April 26th- Algae

I have learned that the types of algae found in the water can indicate whether the water is polluted or of bad quality. If batrachospermum is found in water then that would be an indication of low organic materials/pollution in the water, but if  euglena or oscillitoria was found in the water, that water is probably polluted because those are the most tolerant of pollution.


Batrachospermum is found in shaded areas that contain soft cold water. This algae is an indicator of clean water because they are found in waters with low organic materials/pollution.


Euglena is the algae that is most tolerant of organic pollution. It is commonly found near sewage treatment plants due to the nitrogen.


Oscillatoria is the algae that is 2nd most tolerant of pollution. It is commonly found with euglena, and its filaments are said to oscillate.

April 25th-Microscope

To focus an item in high power, you must start by focusing the object in the scanning objective, then the low power objective, before finally getting to the high power objective and focusing using the fine adjustment knob instead of the coarse adjustment knob. To make a wet mount slide, first put a thin piece of the specimen on the slide, then put one drop of water on top of it, followed by applying the cover slip at a 45 degree angle over the specimen in order to ensure there are no air bubbles. To correctly stain a slide, first put a drop of the stain on one edge of the cover slip covering a specimen, then put a piece of paper towel on the other side and capillary action should pull the stain under the cover slip to stain the specimen. In this lab, I learned how to properly focus a microscope on all of the different objectives and I now understand how to use the diaphragm to help see the specimens.

April 24th-Amphibians

Facts:
1. Amphibians have porous skin.
2.  Frogs are tadpoles when they are babies.
3. Some amphibians have evolved to have no lungs, and get the oxygen they need through their skin.
4. Most frogs have teeth on their upper jaw and none on their lower jaw.
5. Amphibians are animals that live part of their lives in the water and part of their lives on land.

Without water, amphibians bodies would dry out because they need to stay moist with their porous skin. Amphibians are an important consideration when testing water quality because since their bodies are porous the water quality needs to be kept nice and clean or it could be deadly to the amphibians.

April 23rd-Observations

One of the neon tetras that were recently added to our tank swam up to the filter and somehow got stuck in the filter, and we found it dead. Its tail had been clipped off from the filter and we had to remove the dead fish from the tank. The water level was still going down little by little each day. When we did our water quality test, the ammonia had gone down to a good level of .25 ppm. However, the nitrate had increased to 160 ppm, probably due to the death of the neon tetra. Because of this, we had to do a water change, and siphoned the gravel at the bottom of our aquarium in order to hopefully make the nitrate level go down to not kill any of our other fish. The temperatures were 66 degrees Fahrenheit and 22 degrees Celsius.

April 22nd-Watershed

A watershed is a region of land that all drains into another body of water, and includes rivers draining to lakes or oceans. We live in the Elm Fork Trinity Watershed. It is important to monitor the quality of our watershed because it provides us with our water we use for everyday things, and is also the place where we go to do recreational activities in the water among other things. The benefits of the watershed are reducing gas emissions, providing a habitat for fish and other organisms, and reduces the chances of flooding and fires is minimized. Also, there is water recreation available for everyone living here to take part in.

April 19th-Freshwater Organism

The Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki) is a yellow frog with black spots that is native to Panama. It can release poison from its pours to protect itself from predators, and they actually wave at mates and make sounds which is one of their adaptations. Their primary habitat is rain forests near freshwater streams. They eat many different kinds of insects. Many are losing their habitats because of people using slash and burn in rain forests, or just cutting down rain forests in general. Also, some people collect them for pets illegally which is a danger. I chose this organism because frogs are my favorite animal and this type of frog seemed interesting to learn more about.

April 18th-Observations

Our aquarium has been doing pretty well. The water levels seems to be going down, which makes sense because we only changed out the water the first time and have not added any since then. We feed the fish every other day, and it seems that on the day we do not feed them in between the days we do feed them they seem to be more sluggish and more stationary, and they seem to be more active and energetic on days we feed them. I have also noticed that the big molly chases the little baby mollies fairly often like it is going to eat them. Our ammonia level went up to .50 ppm from .25 ppm, and the nitrate went down to 5 ppm from 10 ppm which is good. For the ammonia we put in some pondzyme to make the ammonia level go down, and the temperature has stayed relatively at the same level, because it is now 73 degrees Fahrenheit and 26 degrees Celsius.

April 17th-Pond Water Search

Here is a picture of the worm in the pond water. An interesting fact about the aquatic worm is that it is not really a male or a female.

This is a picture of the snail in the pond water. An interesting fact about the snail is that it often travels in circles.

This is a picture of a scud in the pond water. An interesting fact about the scud is that it resembles a freshwater shrimp.

When we put the scud in our aquarium, about 5 fish swam up to it quickly and one of them immediately ate it.

