Biology of the Algae Lab

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EEB 3250/5250 Lab

Bracteacoccus giganteus

Mondays 2-4:50pm
TA: Karolina Fučíková
Contact: karolina.fucikova@uconn.edu
Office hours: Monday 1-2 in TLS 115 and by appointment

General Info
The labs will follow the syllabus outlined on the Biology of the Algae website. The handouts will be posted here by Friday before each lab. It will save you some time and stress if you read the handout at least superficially before the lab.
Not all, but most of the labs will likely take the full 3 hours they are scheduled for. FYI.

Coleodesmium wrangeli
Field Trip 9/6/08
Field Trip

Lab 1 - August 25th

We are going outside, so dress accordingly (including footware).
Here are the handouts we will be using in the first lab:

Pdficon small.gif ocular micrometer handout
Pdficon small.gif handout for lab 1

1st Field Trip - September 6th

In spite of the weather threat, we've collected algae at Harkness Memorial State Park - yay! I will bring them to lab on Monday. We have extras for those who didn't come out with us, so everyone will be able to get a few specimens pressed. I WILL BE IN LAB FROM 1 PM (office hour). YOU CAN COME PRESS YOUR ALGAE THEN IF YOU ARE WORRIED YOU WON'T HAVE TIME DURING OR AFTER LAB.

Lab 2 - September 8th

Pdficon small.gif Some terms you should look at before you go to lab on Monday
Pdficon small.gif Handout for labs 2 and 3. This is the minimum you need to know for the upcoming quiz, including specified parts of the supplemental handouts I will bring to lab on Monday. There may be some optional material for you to look at, but you will not be quizzed on that.

Lab 3 - September 15th

We will be using the handouts from last time. Don't forget to bring them to lab. This lab may not be as busy as the previous one, but take this as an opportunity to look at the specimens and slides again if you need to. There is a quiz coming up the following Monday.

Lab 4 - September 22nd

Lab Quiz 1: I will ask you to identify several herbarium specimens (mostly to genus) and place them in the correct class and/or order, identify structures on permanent slides and determine what stage of the life cycle they represent. I will NOT ask you to draw life cycles of red algae, but you should be familiar with them enough to answer fairly detailed questions about them.

Pdficon small.gif Handout for labs 4 & 5

2nd Field Trip -CHANGE OF DATE!!! now Sunday Sept. 28th. - Beaver Tail, RI

Meet at TLS 115, 10:45am. Leave campus at 11am. Return by 7-ish.

Lab 5 - September 29th

First 5 identified taxa due (this is negotiable but highly recommended).
We're using the same handout as in lab 4 and we will go over life cycles of brown algae, so bring your handout from last Wednesday's lecture.
There will be fresh material to look at and there will be some points given for sectioning live Fucus and Laminaria, so make sure I see your work at some point during the lab.

Chroococcus tenax

Some cool links
If you'd like to explore the amazing world of algal diversity, here's a couple of links I personally find cool.
The Tree of Life is a nice one to start with. Can you locate algae on the tree of life? Are they in a single place, all neatly together? Well, look and see.
This is a nice gallery of algae images, sorted by phylum.
If you know what organism you are looking for, you will likely find it here. No pictures though.
Some info on macroscopic marine algae.
Here you can find information on some of the morphologically most impressive algae - diatoms and desmids.
More about desmids here.

  • Virtual Phycology Collection at the George Stafford Torrey Herbarium, University of Connecticut. This contains over 800 images of pressed, dried algae on herbarium sheets.