Deanna - Last Week's Lab and Project

Invertebrates Lab

The lab was so interesting this week!! I really wasn't sure what to expect. It was only about a month ago when Dr. Woodall deployed the BOB's (Basic Observation Buoy's) in the river. In that short amount of time there grew an amazing amount of invertebrates on the settling plates that were attached to the bottom of the BOB's!

Plastic bin used to transport the settling plates with water from the location.

Before we could look at the life under a dissection microscope (no we didn't dissect anything), we had to  match the salinity of the water in the plastic bins that the settling plates were in. Once we took 'sea water' and diluted down to match the saline of the bins, we put that water in plastic trays. Then we placed a settling plate in the tray and set it under the microscope.

Making 24 ppt solution to match the water from the location.

Wow!! There were so many living organisms on that plate! I would never have thought that it would look like it did. We saw tube worms, feather dusters, and some translucent jelly that appeared to be breathing. It was insanely interesting but at the same time it was gnarly! Life is just amazing.

Settling plate with very small organisms on it.

Tray with the settling plate under dissection microscope.

We tried to identify as many species as we could. It is quite difficult to do the identification. Sabellidae family (tube worm), Planariidae family (flat worms), and cirripedia family (barnacles) were a few of the organisms that we found. It was a good lab.

Here's what it looks like under the microscope!! If you enlarge the pic, you can see tubeworms, feather dusters, and the living clear jelly.

Project news

We are getting things ready to take our prototype out on the water to try and calibrate it with the current meter. We have decided to take some extra parts and pieces in case of necessary modifications.

Have a great week and be curious!