April 16th-Freshwater Careers

Wildlife Biologist:

A wildlife biologist studies the behaviors of aquatic animals, which is necessary for our environment because if people understand how animals behave then it might make them more likely to try to protect the environment for these amazing creatures.

Restoration Worker:

A restoration worker restores aquatic environments by adding plants and animals, which is necessary for our environment because restoration workers are making sure that the habitats will support the animals and plants that live there, and also bring those organisms back to their proper environments.

Waste Water Manager:

A wastewater manager makes sure that aquatic environments are not polluted by untreated waste water. This is necessary to the environment because if they did not regulate the amount of pollution that got back to the water, it could kill the organisms that lived in these waters.

April 15th- Ecological Succession

Oligotrophic lakes have little nutrients, and therefore do not support much life, whether it be plants or animals.


Mesotrophic lakes have more nutrients than oligotrophic, and therefore support more life and have more plants and animals within them.


Eutrophic lakes have the most nutrients, have turbid waters, and have the highest populations of plants and animals.

The levels of productivity are related to succession because as lakes go through the natural aging process, they will gain more nutrients and become productive and support more life. These terms are helpful in the study of freshwater ecology because knowing that the different levels of productivity have different amounts of nutrients explains why certain fish or plants may or may not be living in one lake and not another. My aquarium would probably be mesotrophic because while it does support life like a plant and the different types of fish it does not just spontaneously start growing other plants, and we have to make sure the conditions and amounts of bacteria and nutrients stay at a healthy level for the fish. Lewisville lake would probably be considered eutrophic.

April 12th-Freshwater Ecology

Freshwater ecology is the study of freshwater organisms and how they are related to their habitats and cultural environments. It is important to study freshwater ecology in order to make sure we as humans do not hurt or disrupt the environment of all of the fish and freshwater organisms with activities we do in everyday life involving their environments like recreational activities on lakes and ponds.
A pond is just a stationary body of water, while a river is a flowing body of water. A pond does not lead to anything, while a river flows to a larger body of water, whether it be a bay, lake, sea, or ocean. The organisms living in a pond do not have to be able to withstand a current, while many organisms that are native to rivers must have some sort of adaptation in order to not be swept into the current.

April 11th-Water Issue Presentations

Facts Learned from Water Issue Presentations:
1. Construction around the area of lakes can cause early erosion which can have a negative effect.
2. Zebra mussels can be a major concern, because if you get one zebra mussel you will get a lot because they reproduce so quickly.
3. Waste water treatment plants treat water and remove all of the solids and other waste products out of the water so it is safe and does not threaten public health.
4. Due to all that goes into producing a steak, such as washing and watering the cow, etc, producing a steak uses far more water than producing a salad.
5. To conserve water in your home, turn off faucets when brushing your teeth, do not run the dish washer if it is not full, and drink water out of bottles instead of out of the tap.

I think the best presentation was the one about water conservation because it was all videos which kept people interested and engaged, and it was entertaining while also giving all the information it was supposed to teach. I think our presentation would have been better if we could have maybe added some videos to make the presentation a bit more interesting to watch.

April 10th-Aquarium Observations

The aquarium is going well. The fish are swimming around quickly and appear to be healthy. The goldfish seems to continuously bite at the gravel and rocks at the bottom of the aquarium, which might mean that he is hungry? Also some of the tetras seem to stay together somewhat in a group and follow each other around. The filter is working well, bubbling and pouring out clean water as it is supposed to. The plants seem to be doing well as well, and are normally very still in the water. When we did the nitrate test the water had 10 ppm of nitrate and the ammonia test resulted in 0 ppm of ammonia. Both of these were in the acceptable results in order to have fish living in the water. Because the results were good and acceptable to have fish, we did not make any major changes to the aquarium because we didn't need to. Also, the temperature of the water was 20 degrees Celsius or 69 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a normal temperature.

April 9th-Ammonia and Nitrate Test

Ammonia Test:
1. Put 5 mL of water into a test tube.
2. Put 8 drops of ammonia test solution #1 into the test tube, making sure the bottle is completely upside down for equal drops.
3. Add 8 drops of ammonia test solution #2 into the test tube, making sure the bottle is completely upside down for equal drop size.
4. Put a cap on the test tube and swirl thoroughly.
5. Let sit for 5 minutes.
6. Compare the color of the water to the card provided in the kit and record results.

Nitrate Test:
1. Put 5 mL of water into a test tube.
2. Add 10 drops of nitrate test solution #1 into the test tube, making sure the bottle is completely upside down for equal drop size.
3. Swirl for 30 seconds.
4. Add 10 drops of nitrate test solution #2 into the test tube, making sure the bottle is completely upside down for equal drop size.
5. Swirl for 1 minute.
6. Let sit for 5 minutes.
7. Compare the color of the water to the card provided in the kit and record results.

