Have put in the data for 2004. The data can be found in the link to Benthos 2004 and the link to Copepods monthly averages to 2004.
John Lavelle e-mail lavelle@centurytel.net Update Feb 9, 2005
Still at it out here. This part of the year I work on the animals found in the open waters. I'm about ready to begin going back down to the bottom as soon as the weather and water clarity cooperate. With fear of cluttering up this rather messed up site again (see note below) I'm going to insert to pictures here. The colonies of animals shown below I have run into for years but today they have appeared in some numbers. I have never been able to figure out what they are; they remind me of Peritechs by the shape of the bells at the end of the stalks and what looks like cilia at the end of the bells. Each colony is about 1 to 2 millimeters in diameters and they are rapid swimmers. They photos aren't that clear but I'm hoping someone has run into these guys before and will recognize them and drop me a line as to what they are.
Sphere in motion
Sphere at rest or tangled with some detritus
After
being severely chastised by my son, the computer geek, I've tried to put
all the data into it proper places ( see links below); now those links
are still messy but at least the mess is in the right place. Most the data
is current up to 2003.
Another
year has grown to a close. I was beginning to think that the Lake ecosystem
had become static and I could at least forego the benthic research but
on the last few dips into the water I came up with samples that make me
excited about next year. The two finds were coming across a snail, Pleuroceridae
acuta, and a Caddis fly - Hydropshye. I haven't seen these
two species in years, ever since the arrival of the rounded gobies.
Because of a lack of time I had to make a descision on how to
proceed this year (2003). I decided to split the research into two parts.
The first would run from April to June and deal with the Zooplanktion;
the second part would be benthic research covering August and September.
This had not been a great year for water clarity therefore getting on overview
of changes that have occurred on the reef on a grand scale have been nexts
to impossible. An example of this is sponge growth. As far as I can
tell there has been very few sponges growing on the reef compared to years
passed but it this might be due to my not having as good visibility in
the water as I've had in years past. The sponges seen were all small, none
approaching the size of the larger ones seen in previous years.
While I haven't been down on the bottom as often as I would like the beauty of the realm still captivates me.
Below are a series of links leading to both an introduction and to the specific groups of animals dealt with in the following overview of the life as I find it in the waters of this small reef in Lake Erie. Hopefully as I become more at ease working with web pages I will be able to begin to make the research as current as time allows. I would like to present the data in the same week that I gather it or at least post it monthly, but we will have to see how it goes.
PERITECHS AND HYDRAS
This link concerns itself with the number
of hydras and the Protozoans known as Peritechs .
CRUSTACEAN PLANKTON (AN OVERVIEW)
THE YEAR 2000 UPDATE This link covers the current years research.
BENTHIC DATA FOR THE YEAR 2001
LAKE ERIE BENTHIC DATA FOR THE 2003
CRUSTACEAN COPEPODS MONTHLY AVERAGES 1993 TO 2004
This link compares the average number of copepods found in the samples over the years
THE CLADOCERANS, BOSMINA AND DAPHNIA, A LOOK
AT THEIR CHANGING NUMBERS OVER THE YEARS
This page explores the large almost daily fluctuations in population density
of the two genus of animals.
ROTIFERS AT AVON POINT
This link explores the members of the phylum Rotifera found in the waters
of the reef. This section is very incomplete for a number of reasons. Two
of the most prominent are that I only am able to deal with animals greater
than 0.10 mm. with any confidence, and that because the rotifers that live
on the substrate are difficult to see with the equipment I use they are
totally absent from the data. This is unfortunate because I suspect they
occur in large numbers