like that. Hey, wait a minute, how did Agent Coulson get in there??? But if you have Agent Coulson, and you would like to leave him in the comments section, I would be so very happy!! I mean, seriously...

Updates coming soon, I promise, promise, promise!!!!

So, signing off for now,

Alison Dyke

Week Four: New Life

'Ello my fair readers!!

I'm kind of in the "British" mood because my residence hall has a United Kingdom theme for international week. This means the doors are Tardis' and there's a sign that says "9 3/4 Hogwarts Express," which I am totally in love with!!

Anyways! I have some awesome news to report! There is a bunch of new life moving and floating and sticking around in my MicroAquarium! I am so so so very excited to tell you, my faithful readers, all about them. Okay, well, at least as much as I can find out. I am actually going to try and do another "sister" post to this one later in the week with some more information on it, because I haven't had too much time to research them yet. There will also be a bibliography update coming soon and an additional bibliography post as well.

So, let's begin with the first organism I found when I looked in the microscope.

This beautiful and amazing creature right here is a Limnus. Now, I couldn't get a video, mostly because I don't know how to take one, elsewise I would show you all the crazy awesome movement this little guy does. The end of his head there with all of the little spiky things spins around and around like crazy! And sometimes, it will retract itself into its little tube and wait for a moment before popping back out!

I would post a link to a video of it, but I cannot seem to find one, which kind of stinks, cause these little guys are awesome!!

Now onto the next new discovery!

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but there is a little star-shaped organism next to the head of the limnus. It's a bluish color. My lab instructor, the wonderful Dr. Kenneth McFarland, thinks this could possibly be a diatom, although we are not quite sure. All I know is that is wasn't there the first time I looked at the limnus, and suddenly it appeared!! There's another one that pops up in another picture I'll show later.

One of many stentors. I mean, there is seriously a ridiculous amount of these little things in here, including some baby stentors!! I have several pictures of them, but this one if one of the best. And as I discovered later, almost this exact same picture is on the cover of my Botany Lab manual!

So here are some actinoshaerium, again, just a couple of many. The big clear one on the right just ate something when I took this picture, so take good notice of the enlarged vacuole near the bottom of it. This is the other picture with a possible diatom in it, although I did not realize it until after I'd put in the names on the picture. This diatom is hiding in the corner, to the left of the word "Actinoshaerium." Again, here it is a bluish color.

Here's another actinoshaerium, along with an unidentified organism. I think it might be a rotifer, but neither Dr. McFarland nor I could confirm it. So, as of right now, the second organism remains unidentified.

And finally, here is probably the most spectacular find: an Unidentified Organism!! I am still trying to find something that looks pretty close to this. Dr. McFarland thinks it may be a paramecium (which would be totally and completely amazing!!) I'm still doing research, so the name on this picture may change.

But, since it is now after midnight, I will sign off for now. I know this isn't the most awesome or informative post, but I promise, promise, promise that I will update it with more information in the coming days.

Signing off for now,

Alison Dyke

Wekk Three: Disappointment

So.... my fair readers... I have some absolutely terrible news to relate... And this will be a fairly short post due to this terrible news, which you may already be able to guess. But, if not...

No, I did not find a dead DiNozzio or my lovely little Midge larvae. Actually I didn't find anything, because I forgot to go back to the lab and look at my MicroAquarium.

When I left the lab on Tuesday, I had every intention of going back later and taking a peek at my beloved MicroAquarium, I really did... But, things just got in the way and piled up and eventually overrode what space I had in the back of my mind reserved for remembering to go back to the lab. Might as well continue being honest: I think I might have tried to fake one, but I know that there is a lab sign in sheet.

Have no fear though. I have no intentions of missing any more, and as a matter of fact, have made going to the lab a permanent fixture on my checklist for what to do in a week. And I have several checkboxes next to it to remind me if I have gone this week or not.

So, there's the cold hard truth of the matter. I am sorry to everyone how was reading this blog, but I will be back up and running again next week. Again, I am so sorry...

Until next time...

Alison Dyke, signing off...

