Winogradsky column

Winogradsky Column

Our group is formed by a group of students of biotechnology (Marta,Chiara and Juan) and we are so pleased to show you the development of our Winogradsky column along several weeks.

Raw materials.
-NaCl, as a source of salt (0.4g)
-Mug, like the habitat of the bacteria (20g)
-CaCO3,as a source of calcium, (0.46g)
-Na2SO4, it releases energy in water (0.42g)
-Paper, as a source of carbon (0.3g)
 -Yeast, it allows bacteria to do fermentation (0.41g)

Hypothesis:
- The paper is one of the most important elements in the increasing of the heterotrophic microorganism because it´s their one source of organic carbon. This kind of organisms can´t produce photosynthesis.
- The ion SO4- can be the source of aminoacids like cysteine or methionine. There are a kind of  chemoautotrophs organisms that use the energy of the oxidation reaction (the oxidation of the sulfur). They don´t need the oxygen to live.
- The yeast creates a culture medium rich in energy thanks to the process of fermentation.
- The mug is rich in ammonium salts, that are one of the main sources of nitrogen, a very important compound of aminoacids and nucleic acids. There are a kind of bacterias that fix the nitrogen of the soil, for example the Rhizobium.
We think that is very posible the growing of heterotrophic, Sulphurous, Nitrifyng, fermenters bacterias.


From the begining the whole column were black and we could not notice any difference in the organisation


First week.

In the first week we can see a different organisation, we can see tree parts;The brown one on the top of the column(with some air caused by fermentation),a black one in the middle and a grey one in the bottom.

Second week.

We notice that the black part has increased making a gap of air because of fermentation.The organisation remains equal and there is far more air in the whole column.

Third week

 

 In the third week the structure is the same as in the previous week, but we notice that some seaweeds have grown up on the top of the column,where is oxygen that is needed by it,because of CaCO3,and it is important to underline that in the middle of the column has appear SO4(2-) precipitated.