User:Giovanna F

Giovanna Franklin

Matthew Lefauve

Observing Transect 5 on AU's Campus

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to understand the biodiversity and the abiotic and biotic factors that appeared in our ecosystem

Data and Observations:

The are that my group was responsible for was transect 5. Transect 5 is located on the main quad outside of the Hurst building. My transect was 20 x 20 meters and was on flat land. Due to the cold

weather, there was no vegetation on our transect but there were a bunch of little brown bushes, soil, grass and snow.

Biotic: clover, grass, bush type 1, bush type 2, fern

Abiotic: woodchips, soil, snow, rocks, leaves

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Coding of aerial image of transect 5:

Green: represents grass

Purple: represents snow

Material and Methods:

We used a sterile 50mL tube to collect samples of the vegetation from our transect to bring back and analyze in lab. Although there weren't many live flowers or leaves, we still collected them along

with grass, soil, and clovers to put aside and use in our Hay Infusion Cultures. The Hay Infusion Culture was the first method to analyzing some of the organisms and vegetation within our transect. In

order to perform this, we took 10-20 grams of the sample we collected and placed it in a jar with 500 mLs of deer park water along with .1gm of dried milk.

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Conclusions: Although there weren't many organisms that appeared to be alive when we collected the sample, I am assuming that there are lots of little bugs and critters that will be visible after we

let the Hay Infusion sit for a week and when we use the microscopes to examine it more closely.

Identifying Algae and Protists-Lab 2

Purpose: the propose of this lab is to identify and study unicellular eukarya and see the differentiation of algae and Protist characteristics and examine them in my transect

Material and Methods: I used and observed products that were in a drop of my Hay Infusion Culture. We used the dichotomous key to identify organisms. To further study the organisms in our

transect we had to inoculate nutrient agar petri dishes to look at prokayotes. I carefully brought the culture to my area without disturbing it and took samples from the microscopic observation. Then,

I made a 1:100 dilution.  I had eight labeled tubes of 10mLs sterile broth. I had a 100microliters filled micropipettor and added it to the sterile broth. Then I mixed the tube. We pipetted 100uL to

plate serial dilutions from the tubes. I then put it onto its corresponding plate. I had four agar petri dishes with tetracycline and four without it. We left the dishes at room temperature for the bacteria

to grow.

Data and Observations: The culture was dark brown and carried a very rough strong stench. There was nothing growing in it, but by the smell we knew that there were several living organisms in our

culture. We had two different niches in our culture: the top and the bottom. From our transect we collected clovers, leaves, grass, woodchips, soil, snow, fallen leaves, and rocks covered in organic

materials. These are the materials that were on our Hay culture. On the Bottom of the Hay infusion I identified Paramicum Bursaria. It was 37mm long, motile, a protozoa, and it does not 

photosynthesize but instead, engulfs its nutrients. The second organism on the botttom I found was Gonium. It was flat, green, 500mm long, non-motile, and was an algae. One of the organisms at

the bottom was

a Spirostomum which was 25mm long, had a long narrow body similar to that of worms, and had no apparent flagella or cilia. I saw two organisms that we were not able to identify. The first had a

round dark colored head and long tail like a tadpole. This organism was not seen eating or interacting with other organisms. The second identified organism was 110mm in length and was clear in

color, with a large mouth that consumed water. It seemed to be swimming in only one direction.

Conclusion: I thought that organisms might differ in their niches. The organisms on the top would be more photosynthetic because they need to absorb sunlight to make their nutrients ,while the

organisms at the bottom would need to be more motile because they would need to chase and consume their nutrients. If the organism grew for another two months I would expect there to be more

organisms because they would multiply but there would be a low carrying capacity for the growth because our culture is so small.

