Foraminifera care and measurements

Foraminifera Care and Measurements, K. Cayemitte, 27 November 2024

Materials

Beaker

Petri Dish

Plastic Pipette

Distilled water

Alkalinity/ Temperature Meter - from seawater lab

Paper Towel / Kim Wipe

Ruler (only for part 2)

Experimental Procedures

Part 1- Refilling the water to readjust for salinity and measure salinity (5-10 minutes)

  1. Acquire all materials.

  2. Pour water from the flask into the beaker (forums should stay in the flask).

  3. Measure temperature and salinity with the meter in the beaker and record.

  4. Add DI water to top off each of the sample flasks and stir.

Part 2- Imaging Under the Microscope (30 minutes)

  1. Bring beaker to room.

  2. Gather all forams on petri dish.

  3. Turn on Veiw Sonic computuer, light source (switch at the bottom left) and microscope + camera (switch on back).

  4. Open LAS V4.5 on the computer.

  5. Add a drop with one foram to the microscope plate and center.

  6. Add ruler (centimeter side).

  7. Place ruler down should soak up water, if not wipe with kim wipe.

  8. Cover microscope lens with hands to eliminate glare.

  9. Make sure the “Aquire” tab in the software is clicked.

  10. Click “ Acquire Image.”

  11. Name Image (A.lobifera_R#Date).

  12. R#=Sample number.

  13. Date= day/month/year.

  14. Click Aquire at top of the page to reset.

  15. Place foram back in flask.

  16. Repeat steps 5-11 until all photos of forams are taken.

  17. Close out program.

  18. Under Dr Prada folder, create new folder named A.lobifera_date.

  19. Move files from Savanah’s folder (on desktop) to new folder named A.lobifera_date in Dr. Pradas folder.

  20. Plug in flash drive, make new folder named A.lobifera_date and transfer files to flash drive.

  21. Click ^ at bottom right corner and select flash drive.

  22. Eject the flash drive.

  23. Unplug flash drive.

  24. Wipe down microscope and shut everything down.

Part 3- Photosynthetic Measurments (30 minutes)

  1. Obtain tray and probe device from the cabinet under the FIRE, in a cardboard box.

  2. Turn the computer.

  3. Plug HDMI chord into back of computer.

  4. Plug larger probe into front end of computer.

  5. Place the probe through the black circle and then into the computer.

  6. Make sure the metal part is flush with the black part (metal part should not be sticking out).

  7. Place smaller probe into hole of plastic part of stand.

  8. Place all forams on petri dish.

  9. Place 3 forams in each divit, make sure a bit of water in each divot.

  10. Probe should be ½ inch from the sample , adjust for more accurate measure.

  11. To load program.

  12. Turn on computer:.

  13. C: \USER1 > cd..

  14. C: \USER1> cd fiber.

  15. C: FIBER>.

  16. C: \FIBER> fview.

  17. Click enter.

  18. Move down to log file.

  19. Use space bar to select.

  20. Write filename.000 (must be 8 characters or less) Ex:A.lobifera_R#Date.000.

  21. Click enter.

  22. Set gain around 1200 (increase if needed).

  23. Set number of samples → 20.

  24. Set STF to 150.

  25. Press s to start and stop.

  26. Press r to reset.

  27. Curve should be above 50.

  28. If gain changed though the measurements, rerun it with the final measurements.

  29. Press w to save data.

  30. Press s to take new measurement.

  31. Press q to quit.

  32. To process data.

  33. C:\ FIBER> fprope.

  34. Move down to log file and write the file name (ex: A.lobifera_R#Date.000).

  35. Press i to import the data.

  36. Press q to quit.

  37. To get values, type edit filename.res.

  38. Take down values for Fm, Fo Fv and Fv/Fm (take a photo).

  39. To quit press alt —> Enter —> .

Locomotion

  1. Using Image J/ Fiji and Mtrack to track the locomotion of forams.

  2. Download here-> https://fiji.sc/.

  3. For make you need to find the download in your folder and then right click and then click “open”, you will get an error, you can agree to it. Or download image J and Mtrack separately here… https://imagescience.org/meijering/software/mtrackj/.

  4. Open ImageJ/ Fiji.

After each procedure did you…

  1. Have a record of your data.

  2. Make sure to put everything back in the place where you found it.

  3. Wipe down water.

  4. Turn off lights in the lab.

  5. Return the forams.

Written on January 29, 2026