Scoping Out

Scoping Out

April 25, 2013

It had been a long time since I had used my scopes.  In fact, I think it was years ago when my daughter and I used them for home school Science.   I enjoyed bringing my old friends out from their dark storage cabinet.  I had spent many content hours with scopes in college, peering at rotifers, insect tarsi, the bristles on seeds, and figuring out how many ovules a certain flower had.  

First, I used my compound microscope to examine water samples.  The first thing I discovered was that my slide-making skills had slipped over time, but I was glad to practice making them again.

I needed to look at the samples of water I had taken back on March 27.  The jar had been sitting on my desk since then (needless to say, April had been a full and tedious month).  I knew that if there had been anything alive in there, it was likely dead by now.  So, mostly I saw broken bits of dead stuff – strands, blobs, and all sorts of old cellular debris.  If it was larger, I could have done an interesting collage.  I found these bits to be hard to recognize, though a more currently skilled person could, no doubt, discern something from it.  It was interesting, nonetheless.

Then it was on to a fresh, live sample.

I made three slides from the jar of fresh water, and eventually used increasing magnification on each one. 

I found cellular debris, but also bright blue-green strands of algae cells.  Color, at last!

Then I found many Paramecia darting about, their many cilia moving as something between fluttering and undulation.  Movement, at last!  I could also see their nuclei and other parts within their unicellular bodies, and recalled the first time I was able to view these through a microscope in high school Biology.

  Drawing from The Observer's Book of Pond Life by John Clegg; Frederick Warne and Co., Ltd.; 1972

There were other things I did not recognize, but they were not moving or colorful.

Next, I got out my beloved dissecting scope to look at the mud samples.  I put a sample of mud inside a white jar lid (an improvisation, since my examination disk seemed to be missing) and spread it around.  I added a little water to thin it out, but that may have been unscientific of me.  I really do need to get myself a fresh supply of distilled water.

Under the stereoscope and my watchful eye, I used a probe to move things around. 

What I saw was:  sediment.  Grains of sediment.  And water, of course.  And some debris such as bits of dead leaves and sticks – but no evidence of anything breaking them down.

Not much action here.

So, what are my conclusions after my first adventure with Cottonwood Pond water and mud, and the microscopes?

1.                  I am impatient.  I want things to happen before they really can.  I want to see things munching, scraping, moving about, breaking down matter, contributing to the development of this pond.  But, it takes more time than what it has had.  Isn't is similar to this wheelbarrow full of rain water?

The wheelbarrow filled up from successive rains.  Inside the water are a couple of corn husks that blew in from a nearby compost pile.  I don't expect the husks, the water, or the bottom of the wheelbarrow to be exhibiting life yet, so I shouldn't expect so much from my little pond just yet, either.

2.                  Life is, indeed, starting up.  There are, at least, Paramecia and blue-green algae in the water, and probably more things that I didn't recognize.  With so much going on around the pond, and with increasing temperatures, as well as well as increasing numbers of daylight hours, things will be happening.  The frogs have told me so.

3.                  I need to do some things in the near future:

a.  make a fabric scoop net to sweep through the water and see what I find that way.

b.  gather or make sieves for examining mud.

c.  make a viewer for peering into water (and something to lie on top of while doing so)

d.  learn more about how ponds develop, cycles in a pond, the progression and web of life in a pond

e.  locate my information and pictures of fresh water organisms (from unicellular on up) or locate other sources to use

f.  examine the detritus more closely

g. examine the algae more closely

h.  examine stuff from the seep

I.  get thermometers for measuring air and water temperature, and take the temperatures every time I visit the pond.

I  hope  the frogs that visit Cottonwood Pond will start calling so that I can recognize them (since they jump into the water too quickly).  I hope I even find frog eggs, or tadpoles.  I hope I find more squiggly things.  I hope something nests in the root ball. 

Oops – there I go again – being impatient!!

Sampling

Sampling

April 21 and 25, 2013

We have been having much rain.  Up to this point, there had been a few warm days, but they were sandwiched by cold nights and mornings.  With at least some warm days, I thought it time to go down to Cottonwood Pond and do some sampling.  Did increasingly warmer temperatures ignite the development of more life in the pond?  What was happening around it?

