Botany 111 Term Project - MicroAquarium: A Brief Overview

For the next four weeks in Botany 111 lab, I will be observing and documenting many microscopic organism in a MicroAquarium we constructed during lab class. The purpose of this observation and documentation is to have a better understanding of how things work and organisms thrive in their microscopic environment.

The class was given a MicroAquarium to set up and make our initial observation with. The MicroAquarium consisted of a plexiglass tank, a lid, and a stand. We were given 3 colored dots to place vertically on the side of MicroAquarium for identification purposes. Each dot represented our lab sections, our table in lab, and our seat number at that table. We also initialed each dot for further assurance against misidentification of our MicroAquariums. We were then given pipets and a choice of water in containers from 13 different locations. I chose the water source from Spring Creek off Woodson Dr which runs through Dean's Woods Road frontage in Knox Co. Tennessee and had a partial shade exposure. I filled my tank 1/3 way full with sediment and water from the bottom of the container. Then I filled the next 1/3 with water from the middle of the container and lastly filled my aquarium within a few centimeters from the top with water from the top of the water container. We decorated our MicroAquariums with cuttings from 2 plants given out during lab. The names and locations of those original source plants were given to us by Dr. Ken McFarland, our lab instructor. The first plant was Amblestegium, a moss collected from Natural Spring at Carters Mill Park, Carter Mill Road in Knox Co. TN that grew in partial shade exposure. The second plant was Utricularia gibba, a carnivorous flowering plant. The original source material came from south shore of Spain Lake on Camp Bella Air Rd in Sparta Tn. This plant was grown in water tanks outside of greenhouse at Hesler Biology Building at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville TN. We used putty placed inside the lid of our MicroAquariums to provide a water-tight seal to the lid of our tanks when they are attached to their base.

We were given a chance to observe our MicroAquariums under the microscopes in lab. I was able to observe very little microscopic activity during this time. I did manage to see one microscopic organism briefly swirl around in a circle and then disappear back into the tanks sediment. Over the next couple of weeks I will be making more observations and documenting them on my blog.