Marine phylums! And stuff.

A few days ago, we went to the Waipuilani tide pools to check out some marine phyla. We were looking for porifera, echinoderms, arthropods, annelids, nematoda, mollusca, arthropods, platyhlminthes, and chordata.

The question we were asking when we went out to explore the epic tide pools was:

Which marine phyla present in the tide pools of South Maui, and which phyla are most represented in diversity and quantity?

Before I did this experiment, my hypothesis was: “I think we are going to find a lot of specimens from the mollusca group. I also think we will find the most diverse phyla will be echinoderms because South Maui has a lot of sea urchins.

From the data results, I can say that I was correct about which group would be highest in quantity. There were over 1,000 in the mollusca group found, while the second most quantified was the arthropoda with 106 finds. I was incorrect about the echinoderms being the most diverse, however. We didn’t find but one echinoderm in the whole class.

Some possible sources of error we may have encountered were improper counting or estimation. It’s impossible to accurately all the animals you find, especially the pipipi. Another possible source of error is tide. If the tide is higher or lower than it was the day we went, it could produce very different results.

Personally, I didn't like this unit as much as our geocaching one. This one was fun, I mean who wouldn't want to poke around some tide pools and find a whole bunch of snails? No, I mean really, it was fun to explore some new phyla hands on. Not being from Hawaii, I could never see these creatures in their natural habitat and I thought it was a great experience for everyone. (except for the poor creatures of course) I'm not a fan of doing these lab write ups, though. That part was not fun.

An extremely angry crab

If you look really hard, maybe you'll see something cool...

Geocaching

A lot of people may have heard of geocaching at one point or another, but few know exactly what geocaching actually is. The definition from geocaching.com is:

Geocaching is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache’s existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache.'

Geocaching is a hide and seek game, played all over the world by people of all ages. A geocache can be small -

no bigger than your biggest fingernail - or as big as a 5 gallon bucket. These geocaches are placed by different people, usually whoever lives in the area, and sought out by fellow geocachers. To find a geocache, you need a GPS device to plug in coordinates. Almost all geocaches are virtually impossible to find without the latitude/longitude coordinates. Geocaches are hidden so mugglers (anyone who is not a geocacher) will not find and take. With a few exceptions, you are supposed to bring something to leave in the geocache and take an item (equal in value!) with you.

I have learned that geocaches and GPSing can be extremely annoying (haha) but fun as well. Being on Maui, a geocache is a great place to get things that may have traveled all over the world. I didn't learn much on actual GPSing, though, because I already knew how to work them.

We found two caches. One was a micro cache. It was a very clever hide, but I can't spoil it for anyone who might want to find it. Another was a little out of the way, which is good because you wouldn't want anyone stealing it. It's name is "Time to Stock Up on Cookies!" I'll let you find it to see why. ;)

-Lindsey

Awesome video of Aspen showing you how to turn on and mark a waypoint on the GPS.

Termite Observations

I have learned a lot about termites the past few weeks, but what really made my learning stand out was having termites in the room to observe.

First, we learned the basics on termites through general research on the computer. Then we were able to work with the for real. First, we got a small jar and put wood, 120 grams of silica sand and 19 mL of water into the jar. The wood was a small piece of Douglas Fir, not more than 1 x 1 inch. When we poured the water into the sand, it left a hole in the sand that the termites seemed to like. About half went into the hole and the other half gathered around the wood.

After a week, they started making tunnels but only managed to make a small dent in the wood. Some may have been dead, I was unsure since it was hard to tell. The dand was still wet and most of the tunnels were on the bottom. Two weeks later the termites have not finished the wood as I had predicted at first, but they did make more tunnels and bring some wood to the bottom.

Sadly, someone messed with our termites and the sand, wood, and tunnels were rearranged. Some died but others began to reconstruct their home. They are very hardworking insects. The last time I saw them, someone messed up their jar up again. I am almost positive all of them are dead because not only were they crushed, but the wood is dry and so is the sand.

All in all, I did like this experiment. It was great to see the termites work right in front of us. I hate they had to die in the end. It seems cruel, even though are just termites.

Symbiosis - Protozoa and Termite lab

In this lab, we explored the symbiotic relationship between a termite and protozoa.

What is a symbiotic relationship, you may ask? A symbiotic relationship is when two different species work together and benefit from eachother. How do termites benefit from protozoa and vice versa? When a termite eats wood, the protozoa gets food. They also get shelter by living in the termite's gut. The termite gets energy from the acetate the protozoa produces.

When we studied this in the lab, we had to have a live termite to start with. To get the protozoa out of the gut, we needed to grab the very end of the termite as well as the thorax. (The thorax is the section between the head and abdomen of an insect) With special tweezers, we pulled the end of the termite gently so the guts would come out. They were unusually long and stringy.

After we did that, we got a slide and distilled water to put the guts in. When that was done, it was time to look at them through the slide! They seemed to have hair around them and they were moving around a lot, not to mention they were all different sizes. There were also a lot of them - they must be very small for so many of them to fit into a tiny termite gut! I personally learned a lot by watching these little creatures under a microscope. It made me see how complex life can be, all the way down to a tiny, one celled organism.

Thank you to the group I stole the pictures from, btw. If you want credit for them, let me know.

Lindsey