First, I did some “sampling” around the pond.  Much was flourishing. 

New leaves had broken out and unfolded from many trees overhead and around the pond.

          

                                 American Hornbeam, a.k.a. Blue Beech, a.k.a. Muscle Tree
                                                          (leaves and flowers)

Catkins and strands of tree flowers were hanging from branches or fallen to the ground.

 Young Oak leaves and flowers (bottom), Maple flowers (top)

Willow leaves and catkins

Red-leaved Poison Ivy and other plants were beginning to fill the seep between the pond and the creek.

 Young Boxelder tree

Boxelder was leafing out from its green stems. 

  Many other plants were unfolding their leaves or flowers, among them Prairie Trillium, Cleavers, Stinging Nettle, Mayapples, Jewelweed.

Young Jewelweed plants with two sets of "true" leaves

There were some signs of animal life.  A small frog jumped into the water.

  Worms tunneled in the mud.  

Crawdads built their chimney homes in the mud.

  Raccoons left their footprints in the mud.

Spiders skittered across the leaf litter.

Squirrels left remains of acorns on a nearby rotten log.

The top of the root ball had become a veritable jungle of grasses, tree saplings, nettles, Elderberry and other plants.

Clearly, life was flourishing all around Cottonwood Pond.

But, was anything happening in the water?  Were there small macro-organisms taking hold yet?  Was anything working on breaking down the detritus that had settled on the bottom?

First, I measured the depth of the deepest part of the pond with the same broomstick/twine/rock method I had used last time (see the previous blog entry:  “Measuring Depth”).  Though there had been much rain, the depth was exactly the same as it was on March 27 (21 ½ inches).  In other words, the red twistie left on the twine from last time still landed at the water's surface.

I looked into the pond, comparing it to an earlier time, when we had consistently cold weather and the water had been very clear.

There was still some clarity.  I could see the sediment-covered detritus, though not in the deepest parts.  I could see various sticks and leaves.

But, the water had less clarity than it did earlier.  Also, I had noticed more green algal growth earlier in the year, during a brief bout of warm weather, on sticks, leaves, and on the fur of the drowned squirrel (there is no sign of the dead squirrel anymore, by the way).  On this day, things looked brown, with the exception of some green algae in the shallowest areas.

It was time to sample the water, and the mud.

I scooped up some of each in jars (much more than I needed, it turned out) and brought them up to the house.  

What have I concluded so far?

1.                  I now believe that the seep seeps from the pond to the creek, and that this helps regulate the pond level.  I think the pond is holding water well, due to the clay bottom and the thick layer of detritus on top of that.  The depth remained the same, even after heavy rains.  So, the overflow seeps from the corner of the pond to the creek, and is carried off by the creek.

(In the photo at the beginning of this blog entry - the pond and fallen Cottonwood tree seen from farther away - it is easier to see that the water must flow from the pond to the creek.)

2.                  We had not had a sufficient number of warm days in a row to consistently foster algal growth, as well as other pond life.

3.                  Since I do see frogs hop in, it is not an unwelcome or inhospitable place.

4.                  The recent heavy rains may have stirred things up enough to affect the clarity of the water.  This should also introduce more oxygen.

Postcript to "Measuring Depth"

Postscript to "Measuring Depth"

April 4, 2013

I went down to Cottonwood Pond again today.  I had forgotten the jar of water, having left it next to the log.  On this relatively very warm day, I went to retrieve the jar.

I now have three mysteries:

1.  The jar was lying in its side and, though the lid was tightly shut, most of the water was gone.  I poured out what little there was, rinse the jar and refilled it.  This time. I brought it up to the house and it is sitting on my desk, behind the computer, where I am now typing. 

