UCA, Cádiz
Biotechnology, group 8B (Dark) and group 4B (Light)
Hi there. We are a group of Microbiology students in UCA who are analysing the weekly development of a Winogradsky column.
In order to elaborate this column, we loaded aproximately 80% of the bottle (total volume:1.5L) with mud taken from San Pedro river (Puerto Real). After that, we added cellulose (filter paper chunks) and CaSO4 as enrichment compounds. Finally, we filled the rest of the container with water.
We made two identical columns, one of them was placed in a box, away from sunlight and the other one was placed in a window (we made sure light-faced half of the bottle was kept always the same).
We will keep updating with photos as long as we notice any changes.
After two weeks:
We're back after a couple weeks and we can see the progress of the dark column ( Picture 1,2,) and the light column (Picture 3,4)
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| Picture 1 |
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| Picture 3 |
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| Picture 2 |
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| Picture 4 |
In the dark column, we notice an orange ring in the middle of the water zone. We suppose the ring could be formed of aerobic bacterial colonies. We can appreciate a purple-dotted pattern in the zone between the water and the dark bottom. We think they could be a kind of chemoheterotroph organism.In the middle of the bottle, the oxygen concetration decreases signifcantelly, many organisms don't totally depend of oxygene. They can even live in an aerobic enviroment without any issue or use oxigene optionally. At the bottom there's a total lack of oxygen. This situation causes anaerobic bacteria to concentrate in this area.
In the light column, we can see four parts. In the top of the bottle there is a layer of sheer water. Beetween the layer of water and layer of ground we can see bubbles, probably they can be of oxygen because micro-algae that we can find in the ground. The sustrate has become orange due to iron oxide. In the bottom, we can find iron sulfure that make the sustrate become dark, that it is produced by anaerobic bacteria
You should recheck your post...;-) Try to disntiguish the observations between the light and dark columns. Where in the columns can you find oxyegn? What sort of bacteria are orange? Are they the same orange bacteria in the water column of the dark column and the sediment in the light column?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. We have added light column coments to all our posts. Also, we've gone deeper into bacteria comments in our last (third) post. I hope it's enough for now :D
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