It seems like a very interesting section of biology, and since I have a microscope, I’m getting more and more interested by it as the days go on. But I don’t see a lot of observations and identifiers of microorganisms (at least in my region). So, is this an under-appreciated area of iNat? Or just an ‘under-staffed’ one?
I’d love to hear thoughts on this :)
A few years back I posted some microscopic plankton from lakes, most of them have had identifications added from others but it was very slow. Identification at that scale seems very difficult. Another time I was trying to find spores (unsuccessfully) in lichen from a sidewalk and found a rotifer on the lichen. The rotifer identifier said I didn’t get sufficient images of the toes, which I didn’t even know rotifers had…
Microbiology is one of the most mind-blowing areas of biology.
I would guess that microbiology is “appropriately appreciated” by iNATTERS, but is “under-appreciated” by “civilians”.
So microbiology IS “under-staffed” on iNat . . . observations and IDs will only grow significantly when smartphones / smart glasses / VR headsets incorporate microscopic lenses.
To agree with the general sentiments so far, I have posted microorganisms before (long winter nights!), mostly freshwater animals, and either there are not too many IDers, or it’s just plain difficult to get diagnostic features on the kind of microscopes that are most accessible.
However, your observations may get more attention if you joining a relevant project, such as ’ Microscopy ', or 'UK Water Microscopy ’ / your most local version.
What will help you a lot is knowing which group your subjects roughly fall in, it’s not fewer than once I have observations of aquatic insect larvae thinking they are in another order altogether… A lot of tiny things are really quite odd looking to us!
I still haven’t found a rotifer yet. Yesterday I found a little weird microscopic sand flea looking thing. I have no idea what it is, but its cool! It would be awesome to observe my first ciliates and stentors!
Since its getting quite cold where I live, I’m not sure how to microorganisms will react. I’m assuming they’ll be harder to find? I’ll be looking at moss today in search of water bears! :)
My family recently splurged on a great microscope (max magnification 2000x), but I don’t really use it because
(a) I don’t really know how to use it
(b) I don’t see anything there anyway
I found the rotifer in early March, still winter here. I was bored and stuck at home doing school and decided to cut some lichens off the sidewalk in front of our house. I think there was still snow on the lawn. I’m not sure where you are or how cold it gets there; here in southern Ontario we do get warm spells off and on throughout the winter and e.g. invertebrates will still come up to the surface. But I imagine even below freezing temperatures there are things dormant in lichen and moss that will come back to life once they’re brought inside and start to thaw.
You can probably find some good tutorials on Youtube about how to find microorganisms. Generally they’re more in moist environments. So you could look at a tiny bit of wet moss, or lichen, or algae from a fish tank, or water from a pond, etc. Just a drop of water or a tiny bit of material is often enough to find stuff.
Usually you want to use a microscope slide and a cover slip. In my experience (with a janky old microscope) the cover slip tends to squish things so at some point I’d like to get some depression slides that have a dip in the centre which gives them a bit more space to swim around in.
I joined the microscopy community on iNat in 2022. It’s small, but growing quickly, and the number of active identifiers has increased as well. However, there are still groups where the number of identifiers is very small and/or zero — in particular freshwater ostracods are almost never identified :(
Many people have trouble finding microorganisms in the first place. A common mistake is to just scoop some water from a pond/lake/river and put a drop on the slide. The problem is that the concentration of microorganisms is very low in the open water column (especially in a river where the water isn’t stagnant!) When I collect water the microscope, I usually make sure to also collect mud, algae, and organic debris with it, as that’s where most microorganisms live. The organisms found floating in the water column (i.e. the plankton) are often different than those living in the sediment. If you want to look at plankton, you’d want to concentrate it either by dragging a plankton net or centrifuging the water sample. Note: plankton nets are absurdly expensive and I haven’t used one before.
Another thing is that microorganisms are inherently hard to ID, so you’ll need to get used to coarser IDs (genus, family, order, etc.). But even so, it’s possible to increase your chances of getting an ID on an observation, for example, by:
For the second and third points, I’ve been contemplating writing a journal post about it, so please let me know if that would interest you! As for the first point, my technical microscopy/camera skills are more limited. I would advise you to go to
https://www.youtube.com/@MicrobehunterMicroscopy for more information.
Update: I collected some moss from my backyard. I live in Western Washington, so it’s getting a little chilly out. I took it back inside with me, and added some cool tap water to the tupperware I had collected it in. I let it sit for abt. 15~20 minutes or so, and then loaded some of the mossy water into a syringe and transferred it to the slide. I did that about 3 times, looking for new things.
I found absolutely nothing, except for one miniscule little flagellate, and this weird horse crab looking thing that instantly swam away. I was expecting tartigrades and stentors and stuff ~ am I doing something wrong?
I expect it’s a similar issue. You likely would get more luck looking directly at a piece of moss or a small sample of adjacent soil, although it might be harder to differentiate debris and organisms.
I found this page a while back with a lot of identified ostracods: https://sites.google.com/site/ostracodsloraincounty/
I emailed the guy who made that page and asked if he’d be able to identify any of mine (which were just macro photos of some in a jar from a swampy vernal pool).
Here’s what he said, he didn’t look at mine and I suppose he’s not on iNat but maybe someone else might have better luck if they have better photos:
Yes it is possible to identify some species to the species level from photos and generally almost all the ostracods can be identified to genus level from photos. All the identifications in my site … were identified from photos but in order to make identification you need greater magnification, 40X is the best. So if you can increase the magnification, identification is possible.
If your municipal water is chlorinated, it may have killed everything off. Try using rain water or other “wild” water and see if it makes a difference.
I know; I’ve watched many.
You’d be surprised at how much stuff is still knocking about. Try taking a jar-full sample of some muddy water (more mud than water), and letting it sit inside your house for a few days/a week. Whatever is in there will quickly become more active and reproduce, greatly increase your chances.
Of course then you will get into debates about whether it is captive/wild, but you will see something and enjoy yourself : )
I’ve never tried looking as moss organisms so I’m not sure, but that’s what I thought as well. You might have more luck by putting only a few drops of water on the moss. Or you could try a different piece of moss and at a different time of year.
Good to know! I downloaded a book that contained a key to ostracod identification, but I gave up because I don’t have the time to learn crustacean terminology, unfortunately.
What is the lower end of its magnification? 2000x would be for pollen grains and Bacteria. If you want to watch little animals being active, you probably want around 100x magnification. That will let you watch rotifers and tardigrades, not just because it is the right magnification but also because it gives you enough depth of field. At 100x, you can probably get away with a drop of water on a slide without using a coverslip, so you won’t squash the creatures. And the field of view is wide enough that you can follow them using the movable stage.
I have tried 100x as well. I suppose I should just try again, and not give up.
If you do a search for “diy plankton net” there are some great tutorials on making one from cheap materials.
San Francisco has a group for microscopy enthusiasts. In addition to our active Slack channel, we meet regularly in person and on Zoom. We have quite a few members who don’t live in the area.
Try pipetting up a drop of water from the interface between the bottom sediment and the water. If that doesn’t produce anything to watch, there is something seriously wrong with the pond.