UNIVERSITY OF IOANNINA GREECE
BIOLOGICAL APLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY

COURSE: AQUATIC MICROORGANISMS

Team 9: Katerina Mironaki
             Levidiotis Charalampos

Hello everyone!

       Inevitably our semester long project comes to an end. We tried to delay our entry in hopes of having clearer and more definitive results. So without further ado, these are some pictures of our columns about 17 weeks from the beginning of the experiment. 

       Thankfully the results followed our prior assumptions “a discernable growth spurt of microbes in the second column much sooner than the first one as well a more intense coloration of the column. “        
       By comparing the two columns someone can easily observe the advanced growth state that characterizes the second one. From the intense coloration of the water to the early appearance of the colonies of purple sulfur bacteria the second column kept surprising us. Day after day, week after week new things started to make their appearance (new colonies of microbes formed speckles and strips, the sediment began enriching, the bottle swelling etc). Some of these new “findings” cowardly appeared in the first column but with a notable delay in time.

       In the end we can say that we are pleased with our results but we needed more time(a pity that semesters aren't longer...not really). Nevertheless we learned a lot of things and had quite some fun during these months.

       

 Everyone, thanks and good luck with your own projects!   

                                                          Column 1

                  

                           

                                                              Column 2

Tzani Kalliopi

Mavridi Olga

University of Ioannina Greece
Biological Application & Technology

WEEK: 8th

Left: Winogradsky column with egg

Middle: Winogradsky column with garlic

Right: Winogradsky column with egg & garlic 

The hypothesis stated was confirmed; we observed differentiation between the three bottles in microorganisms’ development. Specifically, in the bottle with the egg as a sulfur source, we saw green sulfur bacteria characterized by a green/olive colored zone, and red-purple sulfur bacteria growing. We also saw the formation of biofilm. In the bottle with garlic as a sulfur source, we saw green sulfur bacteria and red-purple sulfur. However, we also observed the formation of FeS. Also, the water was easier to observe, since there was little to none biofilm, and we saw the growth of a plant. Finally, in the third bottle, which had both egg and garlic, we saw green sulfur bacteria, red-purple sulfur bacteria, and purple non-sulfur bacteria characterized by a red/ orange or rust colored zone. Again, in the water, there was no biofilm formation, and it had a high cyanobacterial growth.

Hello fellow winobloggers! We are Kalliopi Tzani & Olga Mavridi, under graduate students in the field of Biological Applications & Technology in the University of Ioannina. In terms of a class/ curriculum concerning aquatic microorganisms, we were assigned to make a Winogradsky column. For this purpose, we placed lake soil and lake water, from the Vrelis’s lake, into three bottles in a ratio 2:1. Each bottle contained lake soil and newspaper as source of cellulose. The bottles, however, contained different sources of Sulfur. In the first one, we added an egg, with its pod. The second one contained garlic & the third one contained both of these sources of sulfur (egg & garlic). Our bottles were closed, as to not exchange gasses like oxygen, with the environment, and they were placed in a sunny room. We observed them in a weekly base and we stated the following hypothesis: if there will be a differentiation between the 3 bottles concerning microorganisms’ development.

Vrelis's pond

Winogradsky column with egg & garlic (t=0)

Winogradsky column with garlic (t=0)

Winogradsky column with egg (t=0)