Microbiology and Identifying Bacteria with DNA Sequences-Lab 3

Hay Infusion Culture Observations:

-smelled really bad and there appeared to be a top layer of film on the surface of the water

-the grass and leaves appeared to float while the soil sunk to the bottom

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No, I don't think and archaea will have grown on the agar plates because archaea grow in very extreme conditions only

Purpose: The purpose of the lab was to examine and be able to tell the distinct characteristics of different types of bacteria within our transect and to test which bacteria are antibiotic resistant to

Tetracycline.

There was a difference in the colony types between the plates with and without the antibiotic. For example, the colonies in the tet plates had a circular shape while the nutrient rich agar plates had

punctiform shaped colonies.

Conclusions:

-Nutrient rich agar plates contained a lot more colonies than the tet plates. For example, a nutrient rich plate contained 1052 colonies while a nutrient+tet plate contained only 241 colonies

Lab 4:

Purpose: The objective of this lab is to understand the chracteristics and diversity of Plants as we study their structure and function relationships. Land plants evolved from aquatic green Algae and

they are called Plantae. Fungi are not Plantae, but make up their own category where they are simply referred to as fungi. Both plants and fungi share the domain of eukaryotes. (Freeman, 2014)  

Material and Method:

We filled up a large plastic ziplock bag with different samples. We chose 5 samples from the bag under the microscope to observe them in depth. It is here that we, classified them, recorded

their vascularization, identified specialized structures, gave them a description, and found thier mechanisms of reproduction. To measure the size we used a ruler. To look at thoier vascular systems

we spliced or samples open in order to record their vascular systems. We had no fungi. We used the funnel to put the rest of our plant matter and taped down a screen so the leaf matter does not fall

into the preservative. We then pored 25ml of the 50:50 ethanol/water solutions into the 50ml conical tube. The funnel, tube system was placed under a light for a week.

Data & Observations:

Shown in table 1

Conclusion:

We had one vascular angiosperm that we were unable to identify. All of my plants found in my transect were angiosperm and vascular containing a xylem and phoem for sugar and water transport

,but they differed in whiether they were mincot or riot.

Lab 5:

Purpose:

The objective of this lab is to identify vertebrates to complete the description of life in my transect. Vertebrates are a monophyletic group of animals with backbones. (Freeman, 2014)

Methods:

I made observations around 11:45am and it was in the mid 30's but the wind made it colder than it actually was. This is when i collected the samples

Conclusions:

These organisms seen in the food web image make up the feeding positions and placement of the animals in our transect as well their tropic levels. The leaves, grass, fruits, vegetables, flowers, and

other photosynthesizing organisms make up the first trophic level. The herbivores such as the squirrels, rabbits and deer make up the second tropic level, while the third and fourth tropic level are 

primarily carnivores such as a fox. The carrying capacity is the maximum population size a habitat can sustain given the availability of the biotic and abiotic resources in that environment. (Freeman,

2014). The community in my transect include all of the organisms in figure 1. This includes all of the tropic levels. They work together to create my transect.

Lab 6: ZEBRAFISH

-structure of these eggs is what makes these fish so unique and the perfect model organism for biologists to study-glass like egg case

The purpose of this experiment was to test how different environmental factors affect the growth and development of zebra fish

Methods:

To begin this experiment, we obtained zebra fish embryos about 18 to 36 hours old. In order to accurately perform and analyze the results gathered from this experiment, we must identify both a

control and an experimental. However, my group chose to investigate the affect of temperature on zebra fish, so we were required to have 3 petri dish instead. One petri dish was placed by the

window and labeled as our “cold” temperature dish, another as our “hot” petri dish and placed in an incubator which had a temperature of about 35 degrees Celsius and lastly, a room temperature

dish which we established as our control. Before feeding and maintaining the fish for a total of 14 days, we predicted that the fish in the warmer temperature would have the fastest development and 

highest amount of living hatchlings.

Conclusion:

-the “hot” petri dish did in fact have the fastest developing embryos.

-embryos in the “cold” petri dish did not develop until a full week had passed

References:

1) Bentley, Meg. 2015. A Laboratory Manual to Accompany: General Biology II. Department of Biology, American University. 12-17