Nitrate is a substance made from nitrogen and water, and nitrogen and ammonia come from decomposing organic materials such as fish waste. Ammonia and nitrate can be toxic to fish and plant life, and potentially kill them.

April 8th-Observations, Inferences, and Opinions

Observation: watching something and writing down what you notice happening
Example: Water is clear.

Inference: drawing a logical conclusion based on assumption
Example: The fish seem to be healthy given the fact that they are swimming freely and quickly.

Opinion: a belief or judgement not based on logic
Example: The goldfish is very pretty.

An observation is good when it is scientific and truly gives a good idea of what is happening in whatever is being observed, and gives the reader insight into the state of what is being observed. Observations are important because even just seeing and noticing the state and look of things can affect an experiment and can give hints into what is going on even in chemical aspects of what is being observed. Inferences have a place in science because science is about discovery and sometimes one has to infer and assume things to be able to test them and discover something new. Opinions don't have quite as much of a relation to science because they probably won't hold much importance in the grand scheme of a scientific investigation. 

April 5th-Water Issue Presentation Topic

We chose the topic prescription drugs in drinking water and how it affect aquatic organisms because it seemed like an important issue that would also be interesting to learn about. I have learned that drugs are found in parts per billion or parts per trillion in drinking water, but even these tiny particles can be having an effect on those drinking the water. Drugs are not meant to fully break down because if they did they would not have a long term effect on the body, so even when people just take the drugs like they are supposed to, they still get back into the water through waste. Also, drugs in lakes and water ecosystems can have an effect on the fish, making them eat more zooplankton and quicker which can eventually cause algal blooms and fish death. It is important for society to be aware of this so they know that they definitely should not dispose of their drugs down the toilet, because those could eventually harm the fish and the drinking water which could in turn have a negative effect on the people who do not need drug build up in their bodies.

April 4th-Water Property Demo

Our water property demo was density of water, alcohol, and oil. Most of the demo went fine, but when too much of one of the ingredients was added, we had to pour some of it out and I think that possibly could have had somewhat of a negative effect on the rest of our demo. The water stayed under the oil as it was supposed to and a little of the rubbing alcohol seemed to go under the oil, however when we let it sit for a few minutes after the demonstration most of the alcohol did end up being on top, the food coloring had mixed together a bit though.

Things I learned during the Water Property Demos:
1. Cold water is less dense than warm water so it will sink under warm water.
2. More buoyant objects will float on top.
3. Acids have a pH below 7.
4. Bases have a pH above 7.
5. A solution is two substances that mix throughout.

April 3rd-Aquarium Set Up

Because our aquarium already had fish and water in it, our set up process was slightly different than some of the others in the class. We began by using a siphon to clean the gravel already on the bottom of the tank, and get all of the fish waste out of the gravel. With that we siphoned out about half of the water in the tank. Then we used a sponge to clean the insides of the tank to get any unnecessary bacteria and dirt from the edges of the aquarium that could be harmful to the fish. Then we filled our bucket with water and added the dechlorinator and pondzyme so the water would be safe for the fish, before pouring that water into the aquarium. We had to repeat the process with the bucket about 3 times. Then we fed our fish and were done with our set up.

April 2nd-Plans for Aquarium

Our aquarium already had a significant amount of fish in it, so we decided to just keep those fish instead of adding more organisms and possibly disrupt the current ecosystem that seems to be doing just fine. There are many different kinds of fish in the aquarium, one of which is the flame tetra, and there are 3 of them in our aquarium. There are also 4 skirted tetras, along with 1 goldfish, 1 platy, 1 minnow, and 4 mollies. They are naturally tropical fresh water fish, which is the kind of aquarium we have. All of these fish are sensitive to water quality, however we plan to continually check the water quality and keep the proper amounts of bacteria in the water as well as dechlorinating in order to keep the tetras safe from any diseases or harmful effects caused by poor water quality.  I hope that we have a successful aquarium and that all of our fish stay safe and healthy while we are taking care of them, and I hope we can keep our water quality at a good clean and clear level. It would also be cool if one of our fish had a baby while we were taking care of them, especially because there are already a couple of babies in the aquarium from before.

April 1st-Water Uses

Uses of Freshwater:
Some uses of freshwater are drinking water, bathing and showering, washing dishes, washing clothes, and watering plants and the yard.

Properties of Water:
If density is higher that means that the molecules are more tightly packed which makes it heavier and sink to the bottom.
Distilled water does not conduct electricity, while freshwater has a low conductivity and saltwater has a high conductivity.
Blue litmus paper checks for acids while red litmus paper checks for bases.

Ways to Conserve Freshwater:
1. Do not leave faucet running while you brush your teeth.
2. Only run the dishwasher when it is full.
3. Use water bottles.
4. Do not use water to thaw meat.