Little Things

on my way up to campus today, i stopped by the botany pond on the south end of campus. for my Wetland Ecology class we're supposed to be putting together a PowerPoint presentation on some of the terminology and concepts from the curriculum. i was looking for Daphnia (water fleas).


Daphnia are little planktonic crustaceans that feed on the bits of algae and other junk floating in the water column. these little critters aren't much longer than a milimeter (although some make it up to 2mm and others as small as 0.5mm) and they swim around in little jumps by swishing their antennae with rapid little twitches.

to catch them, i just went to the edge of the pond and dipped in a 25mL vial close to the edge where i could see these guys swimming. the vial filled up with water and only a couple of Daphnia, but the water surface tension had temporarily affixed dozens of these arthropods to my skin as my hand passed through the water. i scrapped the Daphnia into the vial to take them too their photo shoot; one more slide for my assignment.

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i also collected a leaf from a bunch of cattails in my neighborhood. who ever heard of someone growing cattails as an ornamental plant? this set of apartments thought it was a good idea, and i get to take a good picture of the lacunar spaces inside the leaf. the spaces help move oxygen down to the roots so the cattails can grow in wetland soils. Below are pictures of the torn edge of the leaf, and then i cleaned up a small section for a cross-section photo.