Oil Unaffected

After a couple weeks break from posting, it's time I finally get back into documenting my findings. To begin, I'd like to skip over the phytoplankton and get to the more exciting second part of the experimentation Mr. Soderblom and I conducted a few weeks ago. As I blogged about before, we exposed groups of Artemia to the phytoplankton which had been feeding off the oil for a solid week. Well, when I returned the next week to observe them, I discovered that despite the contaminated groups' fecal matter appearing darker than the control groups, there were no obvious signs of toxic overload or death. Actually, none of the Artemia from any group died or appeared sickly. This is surprising for two reasons. 

One, the phytoplankton we fed them was not their preferred diet. Mr. Soderblom usually feeds these brine shrimp with Nannochloropsis, a smaller, non-motile species of algae that are more spherical in shape than the motile Tetraselmis. But, given that both are green algae, I guess it's not really much a surprise that the shrimp were still able to thrive off the substitute species. It'd basically be like switching out someone's Gatorade for Sprite. Sure, it's a soda and not a sport's drink, but it's not as severe of a change as if the drink had been switched to gasoline instead.

The second and more relevant reason is that this means that even if the petroleum levels reach an insanely high concentration in their food source, it will not cause these critters to keel over and die. It also possibly alludes to this trend continuing up the food web, with the initial exposure not really severely affecting any of the consumers too drastically. 

Something to keep in mind, though, is that this is a single generation of shrimp we're observing. It is incredibly possible that if the Artemia were allowed to reproduce, they'd develop mutations or become sterile due to the prolonged exposure to the toxic hydrocarbons within the oil. Or, on the flip side, it's also plausible to believe that because the phytoplankton (usually) increased in cell density with rising oil levels, the shrimp population would similarly increase and start a chain reaction of increased population among all levels of the oceanic food chain. (This DOES NOT mean I endorse dumping oil into the ocean in an attempt to increase marine life quantity because as seen with all the sad Dawn commercials, while oil slicks may not harm algae, they will kill birds, otters, and cute, tiny ducklings.)

Moving on from that, we also did something cool with our microscopes. We both attempted immersion viewing. Immersion viewing involves placing a drop of a viscous, clear substance with the consistency of honey on top of the slide cover. Once you adjust the 10X and 40X objectives to be in focus and have selected a cell to focus on, you move the stage down and switch your objectives to be in between the 40X and 100X. You place a drop (just one) of the substance on your slide and then fully switch to the 100X objective. Very slowly, you move the stage up till the lens of the objective becomes just submerged in the substance. Now comes the hard part. You have to refocus the objective onto the cell you originally focused on, and let me tell you, it is much harder than it seems. I was never once able to do it without Mr. Soderblom's help. But once you do have it focused, you can view the inside of the cell. Below are pictures we captured of the Nannochloropsis and Tetraselmis, respectively. On the Tetraselmis, you can just barely see one of it's three flagella that help to propel it through its environment.

Anyways, that's all the exciting news I've got. For the next trial, we're allowing the Artemia to continue growing with the contaminated algae to see how more prolonged exposure will affect them. This will probably be one of our last experiments as it is time I move on to compare my research to other previous studies. Mr. Soderblom has already started me off with a study conducted in the 1800's.

I've also taken out a book detailing the causes behind the Deepwater Horizon disaster and I plan to watch Deepwater Horizon starring Mark Wahlberg. Though the reasoning behind the actual explosion is unnecessary for my research, I would like to answer a few of my own questions about it. What's the possibility of a spill that size happening again? What events lead up to it? Were they preventable? And if it was, can I do anything, such as lower my oil and gas consumption, to prevent myself from funding companies like British Petroleum who cut safety corners like a grandmother with supermarket coupons on a quiet, Sunday afternoon? 

Signing off till next time, this is Erin Butcher.