The end of the experiment

This is the last and final week of the blogs. It is also the last and final week I get to observe my micro aquarium, and I must say it has been the greatest change yet. My hypothesis is that the food has finally reached such a low level that the organisms cant even survive. Upon my initial observation with just my eyes and no microscope I noticed near nothing. The plants looked dead, the soil had changed colors, and there was nothing floating around on the inside of the glass. It wasn't until this week that I didn't see any organisms with my naked eye. It was quite a shock. Upon further review with the microscope, my initial observation seemed to be correct. I noticed only two different organisms. Rotifers and a few cyclops, but the numbers were small. I only noticed maybe one or two of each of the organisms. My guess is that the food has been all used up and the numbers have diminished due to the fight for survival. That is my last observation, but I would love to give some quick feedback on the experiment. I thought it was a very beneficial experiment for the students because we got to see how plants help make food and let organisms in ecosystems flourish. I'm glad I got to take part in this experiment and my sincere gratitude goes out to Dr. McFarland, who was the greatest help for the duration of the term project.

4th on the 4th

My fourth observation took place on the 4th of November. I started by observing the micro-aquarium with the naked eye. The water seemed much clearer and the plants seemed to have lightened in color. Only 1-2 organisms were visible without the use of a microscope as opposed to the previous week where there was at least 10. The soil had also lightened up. The biggest difference was that the aquarium seemed not as lively as before. Most likely due to the food pellat running out. Under the microscope I only witnessed one to two different types of organisms. Incredible change from last week as I saw at least 15 different types of organisms. This week they were mostly diatoms with other single-cell organisms. The plants and their leaves seem to be somewhat deteriorating as well. One major change was the location of the organisms. They tended to reside mostly at the soil before but now they are moving around freely, most likely due to their search for food.