First One Down

Nine new traps were set at the same location at Rio Salado, and on Monday I went down to retrieve one of my traps I set earlier this semester. (Thankfully all of the new ones were still there). To retrieve the traps I brought a bucket with me and added a bit of pond water to it so the pack wouldn’t dry out. Then I brought it into the lab to label it and separate into plastic bags. Wednesday I was finally able to go through the first one and so far I have identified dragonflies, mayflies, snails, and a very high amount of scuds. Scuds are crustaceans which are a close relative of crayfish and shrimp. I’m going to finish going through the second half of the trap on Friday.

Decided on Monday

I decided to have my new leaf packs set before I pull the other two so I have plenty of time to dissect them on Monday. As of right now there is two placed at Rio Salado Park off of Central and each trap has two bags tied together, so I essentially have four to go through. Wednesday I Filled 9 more with the same dried sycamore leaves from the tree at Phoenix College over by the green house. Josh and I spoke and we’re thinking of using stakes to anchor the traps down rather than relying on a stray tree branch that might break off. Also if I do this I won’t have to tie the traps together, so if I lose one trap I’m not essentially losing two.

No Bugs, No Glory... Can't Wait to Find Out!!

I didn’t do a blog post the week before spring break… So I’m on here to update everyone on my progress. Fortunately, two of the three leaf pack traps I placed are intact at Rio Salado Park. After the field trip on Friday (tomorrow) I am going to prepare some more traps with sycamore leaves from Phoenix College to hopefully set this weekend (maybe I will find someone to help me). It has been about four weeks since I placed them so I need to retrieve them sometime next week! I will keep everyone posted! Thankfully there is still enough time in the semester to continue placing traps so I can come up with as much data as possible. I wasn’t able to actually do a successful one last semester so this should be exciting. In the meantime I’m going to quiz myself on my aquatic macroinvertebrate knowledge so I’m ready for when pull them next week.

Two out of Three... Not bad

At Rio Salado today (02/27/2014)

 

These last few weeks for me have been very intense and stressful so I have not been able to spend as much time in the lab as I would have liked to. Although I did go and check on my traps today, and I was relieved to find that two of the three I set are still there. Unfortunately one of them is missing, and it looks like someone had cut the rope it was attached to which was set at the most polluted part of the pond. However, I was not expecting any of them to be there at all, so was relieved that I don’t have to completely start over. I’m going into lab tomorrow (Friday) and I will probably prepare a few more traps so I can compare my results. For the next few traps I set I would like to see if I can get some white or clear rope so they won’t be as noticeable.  Last Friday I had a blast attending the field trip to the Wildlife World Zoo at Litchfield Park. There was a lot to see and plenty of activities to keep us entertained.

 

 

Our convoy at one of the exhibits

 

 

TGIF! Well... almost

Hey all! I’m planning on heading over to Rio Salado Park to check on my traps to make sure they are still intact so I will update everyone on that next week (cross your fingers!!). This week was definitely short, though I can say I’m glad it is practically over. I had a Calculus and a Biology test, one after another so it feels good to put my flash cards back in their box, well… at least temporarily. What a better way to unwind than by going to the Wildlife World Zoo at Litchfield Park on Friday with all my S-STEM buddies! Can’t wait to see everyone!

 

Rio Salado Park

Unfortunately I missed lab on Monday I had some stuff I had to take care of for my biology class. So I went in on Tuesday to write up my research question and to develop my hypothesis for my leaf pack trap project. Originally I had planned to place traps in three different water locations that we had checked out last semester at Rio Salado Park. I was hoping to place one at the river and the other two, at two ponds near the river. Well, of course when I got there I realized the river had dried up so since I need to get the project started I had to make some last minute decisions. I decided to place all three in the same pond of which I found three different areas along the bank. The first was a very polluted area with dead trees and such, the second was several yards down and was clearer, the last one was on the other side of the pond that was the clearest of the three locations. There are several things I can test for so I’m going in on Friday to go over my protocol.

The pictures make it look much worse than it actually was

 

Clearest

 

Most polluted

 

 

What a busy Bee!

Last Friday (1/31/14) I went into lab and ran my extraction (Bee DNA) to make sure I actually got DNA. It was ran through electrophoresis gel and sure enough there was a bright yellow band (yaay!!). Monday I went into lab to run a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), used to amplify a specific DNA sequence.

The DNA is apparent, however it did not migrate down the gel, which could be due to a number of reasons. To get a start the process of elimination, we decided to run the electrophoresis gel through a machine were we can control the voltage. In the meantime, I am planning on setting my leaf pack traps on Friday. I'm anticipating setting them at two different locations, one set will be at Encanto Park and the other at Rio Salado. PLEASE DON'T LET IT RAIN!!

Solution for PCR

As you can see there was no movement, however the bright bands indicate the presence of DNA.















The second run... I didn't have time to check it so I will  find out when I go in on Friday.