User:Sarah A. Lerwick/Notebook/Biology 210 at AU

March 20, 2014 I observed an acoelomate, a nematoda, and an annelid. The annelid, which is more commonly identified as an earthworm moves by contracting itself vertically and pulling its muscles along a path, this is because it is the easiest way of movement for an organism which is as long and skinny as the annelid. The acoelomate pulls itself along a path using cillia, it seems to glide along its surroundings. The organism is very flat and wide which allows for the amount of the cillia which are needed o move this organism along a path. the nematoda moves in a pattern almost like a snake and shakes its head around to get an idea of its surroundings.

The earthworm, soil mite, nematode worm, ground spider, and beetle larva are all organisms you might find in our transect because of its moist climate and fertile soil atmosphere. The earthworm is an annelid and eats dirt, the abiotic factor of the environment. The soil mite is in the phylum of arthropoda and is he species of oribatida, these organisms feed on dead plants and also fungi such as lichen. The nematode feed on live matter, they feed on bacteria, which is plentiful in places such as moist soil. The ground spider is of the phylum arthropoda and eats small live organisms by trapping them in its web. The beetle larva are a poart of the phylum arthropoda and they have an incredibly diverse intake of food because they are omnivores. In an environment such as this, the ground spider would most likely eat teh beetle larva however each of the other three generally feed on different and often non living factors which only have indirect effects on each other.

March 20, 2014 Five plants were take from our transect from different places around the transect. With the exception of one, they were all from bushes. Many had flowers and most of them were taken from on the ground or very very near the ground. The vascularization of these plants are summarized in table one, however out of the five, three of them were monocot and two of them are dicot. The plants which were collected for our sample were mainly very thin with many stems off of the main trunk of our sample. Our sample number five had very distinct leaves on it where our sample number one had no leaves at all on it. The transect was covered pretty fully with leaves which covered the ground.

Table 1: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_2289.jpeg

The fungi which we observed in the lab was surprisingly very colorful. There were green, orange, brown, and white fungi. The plate was almost full with the amount of fungi inside. Scattered throughout the sample were small black dots. There was a small amount of water inside as well as the nutrient agar which I would assumer was the source of the fungi's food. The fungi look like a cluster of cotton and seem to overtake the whole container.

March 20, 2014 When the hay infusion was checked again today before this lab it was noted that the sample was more murky, due to the amount of plant life which is breaking down inside and the infusion also had a much worse smell than previously because the previously living matter is breaking down inside the moist jar.

Table 1: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_1376.JPG

More colonies grew on the plates without antibiotic because the bacteria were not being inhibited by anything. However the colonies which did erupt on the plates with the antibiotic must have been immune to that specific antibiotic proving how fas some bacteria can evolve to develop a trait such as immunity. If a plate had tetracycline on it, there would not be as many colonies because it is an antibiotic. The tetracycline did not have an effect on the fungi because there were fungi on both the plates with and without tetracycline., however there were more on the plates with tetracycline perhaps because they did not have to compete with bacteria for food. There were seven or eight species of bacteria that were unaffected by the tetracycline.

Tetracycline works by inhibiting enzymatic reactions within the bacteria which prevents it from working, and reproducing, and eventually causes it to die. It is one of the most wide ranging antibiotics, meaning it works on many species. (http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/tetracycline/antimicr.htm)

There was not much movement in the prepared slides. There were observed slides which were bacilli, cocci, and spirilum. 

http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_7658.jpeg

Table 2: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_1378.JPG

Gram Stain Results: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_4209.jpeg

January 23, 2014

When the culture of our transect was brought over to our table, there were a few observations which were the most obvious upon seeing the transect. The first was that the water was murky, a kind of green color, which made it difficult to see some of the smaller items in our jar. The water had a dark green film on top which prevented the view to the bottom when looking straight through the top of the jar. It smelled like standing water, a lot like wet leaves, and it had a sour smell as well.

When we took the organisms from the different niches of the culture. We made sure to take them from different parts of the culture because the organisms in the various parts of the culture would be different. The organisms closer to the plant matter would be organisms which consume things which grow on the plants or the plants themselves. The organisms farther away from the plant matter either have a different food source or they can move large distances.

I took my organisms for observation from the very bottom of the jar and from the film on top of the jar.

From the Bottom of the jar:

http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_0283-2.jpeg

From the Top of the jar:

http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_0940.jpeg

The Chlamydomonas meets all of the needs of life (Energy, Cells, Information, Replication, and Evolution). It meets the Energy requirement because it is visibly moving around, proving it contains energy and contains the technology to transform its food to energy. It meets the Cell requirement because it is a single celled organism and therefore contains cells. It meets the Information requirement because there is a visible nucleus, which contains DNA, the information containing molecules. It meets the Replication requirement because there are many if them in the sample, proving they must replicate, most likely asexually. It meets the Evolution requirement because the cell is self sufficient and they have evolved to because this way.

The weather surrounding our collection of the samples was very cold. Our transect was supposed to be a swampy area. Swamps are generally located in areas which are warm so the organisms are going to be much different than a real swamp. Also the high amount of traffic around the area of our transect could have effected which organisms were taken from the transect and at which areas.

In the end of our lab we did a serial dilution procedure. This is a diagram:

http://openwetware.org/wiki/Image:IMG_7265.jpeg

January 16. 2014

LAB 1

TABLE 1:

Characteristic Chlamydomo-nas Gonium Volvox

Number of Cells about 300 about 200 about 9

Colony Size 600 micrometers 700 micrometers 400 micrometers Describe any functional specialization of cells Flagella, large spots inside the cells long string of cells, all clumped in this fashion moves easily with help of cilia and flagella

Describe any reproductive specialization (isogamy vs oogamy) isogamy isogamy oogamy

Our transect was located behind the kay spiritual life center along a path which runs parallel to Massachusetts Ave. It is a rocky area with most of the plant life being very tall grasses and lily like plants. These plants and grasses are mostly dead and brown because of the current season. Because it is a dry season, our transect which was supposed to be much swampier, was rather dry. The soil was not visible in most places because of the rocks that covered almost the entire transect, when the soil was visible, small plants which grew close to the ground sprouted up between the rocks.

Biotic Components We Observed and/or Collected: Tall Grasses Lily Plants Small Plants in between the rocks (weeds) Roots close to the surface Regular, green, lawn grass.

Abiotic Components We Observes and/or Collected: Soil Rocks Dust/Dirt Sticks