Tuesday, Oct. 16-Week 1

INITIAL SET UP:

WATER SOURCE:

5. Quarry Pond. North west of junction of Sellers Lane and Sherrill Boulevard. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Full sun exposure. N 35o55' 09.96" W084o07' 29.82" 970 ft 10/9/2007

PLANT ADDED:

B. Rhynchostegium serrulatum (Hedwig)A. Jaeger
Collection from: Greenhouse in White Ave Biology Annex. The University of Tennessee. 1400 White Ave. Knox Co. Knoxville TN. Partial shade exposure. N 35o57' 33.45" W083o55' 42.01"
932 ft. 10/16-18/2007

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

My microaquarium is labeled with a dark blue dot, green dot, and red dot.

I filled the microaquarium with water from a sample container labeled number FIVE: using a pipette, I filled the microaquarium 1/3 full with material from the BOTTOM of the sample (brown, light sandy soil matter, some water with fine particles), 1/3 full with material from the MIDDLE of the sample (mostly water, slightly yellow in color, with the same fine particles floating in it), and 1/3 full with material from the TOP of the sample (the same water, as well as several small, round green, floating specks).
I then obtained about an inch of a moss sample, labeled Moss B, with forceps, and inserted it into the middle of the microaquarium with a toothpick.

FIRST VIEWING: Organisms found:

1: I found an interesting organism. It was, small non-green, and translucent/clear, although the middle of it was tinted in brown, and it appeared to be multi-cellular. It resembles the form of a shrimp--a larger front area (with what looked like a round mouth) that slenders out to the end, with a short, pointed "tail," but it didn't have any visible legs/appendages. It moved around in a free-floating fashion, although it seemed to have a sense of direction as it occasionally stop to "feed" on pieces of brown matter. I observed about 4-5 of these, mostly in the bottom/middle regions.

2: Also saw several small (small than the above organism), circular, single-celled organisms, opaque-brown in color. These did move, although they didn't appear to move in any intentional direction, moving in more of a "pinball fashion", bouncing about as it ran into other particles. I observed about 8-10 of these, mainly in the bottom/middle regions.

3: Next I saw a couple large (quite large in comparison to the above 2) egg-shaped, multicellular green organisms. They were probably the green specks collected at the top of the water. The did not move, although it did seem to "pulse" (like a heartbeat) rhythmically. There were a few at the bottom, but the vast majority were at the top. Viewed about 7 at top, 3 at bottom. The first organism tended to migrate towards this... source of food?

4: Also found an organism, similar in size to the first "shrimp-like" organism. It was translucent, with green edges and a green lined circle on it's belly-area. It had 1-3 red dots on it's face/forehead area (it was hard to tell how many there were because of movement). It's form resembled that of trilobites. It appeared to swim intentionally, and it spun around slowly as it swam (imagine a football thrown spirally in slow-motion). I only saw one of these organisms at the BOTTOM of the microaquarium.

5: The final thing I viewed was the brown debris/soil/sand, clumped heavily at the bottom of the microaquarium, but also spread sporatically about the whole thing. It looked sort of spongy--loosely packed non-round brown "cells". There were hundreds of individual "cells", and they were not moving. Other organisms moved in and out of it freely.