Johanna Bosch

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a well deserved and very muddy field weekend on the west coast after a looooong winter ๐ŸคŽ
05/25/2022

a well deserved and very muddy field weekend on the west coast after a looooong winter ๐ŸคŽ

09/20/2020

Look closely and you can see the heart of this small water flea beating so fast! It just had it's cup of coffee and is now feeling jittery โ˜•โšกโค๏ธ.
Before I tell you more about caffeine and daphnids, let's get into some basics. This is a smaller species of daphnid called ceriodaphnia, not to be confused with the average daphnia. At first glance, you can see they have a bigger eyespot than other daphnids, and a shorter head. At the back of its head is a very pronounced indent called a cervical notch that is also important for ID purposes.
The moment ceriodaphnia stops spinning like a mad-man, look closely at it's cervical notch. In the same area you can see a little node that looks like it is pulsing - this is the heart of ceriodaphnia. Researchers have counted the heart rate of daphnia and found it pulsing at an average speed of 300BPM โค๏ธโšก. They also found that the speed of their metabolic rate is affected by substances like caffeine. Yeah, I wasn't kidding about that cup of coffee. Seem kind of relatable?
๐ŸŽต Music by Ares.

08/28/2020

Look at this little one with his two flagella spread wide! You are getting very up close and personal with this species of green algae, at a magnification of X1000. Usually I film on a X400 magnification for better clarity, but I guess I was feeling cheeky ๐Ÿ™†๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ”ฌ.
I believe this is a species of Chlamydomonas algae, but how can we tell?
Well, first off it is a single cell containing green chloroplasts for photosynthesis.
Secondly, we can see it has two flagella of equal length
to help it move.
Third, it has a red eye spot used to detect photons of light so it can find the best place to perform photosynthesis. Isn't that wild? This little cell we consider a plant-like organism, isn't just that. It has the ability to move freely, to sense light and find a better environment for its growth ๐Ÿ’งโ˜€๏ธ. Incredible!
At the end of the day, there are over 300 species of this type of Chlamydomonas, but they generally hold the characteristics I've just listed. Usually they look more oval shaped than this, which is why I have second guessed myself on this one!
Mag. X1000 (Freshwater pond)
๐ŸŽต Music by Eric Godlow "Reminisce"

08/25/2020

It's always nice watching flagellates swim around in the microworld. Each single cell has two long whip-like structures called flagella that allow them to move in a spiral motion. They gather up in areas of the slide where their favourite food is and go to town ๐Ÿฆ !
I've been finding these flagellates a lot lately in my samples. Funny, because I have actually been on the search for flagellated algae, not heterotrophs! Of course, when you start looking for something, it's harder to find. I am putting together a few videos for a Freshwater Biology class, and I am looking for all sorts of algae to share with them (green, red, blue-green, brown). Let's see what I can find in the next few days!
Mag. X400 (Freshwater pond)

08/16/2020

- yesterday I shared a video with you of the paramecium that was stuck in this clear jelly-like substance ๐Ÿฆ . I tried to find out if the jelly is a by-product of these spiral bacteria, but never could. It could be something else producing the substance because there was so much diversity in there (let's call it microdiversity). I found other chai-forming bacteria, rotifers, paramecium, oligochaetes, and more!
It seems like it's a difficult environment to move through with all that bacteria everywhere. These rotifers seem to be trucking along. They live in a freshwater environment where the water is stagnant, and pine needles litter the bottom of the pond ๐ŸŒฒ. The needles from the conifers are high in nutrients and influence the microdiversity of the frrshwater in all sorts of ways. There are so many microbes you can find in the boreal forest!
Mag. X400 (Freshwater pond)

08/12/2020

If you've ever taken the time to observe Paramecium, you know how much they love to move! Paramecium use most of the energy they get from the food they eat for movement within their landscape. The hairs called cilia help the Paramecium by beating in patterns that cause it to move forwards or backwards, but because the cilia are so small Paramecium have to use more effort when moving about. Still, they twist and turn and move backwards like they've been doing it forever ๐Ÿ˜. It's quite impressive to watch them.
While they move freely in their microworld, Paramecium feed on other microorganisms like algae and bacteria ๐Ÿฆ . Here you can see a thick layer of spirilla bacteria surrounding the Paramecium. I'm not sure if it's enjoying the unlimited snack, or just overwhelmed. All these bacteria formed a thick jelly like substance on a single pine needle in my sample. When I put it on my slide I quickly realised all of them are spiral shaped (called spirilla bacteria). Cool thing is that I found so many different creatures in the jelly! I'll share more shots of those creatures soon for all of you โค๏ธ๐Ÿ”ฌ. Thanks for reading!
Mag. X400 (Freshwater pond)
๐ŸŽต Music by Eric Godlow "fly away"

