Berlese Funnel

         In our Berlese Funnel lab we were performing a test to find macro-invertebrates in our soil. To preform this lab we cut the top off of a two liter bottle and placed a filter on the outside of the mouth of the bottle which was then securely taped on. Some ethanol was placed in the bottom portion of the bottle and then the top portion of the bottle was filled with soil, placed on the bottom part, and finally placed under a heating lamp. 

This is our set up Berlese funnel. It has been placed ten centimeters under a heating lamp where it will stay for five days, being under the heat lamp will cause the soil to become dry and macro-invertebrates to fall out of the soil through the filter, and into the ethanol.

       We found that our soil became very dry under the heating lab and that our Berlese funnel produced few organisms. Although we could see some details of the organisms we found they could not be confidently identified. Based off of other information and result of other students, we can assume it is some type of soil mite. Other lab groups that had organisms also found that they had soil mites. We did not have many organisms, but others had no organisms at all, while other lab groups found many organisms. Macro-invertebrates are important to our soil because they make soil more porous and they also assist in the flow of organic matter in an environment.

This is a picture of our petri dish with the ethanol we removed from our Berlese funnel. The small white specks are mites.