User:Sydney Anne Fry/Notebook/Biology 210 at AU

2.3.2016 Identifying Algae and Protists

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to use a dichotomous key to identify organisms in the hay infusion culture that was made from last week. If we observe a wet mount slide under a microscope then an abundance of protists will be seen.

Materials and Methods: Make a wet mount of known organisms and observe under the microscope. Record description and use dichotomous key to identify them.

Hay Infusion Description: The hay culture after one week seems to have about an inch of water evaporated. Differing from last week, the film on the top, which seems to be a mold, of the culture is a lot thicker. It has turned into a opaque white/grey color. There were no green shoots on the top of the culture. All the sediment that was floating around in the culture from last week has fell tot he bottom and is a layer of brown about half a centimeter thick. The leaves in the culture are more broken down and wilted. The smell is stronger than last week but still smells like rotting food and dirt.

Our lab group took culture samples from the top, middle and bottom of the culture. The slides from the top and middle of the culture did not indicate any protists. But when looking at the bottom culture slide; our group found an abundance of protists.

Under the microscope, the protists were moving so quickly it was hard to identify them under 40x magnification. Three different protists were identified; all were motile though they varied in speed. None were green thus we concluded none of the protists found were photosynthesizing. The first protist we found was chlamydomonas, it was about 5 micrometers in length and roundish. The next protist we identified was a paramecium. There were many different sizes of paramecium in our slide but the one we measured was only 2.5 micrometers. It was long and oval shaped and moved very quickly. The last protist is a chilomonas, about 75 micrometers in length. These reminded me of little space ships and moved using two flagella on the back on the organism; the front was pointed.

File:IMG 1050

The chilomonas meets all the needs of life because…. 1.it has energy, it is moving so energy is required for this 2.it is an organism made of cells 3.the nucleus is visible inside of this protist so it is deduced that it has information 4.because it is a prokaryotes, it reproduces through asexual reproduction 5.prokaryotes are ancient organisms so the fact that the chilomonas is still around means that it is constantly evolving.

If the Hay Infusion culture grew for another two months I would expect a lot more mold to reproduce. But the fact that there is limited plant matter and space in the culture, I would predict that much of the organic matter would decompose because of the organisms present in the culture. I question that since the culture is small will there ever come a time where organisms such as protist have no more room to reproduce and grow and eventually everything will become dead matter?

SAF

1/26/2016 Transect Description

Abiotic components of transect: 1. rocks 2. soil 3. water 4. brick 5. irrigation system

Biotic components of transect: 1. trees 2. ferns 3. worms 4. grass 5. squirrel

Description of transect 2: Transect 2 was located adjacent to the amphitheater on American's campus. The transect's main component was a small creek running through the middle of it. Water was running through the stream with sediment, rocks, and pebbles lining the bottom; a few large branches laid inside the creek. There were many large boulders throughout the transect and only a handful of trees. On the right side of the transect was a lot of ivy and a large amount of bushes line the back wall of the transect. At the front of the transect was a plastic irrigation system plate and a walkway of rocks to the creek. The soil throughout the transect was rather dry, rocky and filled with stones. There was a brick that was thrown in the creek.

SAF