2.  I could not find the dead Fox Squirrel!  I even poked around in the water at the edge of the pond with a stick.  It had always been so obvious, but now I could find no trace of it.  I thought of three possible answers:  someone had taken it out (not so likely), it had gotten silted over (slightly more likely), or it had sunk to the bottom.  Today, the water was greener and somewhat murky.  We have been having cold nights, but some sunny, warm days (including today), increasing the production of algae.  If it had sunk to the bottom, I might not be able to see it.

3.  There was a frog!!  The mystery is - what kind of frog.  As soon as I had gotten close to the pond, I saw it jump into the water from the edge, but it happened so fast that I did not see any details.  From the size of it and the time of year, my guess woulds be a Southern Leopard Frog, but I am not sure at all.  I will spend some time listening at dusk for frog calls.  During the day, I will sneak up to the pond and, from a little distance, scan the edge with binoculars.  But, the most important thing is ... Cottonwood Pond has a frog!  At least one frog!  

Measuring Depth

                                               Silas getting a drink from Cottonwood Pond

  Measuring Depth

March 27, 2013

Finally, I was going down to Cottonwood Pond to record its depth.

I wanted to do this before the amount of evaporation would exceed the replenishing of the water, and before very much mud would accumulate on the bottom after falling from the root ball.

The pond is so broad that I cannot reach out far enough to do the simplest method of measurement – sticking a yardstick into the middle.  I had to devise something else.

I found an old broom with a metal handle, some garden twine, and a heavy, flat-bottomed rock from the cairn in my husband's “Mad Monk's Garden” (I know - that's another story...).  I tied the twine firmly around  the rock, then tied the other end of the twine near the end of the broomstick.  Then I rotated the stick to wind the twine around it (raising the rock closer to the stick).

Next, I extended the stick, rock dangling over the spot in the pond that I thought would be the deepest.  I rotated the stick to gradually unwind the twine, lowering the rock into the water.

As soon as I felt the rock touch bottom, I kept the twine taut and held it in place, letting water soak into the twine.

 I carefully raised the rock out of the water, keeping the twine perpendicular to the surface (so that the water mark would not be disturbed) and brought it to where I was standing.  The water line was obvious on the twine, so I tied a red “twistie” to that spot.  After this, I conducted the same procedure in other deep-looking spots.  The red twistie was always well above the water surface, so I knew that I had, indeed, measured the deepest part of the pond on the first attempt.

Next I would take this contraption indoors to “officially” measure.  But, first I did a look-around to see what was going on and what had changed since my last visit:

    Bubbles and a seed cover on the water surface

   A weed dipped in water - roots under the surface?  Or the remains of a seed head?

   Algae covering the fur of the dead Fox Squirrel.  Bubbles form and escape.

  Algae. Bubbles.  Photosynthesis. Oxygen.  

    A new burrow, about two inches in diameter, in the root ball above the pond.

There has been a lack of turbulence lately (no storms or hard rainfall, no in-rushing of extra water, no strong winds), only gentle snow melt.  Fine mud has settled out of the water onto the substrate of dead leaves at the bottom.  This reminded me of the formation of some very detailed, intact fossils.  When ancient oceans were calm, fine sediment settled very slowly on the bottom, gently covering any dead organisms, preserving them in fine detail, leaving even the smallest parts intact.  After millions of years, these leaves could be preserved in the same way.  Every detail I saw that day would be visible in the fossilized leaves.

The water appeared so much clearer this time, and so I wanted to find out how much sediment was still left in it.  I collected a jarful and left it near a log so that the sediment could settle.  I also want to explore that little world in the jar and see what else might be in it.

I went back up to the house and stood a yardstick upright next to a kitchen chair.  I sat the rock on the floor next to the bottom of the yardstick and pulled the twine tautly to see how far the red twistie would reach.

 On March 27, 2013, the deepest part of Cottonwood Pond measured 21½ inches, just 2 ½ inches shy of two feet deep.  

I will measure the depth repeatedly throughout the year and I will, from time to time, record the depth of the pond in this blog. 

I will also be exploring and measuring the width and depth of Life in and around the pond, and the properties of water and mud, from the tiniest organism I am able to see in a basic microscope to the largest visitors, and from the smallest changes that take place to those that have the deepest effect. 

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