Micro mania
Background
Fernhill Wetlands is full of life with plants birds, reptiles and mammals. But, we think the most important things are the things you can't see!
"Micros" or micro-organisms are tiny living things that can be an animal or a plant. You need a microscope to see it, you can't see it with your naked eye. There are many tiny micros in water, and they can be an indicator of water quality. We are helping Fern hill wetlands to monitor their restoration project to see if the water is clean. Our group's job is to see if Dabbler's Marsh or the Experimental Wetlands ids the better habitat for micro-organisms.
Research Question
Is there a greater diversity of micro invertebrate in Dabblers Marsh or in Experimental Wetland?
Methods
We took water samples and we put the micros in jars then we took them back to microscope to monitor and identify. We got the micro invertebrates from Dabbler's Marsh and the Experimental Wetlands.
Fernhill Wetlands is full of life with plants birds, reptiles and mammals. But, we think the most important things are the things you can't see!
"Micros" or micro-organisms are tiny living things that can be an animal or a plant. You need a microscope to see it, you can't see it with your naked eye. There are many tiny micros in water, and they can be an indicator of water quality. We are helping Fern hill wetlands to monitor their restoration project to see if the water is clean. Our group's job is to see if Dabbler's Marsh or the Experimental Wetlands ids the better habitat for micro-organisms.
Research Question
Is there a greater diversity of micro invertebrate in Dabblers Marsh or in Experimental Wetland?
Methods
We took water samples and we put the micros in jars then we took them back to microscope to monitor and identify. We got the micro invertebrates from Dabbler's Marsh and the Experimental Wetlands.
Findings
Our data shows that we found more and more miros in experimental wetlands each time. |
It was cool to see all the cool algae from the experimental wetlands. It provides food for micros to help them live. Also it was surprising to see how little micro orgainisms are in dabblers marsh. |
Conclusion:
Our hypothesis was wrong, there was more micro organisms in the Experimental Wetlands than Dabbler's Marsh. Because micro-organisms are an indicator of water quality - they shows which water is a better habitat for life, which is the experimental wetlands. Our research shows that Clean Water Services are doing their job well because they clear our waste water but still make it able for animals to life in the water.
Some errors we could of made were not looking at dabblers marsh close enough to find micros, but we are confident with our overall results. We are wondering how the water quality is in the summer and whether the micros will go to Dabbler's marsh for shade from all the trees.
Our hypothesis was wrong, there was more micro organisms in the Experimental Wetlands than Dabbler's Marsh. Because micro-organisms are an indicator of water quality - they shows which water is a better habitat for life, which is the experimental wetlands. Our research shows that Clean Water Services are doing their job well because they clear our waste water but still make it able for animals to life in the water.
Some errors we could of made were not looking at dabblers marsh close enough to find micros, but we are confident with our overall results. We are wondering how the water quality is in the summer and whether the micros will go to Dabbler's marsh for shade from all the trees.
Reflection
Our research at Fernhill was lots of fun, but very challenging and hard.
We really enjoyed the chance to spend time in the outdoors. It was hard to see all the creatures through the microscope and hard to get good water samples. We learned how to analyze all of the data we calculated. We hope that come to learn more at the Wetlands soon.
Our research at Fernhill was lots of fun, but very challenging and hard.
We really enjoyed the chance to spend time in the outdoors. It was hard to see all the creatures through the microscope and hard to get good water samples. We learned how to analyze all of the data we calculated. We hope that come to learn more at the Wetlands soon.