Introduction to Marine Plankton

Introduction
        Plankton comes from the greek word Planktos meaning drifter or wanderer. All types of plankton are unable to swine against current or wind. The four ways to classify plankton are by, food, color, lifestyle, and size. There are two ways plankton gather nutrition, photosynthesis and heterotrophic. Plankton that gather energy throughout photosynthesis are called phytoplankton, and plankton that eat from other sources are called (heterotrophic) are called zooplankton. Plankton can also be classified by color, the common colors are green, brown, red, blue-green, and golden. 90% of oxygen comes from the blue-green plankton. A holoplankton meaning being their whole life as plankton consist of algae and jellyfish, meroplankton meaning part of their life is plankton consist of barnacles, larval and fish. The last way to classify them is by their size, the largest can get up to 2mm, and they are called megaplankton, microplankton  can get from .06mm-.5mm, and the smallest  called untraplankton are .005mm.


Question:
What is the diversity of plankton in South Maui?


Hypothesis:
I hypothesize that we will find 50 plankton in the South Maui Harbor.


Prediction:
If we find more or less plankton at our first location we might find a different amount somewhere else.


Materials:
Plankton net, jars, journal, pipette, microscope slides, cover slip, I.D. book.


Procedures:


Collecting a plankton sample:

1.) Put plankton net into the water.
2.) Pull the net through the water so that plankton can be caught inside.
3.) Take the plankton net out of the water.
4.) Pull out the sample jar at the bottom of the net.


Turbidity:
1.) First take a sample of water
2.) Take the sample paper with different shades of circles
3.) Look through the sample and compare witch one you can see the clearest.
4.) The number next to the picture will be your turbidity.

Temp:
1.) Lower the thermometer four inches below the water surface.
2.) Keep the thermometer in the water for about two minutes, until there is a constant reading.
3.) Record the measurement in Celsius.


Dissolved Oxygen:
1.) Immerse a bottle in the water.
2.) Allow water to over flow for three minutes.
3.) Make sure there are no air bubbles.
4.)Add 8 drops of Manganous Sulfate Solution and 8 drops of Alkaline Potassium Iodide Azide.
5.) Cap the bottle, and make sure there is no air inside.
6.) Allow the sample to stand, when the sample turns clear, shake again.
7.)Add 8 drops of Sulfuric Acid 1:1 Reagent. Cap and invert repeatedly until the reagent and the precipitate have dissolved. A clear yellow to brown-orange color will develop depending on the oxygen content of the sample.


Salinity:
1.) Fill test tube (0778) to 10 mL line with demineralized water from the Demineralizer Bottle (1151).
2.) Fill the 0 - 1.0 Direct Reading Titrator (0376) to 0 line with sample water.
3.) Dispense 0.5 mL of sample water into titration tube by depressing plunger until tip is at 0.5 line.
4.) Add 3 drops of Salinity Indicator Reagent A (7460). Cap and gently swirl to mix. Solution will turn yellow.
5.) Fill the 0-20 Direct Reading Titrator (0378) with *Salinity Titration Reagent B (7461DR). Insert Titrator into hole of cap.
6.) While gently swirling sample, slowly depress the plunger until color changes from yellow to pink-brown. Read test result where the large ring on the Titrator meets the Titrator barrel . Record as ppt Salinity.
7.) If Titrator becomes empty before color change occurs, refill and continue titrating. Add original amount (20 ppt) to final result.


Phosphates:
1.) Fill the 50 ml graduated cylinder to the 50 ml line with the water sample. Pour into a 125 ml Erlenmeyer flask
2.) Use a 1ml pipette to add 1ml, of Sulfuric Acid, 36% to the flask. Swirl to mix.
3.) Use the 0.05 g spoon to add one measure of Ammonium Persulfate. Swirl to dissolve.
4.) Add a few boiling stones. Place the flask on a hot plate, small backpacking stove or Sterno and boil gently for 30 minutes. Add deionized water to the sample during the boiling to maintain a volume between 10 and 50 ml. Permit the volume to decrease to approximately 10 ml (about 1/4 inch of water) at the end of the boiling step, but do not allow the sample to go to dryness or to dense white sulfur trioxide fumes. Remove from the hot plate and cool.
5.) Add one drop of Phenolphthalein Indicator, 1% to the cooled sample.
6.) While swirling the flask, use a 1 ml- pipette to add Sodium Hydroxide dropwise until the solution turns faint pink. A volume of slightly less than 3 ml is required.
7.) While swirling the flask, add Sulfuric Acid, 36%, one drop at a time, until the pink color disappears.
8.) Quantitatively transfer the sample, which should be at room temperature, to the 50 ml graduated cylinder. After transferring the solution from the flask to the graduated cylinder, wash the flask with a little deionized water and add it to the solution in the graduated cylinder. Dilute the solution in the graduated cylinder to exactly 50 ml using deionized water and mix well.
9.) Fill a test tube to the 10 ml line with the test sample from step 9.
10.) Use the 1.0 ml pipette to add 1.0 ml of Phosphate Acid Reagent. Cap and mix.


Nitrates:
1.)  Fill sample bottle with water.
2.) Rinse and fill one test tube to the 2.5 ml line with water from the sample bottle,
3.) Dilute to the 5 ml line with the Mixed Acid Reagent, Cap and mix. Wait 2 minutes.
4.) Use the 0.1 g spoon to add one level measure (avoid any excess) of Nitrate Reducing Reagent
5.) Insert the test tube into the Nitrate Nitrogen Comparator. Match the sample color to a color standard.
6.) Place the reacted sample in a clearly marked container. Arrangements should be made with toxic material handlers for safe disposal. Please wash your hands after this water test is completed.


Turbidity: OJTU 0 (excellent)
Temp: 20.4c
Dissolved Oxygen: 0
Salinity: 1.02 or 26%
Phosphates: 2.09
Nitrate: 2
Time: around 12:50
current/tides/waves:
Wind:

How to mount and observe compound microscope and digital proscope.


Compound microscope:


First you take a slide and put a couple drops of the plankton sample using a pipette  and cover it with the cover slip.  Then you put it on the lowest setting to view, make sure that you plug in the microscope so you can clearly see the sample better.


Digital Proscope:


To use the digital proscope you need to mount the scope on the stand. Next put a few drops of the plankton sample in a petri dish, once you have that open the proscope software on the computer. Put the tip of the microscope in the petri dish slightly touching the plankton sample, this will help it to focus on the computer to see it more clearly.


Conclusion:
     My question in the beginning of this lab was, what is the diversity of plankton in South Maui. When we used the proscope to identify plankton we found about six different species. There was a lot of the same species that we kept seeing throughout the scope. My hypothesis was not correct because we found less then 50 different species in the South Maui Harbor. If we went to multiple beaches we could have possibly found more species of plankton.


Possible sources of error:
    Some errors could have been that we miss identified the plankton species according to the I.D book. Other errors could be that we counted or identified things that looks like plankton such as air bubbles or algae.