syhuang's Journal

Biology Lab 4 Journal
Scott Huang

-Today, we were looking at the contents that we captured from within our BioCube in the lab.

-Inside the BioCube, there were mostly just detritus and long plant leaves. The water was also very muddy, making it hard to look closely for small organisms. It was so muddy that when pouring the liquid into the sink, the sink briefly clogged up.

-The only living organisms found within the detritus and leaves was a water spider.

-Along with examining our BioCube, we also were looking more in depth at specific organisms that we got from the field.

-During this lab period, we were able to take more in depth pictures of our organisms, as we had constant light exposure as well as rulers to measure how big each specimen was. The lab also prevented wind from blowing away the specimens.

-However, I wasn’t able to take really crisp photos due to the camera on my iPhone SE, which doesn’t take crisp photos when zooming close to an object. This was due to my phone becoming all blurry when the camera was placed too close to an object. Thus, I took photos to be as clear as I could make them.

-One interesting organism we found was a water strider, which was still alive and bouncing a lot after spending a week in a container. It was too hard to take a clear picture of the water strider, as the sides of the container were too dirty to take a picture of the animal. Meanwhile, there was no way that the top could be removed without the possibility of the water strider jumping out and across the table, as the water strider was constantly seen jumping to the top of the container.

-We also brought back the slug that we previously found attached to one of our group member’s jackets. The slug was also still alive and was moving quite a lot. It was a dark brown color.

-One interesting plant that we brought was something that we still couldn’t identify even with the help of inaturalist. It is black all over and has lots of spikes coming out of it. It looks very similar to a sea urchin.

-Last time, we had brought a whole container filled with a lot of spiders that had formed a ball. However, looking at this container this week, we saw no evidence of the multiple spiders and saw only one or two. This lead us to believe that some type of carnivorism might have taken place, as the one week in the container might have starved the spider into having to eat the other spiders around them. We also think this is probable due to the nature of some spiders eating their mates for energy.

-Overall, our BioCube had a very strong smell of the vernal pool area. Once you walked by our station, you could smell a big whiff of nature.