Week Two: New Experiences

Hey, guys! I'm back for my second post on this blog. I have had 21 page views since my last post. It may not sound exciting to you, but for me, it feels awesome!! 

Here's a little note on last week's blog, and more specifically about the water source. The water used in my MicroAquarium was collected this year. I, unfortunately, cannot find the email that has the exact date (I din't know where exactly it disappeared to) but it was collected this year. Sorry for any confusion, and thank you to my lab TA, the awesome Ms. Rebecca Wilson, for letting me know that I didn't put the right date in my last post.

Special Note (Added 11/23/13): There was a Beta Food Pellet added to this MicroAquarium on October 25, 2013. 

"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%." (McFarland, 2013)

Anyways, now I'm just going to jump right in because I have some completely exciting news to tell you!!

My Beloved MicroAquarium

I found life inside my MicroAquarium!!!

I know, I know, I know. I understand what you're thinking to yourselves: Isn't that the point? Has this girl gone completely crazy?

But this life is pretty awesome.

So, let me tell you how I found my wonderful little friend before I actually introduce him to you.

When I first began looking at my MicroAquarium through the microscope, I really didn't see much of anything. There were no little Protists floating or rushing around. No cyclops like everybody else seemed to have. There was actually no movement at all.

But then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a little bit of movement. Excited, I move the aquarium around so I could get a better look, and I found a beautiful little Rotifer. Now, I actually couldn't get a picture of this one, so the poster in the Lab will just have to do.

Okay, I know, not much to look at, huh? But it was something. It took me awhile to figure out exactly what it was, because I spent lie ten minutes just watching this thing move around. I didn't care, I had a living organism.

I found several more of them (okay, actually quite a few, like six or seven more plus the first one) as I continued to look around the plants. I even took a few minutes to look around the mud at the bottom to see if maybe I could find DiNozzio, but all of my effort were in vain.

Until I took a chance and looked around the very far sides of the aquarium, where the microscope had a tough time going.

And suddenly, I saw it.

Movement, on one of the leaves. At first I thought it might be another Rotifer, as I'd seen more than my fair share of them during the hour and a half I was in the lab. But upon closer inspection, I realized I had something much more awesome on my hands.

I had a MIDGE!!!!!!

Midge Head

Midge Tail

Okay, so let me explain what exactly a Midge is, because I had absolutely no clue when I first found him. And who knows, maybe its actually DiNozzio who I saw on the first day. I guess we may never know the answer to that questions.

*facepalm* I really need to stop chasing rabbit trails. So, back to what a Midge is...

A Midge is a fly larvae, more specifically, a Midge Fly larvae (who could have guessed that?). According to a page called "Determining Water Quality using Aquatic Macroinvertebrates" found on bluevalleyk12.org, midge fly larvae are found in all kinds of water and "indicate organic enrichment" when found in large numbers. 

The best page that I could find about it, though, is EcoSpark (found at http://www.ecospark.ca/changingcurrents/midge). It tells a lot about the midge fly larvae. In this blog, I am not going to go into a whole ton of particulars, except for what I mentioned above. If you would like to read more about it, EcoSpark has got you covered.

Additionally, here's the picture of a midge from the poster in the Lab.

Thank you so very much Dr. McFarland for helping me identify my little Midge larvae!!

Let me tell you, he is a very interesting little fellow. He would stay still for a little bit, probably eating or maybe thinking about eating, the he would thrash wildly around for a little bit. He liked to hide under the leaf so I couldn't get a good picture of him for a while. Maybe he's camera shy!

So, right now, this is my baseline for how many organisms I have in my MicroAquarium. Most of my little lovelies here like to stay in the middle layer of the aquarium, near the plants. The Rotifers absolutely adore the plants, as does my little Midge friend here.  So far, I don't have any dead organisms. 

So, I think that's about it for this week. I'll be posting so about what I find when I check it next, so stay tuned for more exciting adventures in the MicroAquarium!!

Oh, and since Halloween (aka My Favorite Holiday!) is coming up so soon, I thought I would leave you with a couple of things that are awesome and Halloweeny at the same time, to give you a bit of a break from all of the "How you say? Scientific," (The King and I) stuff.

