After a recent cold front moved in and dumped about two inches of snow in the Payson area, I went out to the East Fork of the Verde River to the north to see if any microscopic life was left in the river during the cold 25 degree weekend day. The river was mostly frozen over and nothing but a brown dead bottom was seen through the transparent ice. But then I found a small area of green under the ice! A small algae patch was still growing in one small area, about 3 feet in size. I broke a small hole in the ice and reached in with the forceps and pulled out a teaspoon sized sample. What would it contain? Would anything be moving? Much to my surprise, the algae patch was full of microcsopic life wintering the cold in their own oasis. Here are the images I took when I got home and defrosted.

Click on all small images for the larger 1290 x 960 sized image.

60x Images

The algae was a tightly interlocked and had a fern like appearance. We saw this last month in greater profusion when it was much warmer. Mixed in were a few isolated strands of solitary algae, and at this magnification, little else was seen. Compare this rather bland view (transmitted light) with the dark field illumination of the same field below... (Field of view here about 3mm wide)

The dark field was amazing! Not only did this type of illumination bring out the rich colors of the algae, but the dark background revealed hordes of super small organisms swimming all arround. It was full of tiny life. You can see why I like shooting dark field, its so awesome for the lower magnifications.

150x Images

The dark field can also be used with the 10x objective as well (Yeilding 150x), and shows intricate details in the algal cells. Most of the tiny blips are non moving bacteria or loose debris. Moving protists are not seen in focal stacked image sets like this.

Like looking at the ferns in a forest. Except these are 1/10 of a millimeter long. You can just start to see individual cells in the ferns.

Movie Clip 1

A sized down Youtube clip I posted at this 150x magnification. The swarm of swimming protists are like fire flies at night! The original movie was 1790 wide (half sized), and would have taken 2 hours to upload...

600x Images

We change to brightfield back lighting for higher magnifications. (darkfield doesnt work with the higher power objectives I have) Here the algal strands show rich internal details. A small greenish protozoan can be seen on the extreme upper left corner.

Centering the solitary algal strand. The small green chloroplasts can be seen within. The partitions between cells is very evident.

Another type of algal strand showing the clear cell with green chloroplasts internally. Small protozoans flit in and out of focus here, despite being under a microscope cover slip.

Those small greenish rod shapes that were slowly traveling from left to right are freshwater diatoms. They are protozoans filled with green chloroplasts to convert sunlight to food. They are far more rare this time of year in the river. They have skeletons composed of pure silica quartz.

A few stationary protists and algal strands.

In the center is another type of diatom. As you can see, diatoms are very small. Look to the lower right and there is another spear shaped diatom.

Centering that diatom. The small round spheres of protoplasm are bacteria.

Colony of algae and protists having a party.

1500x Images (Oil Immersion Objective)

Challenging indeed to image slowly moving protists at this magnification! But if they stand still long enough, you can get splendid internal details at this power. Here is a small cluster of cells.

This protist wouldnt stop moving, but I tried.

Fern like algal fronds tips showing internal cell details.

Two types of algal filaments. Arcing across the top is a smaller type with amazing internal details in the cells. The one big single cell of a strand is in the center. Its filled with a yellow type of chloroplast. Chloroplasts come in two flavors - green and yellow.