Wednesday, February 9, 2011

observation day 3






It wasn't quite as cold out on this particular day and we decided to head a different way through the woods. The first site was in the commons courtyard. I remember eating there so long ago, but i never thought about looking for signs of life. There wasn't much other than a few holes that some bugs might of lived in. The only sounds were from our class and the wind. I wasn't too cold until i had to cross the open field. It was a cloudy and dark day. At site two we saw a multitude of things including a worm and a hole for some kind of animal. It was mostly quiet. With the exception of the wind and a few car that drove by. It was a little colder in the shade as well.  At site three near the edge of the woods there was a gathering of feathers from a male duck. We inferred that the duck had probably been caught at the pond and dragged across the field into the woods by a fox or some kind of larger predator. It was less windy in the woods in the cover of the trees. There was the sound of cars and the crinkling of leaves under my feet. At site four there was a bunch of concrete blocks that got busted up. We could feel the sun on our faces and heard cars driving by. Under a pile of busted concrete in different sizes, there was a bunch of frozen ants that might have been hibernating or something. There was also a lot of moss and mold upon the logs and such. Pine cones and pine needles were scattered all over the ground. Then we rushed to head inside to the heat.

Plankton Observations

While we observed many types of plankton we found out that this worm is a zooplankton. It is a zooplankton because it is an animal plankton. It is also macroplankton because you can see it and its bigger than 1mm. It is in the category of  meroplankton as well since it is only a plankton for part of its life


This is a phytoplankton because it is a plant and contains chlorophyll . This is an example of a holoplankton because they remain plankton for their entire lives. It is micro because it cannot be seen with just your eye.

This is another example of a phytoplankton because it contains chlorophyll and is a plant. It's also holoplankton since it remains plankton for its entire life. Its micro because it is very small and cannot be seen without a microscope.

These are actually sand particles from star beach in Japan. They are also zooplankton because they are really animal carcasses. They are also holoplankton because they are plankton for their whole lives. They are macro because you can see them with your eye and about 1mm.
Pictures by Ms. Richardson