User:Jennifer Quinn/Notebook/Biology 210 at AU

2/5/16 - Week 4 Lab Notebook

My group members and I went out to our transect again to collect more samples. This time, I collected leaf litter and soil in a gallon-sized plastic bag while the other group members selected several different types of plants to take samples from. Once everything was collected, we brought it back to the lab and began identifying the plants. We searched though guides and databases online to figure out what types of plants were present in our transect. The five plants we collected and identified were:

1. American Holly

2. Common Reed

3. Chinese Holly (and berries)

4. Tulip Leaves

5. Fountain Grass

1/22/16 - Week 2 Lab Notebook

The first activity that we did was to examine our hay infusion from our transect that had been sitting for a week. The appearance of the hay infusion was rather disgusting, looking like a tiny swamp. It contained assorted green, brown, and gray colors. There was no apparent growth visible with just the eye other than a thin, clear film on the top of the water. I took two samples of the hay infusion, one from the top of the liquid and one from the bottom, to prepare wet mounts.

I was then to find three organisms from each niche, however I could only find two different organisms on the bottom niche, which I examined first. These two creatures were (1) colpidium, measured at 70 micrometers, and (2) what I can only imagine is some sort of diatom, measured at 2.5 micrometers. This second organism was very small, and looked like a tiny brown worm. (picture help needed, cannot get picture to have both normal size and frame with description)

Picture of colpidium by bubble.

The top niche had three organisms that I identified. These were (1) bacillus, measured at 25 micrometers, (2) phacus, measured at 30 micrometers, and (3) what I think is some sort of infusoria, measured at 20 micrometers. I believe it to be some sort of infusoria because this video about an infusoria is the closest I could find to what I saw. https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-5001734-stock-footage-real-video-of-cilia-motion-of-live-cell-infusoria-with-simbiontic-green-bacteria-microcystis.html?src=search/2XhBWyeMP0Lgjd2aCABcLQ:1:14/gg

After looking at the slides from the hay infusion, my partner and I did a serial dilution with the liquid from the hay infusion to put onto agar petri dishes. We added 100 microliters of the hay infusion to 10mL of broth in a test tube, making a 1:100 dilution. 100 microliters were then taken from this test tube and placed into the next test tube with 10mL of broth. This continued until the four test tubes, labeled 10^-2, 10^-4, 10^-6, and 10^-8, were each infused. Then 100 microliters of each solution were pipetted into the agar petri dishes, labeled 10^-3, 10^-5, 10^-7, and 10^-9. Each solution was pipetted into two petri dishes, one with tetracyclane (marked with three black stripes) and one without. The petri dishes were then left to incubate.

1/15/16 - Week 1 Lab Notebook

The transect that my lab group and I got is Transect 3. The first thing we did was go out and inspect this plot. We located all four of the popsicle sticks marking the corners of our transect and assigned them each a number. Then, I walked around and took pictures of the area, some of which are displayed below.

File:IMG 0393.jpg

After taking pictures, I drew an aerial sketch of the transect, which is shown here.

Finally, my lab group and I took samples of dirt and plants from different parts of the transect. These samples included soil from different locations, leaves, flowers, and twigs.

When we returned to the lab after inspecting the transect, we prepared the hay infusion. The hay infusion consisted of 13.33g of our sample from the transect (soil, leaves, flowers, and twigs), 500mL of distilled water, and 0.12g of dried milk powder. These were put into a large jar and shaken together. Then, the jar was left out with its lid off.

After the hay infusion, we looked at three types of Volvocine, Chlamydomonas, Gonium, and Volvox, under a microscope. The following data was collected about the Volvocine in a table.