The pumpkin carving of the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo is actually my pumpkin carving from this year (thanks to my parents for helping me carve it at 8:00 at night)!

So, that's it for the second post of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Botany Experiment. Thanks for reading!!

Alison Dyke, signing off!

P.S. Comments are much appreciated!!

P.S.S. I found the comment about the date. It was a comment on my previous post instead of an email. The date collected was 10/13/2013.

Week One: The Beginning

Hi guys, this is Alison Dyke. This blog has been set up for my Biology 111 course, General Botany, but if you're here looking for references or something like that, feel free to cite me if you think I'm accurate enough!

A small note about the title of my blog: S.H.I.E.L.D. is an organization from the Marvel Comics universe. The letters are an acronym for Strategic Homeland (some say Hazard) Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division. Lately, it has been popularized by ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which an awesome show, but that is beside the point!) Basically, it's the product of a late night, caffeine, and a 3 hour marathon of aforementioned TV show. So, there's that.

Anyways, this here little blog is all about my Botany Microaquarium term project. This is the first week, so there won't be much yet, but I'll be posting each week and updating the progress of my little project. So, let's get started!

I only have a few pictures for this first post, but I'll go on and put them up anyways if I can get them off my phone.

Okay, so here are a few basics about my project:

How Did I Set Up My Aquarium?

I started out with a little glass or plastic enclosure. This basically consists of two glass (or plastic, I can't remember which it was) slides glues together on three sides. This was slid into a base so it will stay upright. There's a top that goes on it too, but in this picture it's sitting off to the side.

When my little aquarium was put together, it was time to choose my water. The water in my aquarium came from Carter Mill Park at the spring source. As I have never actually been to the spring source myself, I have to trust my lab instructor, Dr. Kenneth McFarland, in what he says about this place. He said its pretty much fresh out of the ground here, so there hopefully aren't that many pollutants in it yet.

Here's all the info that was on the paper we were given.

This gives the exact location (GPS coordinates) of the source and when it was collected (10/9/2011) and also the amount of light the water receives. Here it is also important to note that the water is clean enough to have several snails living in it. (They were kinda cute "snailing" around in the water!)

So, I filled my little aquarium up with some mud that had settled in the bottom of the dish (about 1/8 or so of the total amount), then filled the rest up with water taken from both the middle and top layers of water. I then added some plants:

-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 (I thought it would be cool to have a plant from the same area.)

And I have to find out the other plant tomorrow, hopefully. I know, I know. I'm not being a good scientist by not recording what plant I put in my microaquarium. Well I'm sorry. I was a little busy being excited about the microaquarium.

Okay, don't chase rabbit trails...

When I had it all together, I was finally able to put my microaquarium under the microscope and...

What? Did you think I actually took a picture of what was going on inside? Nope. Sorry, that will come a bit later. But there's what it looked like when I got it under the microscope.

What Did I See?

It was actually pretty cool even though there wasn't much going on in there yet. There were a lot of little Protists running around, zipping to and fro. At first, everybody else was talking about these little worm-like creatures they had squirming around in their aquariums. I was actually pretty upset because I didn't have one.

And then I saw him.

I know. How do I know its a him? I'm just assuming. Anyways, his name is DiNozzio (named after one of my favorite TV characters, Anthony DiNozzio from NCIS). I watched him for a bit, and then in an attempt to find more of his kind, moved about to see what I could see. And when I went back? He was gone!

But I know he's still in there somewhere, wiggling around in the mud. I'll find him again soon, as hopefully he'll have a friend by then! And then I can figure out what they are! That's my next part of the project: identifying the organisms I see in my aquarium. I'll try to get some sketches up in the next post, along with some more pictures. Maybe I can ever get a picture or video of my little Protists as they run around.

With much appreciation for anybody who looks at this (including my teachers and classmates, and especially for anybody else), this has been the first post of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Botany Experiment Blog. Now I'm going to sign off and go watch some Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Alison Dyke, signing off!

P.S. I absolutely adore comments! Please feel free to leave a comment about whether anything in this blog helped you with something, what you like/don't like about my blog, etc. Thanks!