Introduction-Emig-Dye

Introduction
What Lives Where

On January 10, 2011, we, as a class, went drain diving. We collected water and muck samples from four different downspout drainage basins. It had been raining all morning, two out of three of the basins had quite a bit of water but the other two had very little water. All of the downspout basins we collected from were in the front of the building. We also collected samples from two puddles in the grass next to the sidewalk. One was in front of the building and one was in the back of the building. We then took the collections into the lab to look at the samples under the microscope. Each group looked at one location. The organisms that were found varied. Green algae, nematodes, single celled ciliates and many rotifers are just some of the things found. The whole reason that these downspouts are in place is because of the damage that water can cause to building structures. It is not necessarily the water, mold or mildew that cause decay or rot in these structures but the fact that these moist conditions foster other decay producing organisms. These organisms are most often found in rainwater or freshwater.

Methods

Specimen Collection: Not all water collection plates were used because they did not all contain water; 2 cement, 2 plastic; q-tips were used to collect the bio slude from the bottom of the collection plates; droppers and beakers were used to collect the dirty water from the plates; all samples were kept seperate to prevent cross contamination
Specimen Study: a dry and wet mount was created for each collection plate; dry mounts viewed at 100 magnification, wet mounts at 40 magnification; each group viewed a different collection plate's samples, and the number of different organisms was noted.

Conclusion

For this test, we collected both a water sample and a smear sample from four different water collectors. Two of the water collectors were plastic and two were concrete; each of the four collectors was from a different downspout on one side of a building.
In the water sample from the first plastic water collector (#1), there were several rotifers and many ciliates. In the water sample from the first cement water collector (#2), there were some cyanobacteria. In the water sample from the second plastic water collector (#3), there were a few rotifers. And in the water sample from the second cement water collector (#4), there was a rotifer, a nematode, a few ciliates, and some algae.
In the smear sample for #1, we found one worm and one amoeba. In the smear sample for #2, there were five unknown organisms. In the sample for #3, there was some algae. And in sample #4, there was one unidentified bug.
In conclusion, it appeared that the plastic water collectors were more conducive to microlife because the majority of ciliates and rotifers were found there.

Results

Each sample was collected from the Santa Fe Watson Center; specifically the water was collected from water located at the end of drainspouts. Where the water was collected alternated between plastic and concrete and we wanted to see if we could observe a difference. So we conducted this experiment to to determine if the material and location of where the water was collected would make a difference. Each site where we collected our samples were noticeably different. Sample one was collected on plastic and contained the most green algae. There was less water at each sample site as we moved down the building. For our last sample almost no water was present, but a good amount of sand was at the location.

Location Wet Mount Smear
Sample 1(Plastic) 20 were counted. 14 being One worm like organism and
round and 6 being worm like. an ameoba.

Sample 2(Concrete) 11 ameobas were present. Few nematoads.

Sample 3(Plastic) Only a few nematoads. One worm

Sample 4(Concrete) 4 bacteria found, thought Nothing was present.
to be cyanobacteria.

Wednesday water samples from Ms. D

On Wednesday after class I decided to take a look at the samples again and here are some of the pictures and movies of what I found. 

1. For sample drain 1-plastic



Rotifer (dessicated?)



Rotifer



Rotifer



Ciliate

2. For sample drain 2-concrete

 cyanobacteria, cilliates not as many living moving organisms

1. For sample drain 3-plastic

Rotifer??

  

Rotifer
Rotifer??
1. For sample drain 4-concrete
   
    

   

   nematode

   

   nematode

   

   rotifer, nematode, various cilliates and algae

   2 rotifers (one offscreen) ROTIFER

Many of these samples had rotifers (http://tolweb.org/Bdelloidea/20454); many small single celled ciliates (http://www.eol.org/pages/4666), some filimentous cyanobacteria (http://www.eol.org/pages/3223) and algae and there was one nematode in sample 4 (http://tolweb.org/Nematoda/2472).

Looking for microlife

Drain 1-plastic

  

Drain 2-Concrete

Drain 3-plastic

Drain 4-concrete





1/10/2011 We collected water and smear samples from 4 locations under the downspouts of B building after a downpour.   We decided to compare plastic catchments to the concrete catchments.  We looked at water samples taken from each catchment and q-tip smears from the bottom of the catchments.  The following posts will talk more about what we found.