On July 6 we took a bus trip out to Mercer County Lake to study plankton diversity. Some samples were taken along the shoreline either by wading out into the water or by using throw nets to "trap" the plankton. Other samples were obtained by rowing out into the center of the lake to "net the critters".

Sherwood Hall, (center in the picture on the left), the chief of the Washington Seafood Laboratory for the Science and Applied Technology Division of the FDA led our investigation into the lake phytoplankton diversity. Among the tools that Sherwood brought with him were flat capillary tubes in a vial. Because the capillary tubes were flat, they could be filled with lake water by mere capillary action and then placed directly under the stage clips on a microscope. This method reduced the amount of slide preparation necessary to see the microorganisms -- a huge benefit when working in the field. Sherwood also brought with him field microscopes which fit in the palm of your hand, but had excellent magnification and resolution in this application.

Most of the organisms that we observed under the microscope were diatoms or algae, such as those seen in the images above. This was an awesome exercise for demonstrating the diversity of diatoms. We also observed some zooplankton, such as the brown blurb in the picture on the left. He's a little bit fuzzy because he was swimming at the time.  The highlight of my day was when I observed a cyclops larvae under the scope. He jumped around much too quickly to photograph, but he was cool.