Observation Week #4

Just as last week the M.A. has once again become a completely different environment. Only two microorganisms were identifiable this week, and the plant material has changed.

The leafy plant material located approximately half-way down in the center of the M.A. is beginning to turn brown (from green). The same plant material that is at the bottom has however become more lush. This lush material seems to be responsible for the larger amounts of microorganisms towards the bottom of the M.A..

The most stable population of the microorganisms seems to be the species of Rotifer known as Euchalanis. These rotifers could be found all over the M.A. but the highest concentrations were found in and around the sediment and plant material at the bottom (http://msnucleus.org/watersheds/mission/holoplankton.html).

The next microorganism I observed was one that I thought I had seen in previous weeks but was not sure, and it is a Paramecium (Guide to Microlife, pg 174). I could not tell what type of paramecium it was specifically, but the flagella that are located all around the outside of it's body were one of the defining traits that helped me identify it. There were only a few of these as it was difficult to distinguish them from the Euchalanis.