08/07/2020

Imagine being able to rotate your head 180 degrees...just for a snack ๐Ÿ˜›! If you have questions about this, like I did, feel free to ask more about the amazing capability of this mosquito larvae, part of the genus Anopheles. The name stands for "useless" in Greek, which I think a lot of you would agree with. If you know me you know I HATE bugs that bite, but as much as I hate them it's important to understand that Anopheles is not actually as useless as the name claims. Hear me out...
In this stage of its life, the mosquito will provide food for many other larvae in the ecosystem, like dragonflies. As they grow, they become prey for larger predators such as fish, birds, lizards and frogs. The mosquitofish, for example, is so specialized in eating mosquitoes that humans use them as pest control in rice fields ๐Ÿš. So they are useful in a broad sense, but they are also pests. Infecting nearly a million people a year with a fatal disease, many species of Anopheles are dreaded among us humans. We have many different views when it comes to the extermination of mosquitoes, so I want to know from you: should we keep them around?
Mag. X100-400 (Freshwater pond)
๐ŸŽต Music by Prod.Riddiman "obsolescence".

One of the interesting things about life is that when it comes to an end, all kinds of new lifeforms will feed off of th...
07/26/2020

One of the interesting things about life is that when it comes to an end, all kinds of new lifeforms will feed off of the nutrients left behind by the old lifeform. This sort of turnover is what contributes to the natural processes of our Earth ๐ŸŒ.
See these tiny cushions growing on this dying branch of a yellow birch tree? They are a type of fungus called yellow jelly spot fungus (๐˜‹๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ณ๐˜บ๐˜ฎ๐˜บ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ด). Their fruiting bodies form across decaying surfaces like tear drops, and as they grow they often merge into one another. Their life begins in the spring season as an orange-yellow jelly spot, and becomes darker red and wrinkly as the winter months approach.
Many forage different types of jelly fungus like black witches butter for it's beautiful texture. Jelly spot fungus is different because it has more of a cushion shape, but it grows near witches butter sometimes as they prefer similar habitats. Apparently it's taste is not very distinctive, but if you could try some of it what do you imagine it'd taste like ๐Ÿค”?
@ Newfoundland and Labrador

07/17/2020

This is a single celled organism part of the class Suctoria. They kind of look like those old ocean mines ๐Ÿ’ฃ. Since they spend some of their life stuck in this situation, it helps to have long tentacles to catch prey!
The cell feeds using those specialized tentacles, which have toxic haptocysts at the tips that attach to other microorganisms passing by, kind of like a jellyfish. When a smaller microorganism comes along and sticks to the Suctoria species, they suck the prey's cytoplasm into a nearby food vacuole within the cell. You can see how some of these tentacles are much longer than others, giving the cell lots of reach into it's environment. Of course, this process is more complex then we sometimes make it out to be!
It's nice to take a break from work and watch a Suctoria slowly devour some prey. I will be away for field work for the next two weeks, so there will be less compound microscopy, more pocket microscopy and plant identification ๐ŸŒฟ. Share some good ideas on what you want to see macro-style, and I will try to get a good shot!
Mag. X400 (freshwater pond)

07/09/2020

This is going to get kinda dark, but did you know diatoms are used as a tool in forensics for diagnosis ๐Ÿ’ง๐Ÿ’€? At first, this seems so odd, but it actually makes a lot of sense. It starts with drowning, where the lungs fill with water containing all kinds of microorganisms.
We know how diatoms have a widespread presence in water. Anywhere there is water deep enough for drowning, you can be pretty sure to find diatoms. They also have a high diversity in species - species which are all habitat specific - providing forensics with even more information on the case. Lastly, they preserve very well due to their silica cell walls. For example, the diatom you see here is pretty much dead, but because of the highly defined structure of it's glass house, we can still identify the species, it's preferred habitat and more.
Today, the diatom test is one of the most important tests in geosciences. To find out more about this interesting subject, read the paper titled "Significance of Diatoms in Diagnosis of Drowning Deaths: A Review" by Rana et al. 2018.
Mag. X400 (Freshwater sample)

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1 Clarke's Rd, Norris Point, NL
Bonne Bay, NL
A0K 3V0

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