We have what living in our bodies?

 After getting back from Chachahuate and doing an intense garbage cleanup in the East End village this morning, I was finally able to get into the water to work on my project. Our project is taking a deeper look into the role algae has in the ecosystem. The main factors we are looking for are: whether or not increasing depth effects the organisms around the algae, whether or not more algal cover effects organisms around the algae, and whether or not there is a correlation between parasitic associates and algal development. I did a focal area sampling today of a shallow algae area. Thomas is going to do a deep one tomorrow. I took pictures and noticed that there were relatively few organisms eating the algae at this depth. We will later analyze the percent algae cover, and compare the results with sampling at greater depths. I then took a sample of the algae and we will analyze it under the microscope tomorrow. Yesterday, after analyzing our algae from that day, we saw at least 3 parasitic associates on every alga! We are trying to figure out exactly what they are called and how they correlate with the algae, but some of them are big and very lively (which we defined as moving from one significant part of the algae to another). Each algae sample that we looked at was only about a few centimeters long, yet there was another life living on it that one just can’t see. Dr. Gilchrist actually gave us a lecture after dinner today about worms, which related to our project. We discussed annelids and sypunculids and found out that we most likely have been seeing macrophagous feeders (on our algae). These are known to eat algae, seagrass, and other plants. One interesting fact that I liked about both types of worms is that they have a “straight through” gut – meaning they have 2 openings in their body (mouth and anus). This gives them an advantage over other organisms that are more complicated. Dr. Gilchrist said that the types of experts in sypunculids can be counted on one hand! She then got into the details about worms – specifically parasites. Apparently, we all have about 4 different types of species in our bodies. Many of them surround and roam our intestines. They usually get in through normal activity, especially drinking tap water and wearing no shoes (which many of the New College students do) can invite parasites into our bodies. Nothing out of the usual, just a bunch of parasites roaming our internal organs. To conclude the night, everyone asked Dr. Gilchrist about how we can get rid of these parasites that are apparently in our body.