First Real Observations

   Last week I detailed the set-up and quick observations I made that first day.  For this post I am going to explain my journey into the world of microorganisms and my identification of organisms I did see.  I was completely surprised by the diversity I could witness in such a small sample of water.  Maybe my assumption of the diversity in the French Broad River was right.  When I initially saw all the organisms, I was excited to follow all of the organisms, and scared as to how I would identify them all. However, it became easier to identify each organism the longer I observed them.  The organism I witnessed the most was gastrotrichs which swam across the lens wherever I was observing.  Some interesting organisms that I witnessed were a flatworm down by the dirt, a rotifer spinning around by a plant, and some Eudorina sitting in the water.  Mr. McFarland helped me specify the rotifer as a Philodina rotifer.  The green algae known as Eudorina was interesting because of its circular/spherical formation.  There were two more organisms of interest I found.  As I was studying one of the plants I saw a clump of green that looked like Medusa's head with thin green limbs swirling around from the center of the clump.  On a closer observation it was actually many cynobacteria branching from a central location.  I was then able to identify the cynobacteria as oscillatoria, and while I was observing the oscillatoria I noticed a green organism float by.  I was able to identify it as paramecium bursaria because of its green circles enclosed within the cell membrane.  Upon further investigation I found out that the reason paramecium bursaria is green is because of the zoochlorella that lives inside of it.  It was a very interesting and productive day in the lab.  I enjoyed the MicroAquarium and am looking forward to next week.