UCA_5B_2: Day 15 (Germán López Toledo & Miguel Bruzón Lobatón)

Fifteen days after we created our Winogradsky Column, it has been occurred  a lot of changes. Firstly, we could see a big bubble of methane (that it is a proof of our excess of carbon and sulphate). We had to take a stike to go down the mud which was over the bubble in order to ease the gas exchange in the column. Excepting for this week, there was, at least, one a week. Bearing in mind the methane's bubble, when it was bursted, the surrounding's smell was the typical and awful one. Apart from this one, there was not anyone else. The whole black color is due to the excessive quantity of iron sulphate. This means a high level of anaerobic respiration.

Moreover, it has been formed a pink section where there are an opaque liquid with little sediments n the upper part. This is because of the metabolic activity of the microorganisms. This pink part appeared two weeks before the photograph was taken.

Winoblog, First post, group B7.

          In this post, we are going to explain our theories about the experiment that we have done in microbiology. This experiment is called “Winogradsky column”, his name came from first scientist that realized it.

           

           Our column was filled up with portions of natural mud, sand, and sea water. These are the column’s principal elements, but we need to add more nutrients for bacterial growth.   We need to create an oxygen gradient. In the bottom of the column there aren’t any oxygen (only sulphates SO₄^2-), and in the top the oxygen concentration is equal to the atmospheric.

         In order to create this gradient, we putted several nutrients to feed diferent kinds of bacterias. It is use to occasion a microecosystem where there are many food chains.

The nutrients we added were:

• -FeSO₄ (to give a sulphate source, and a iron source).
• -Cellulose (to give a source of carbohydrates that some kind of bacterias can use).
• -NaCl  (to equilibrate column’s osmotic pressure).
• -CaSO₄, Chalk (in order to give a calcium and sulphate source).
• -Yeast extract (it is use to nutrient source).

          Amount nutrients can change according to microorganism’s needs. It preferably utilize a low concentation of those because our Winogradsky column can take a long time to flourish o it can lead to methane wall cavities.

Figure 1: Methane wall cavities.

Figure 2: Winogradsky column. Photo taken after one week.

UCA_1C_1: Day 1- THE CREATION OF A NEW WORLD

Hello!! We are Andrea, Alessia and Victoria. We are students of biotechnology in Cádiz and we will show you the changes that we see in our column of Winogradsky.

Rio San Pedro sediment + CaSO₄

We have decided to add only CaSO₄ to see which microorganisms can live in these conditions.

Firstly, we have mixed CaSO₄ with sea water and San Pedro River mud. This mixture has been added to a transparent tube which has been exposed to solar light for some weeks.

After a week, we can see that the column has a different color. This is because the organisms have begun to grow at the bottom of the tube. These organisms are anaerobic so they do not need oxygen to grow, they use the sulfate we had added.

After three weeks, we see how more organisms have grown near the surface. These organisms need other conditions to grow. They need oxygen in addition to sunlight. On the surface have grown filaments that look like “hairs”.

UCA_E5-6MICRO: First day.

Hi! We are Anabel, Paco, Irene, Misael and Gabriel students of Enology. We will show you our experiment of Winogradsky column during this quarter.

To prepare our Winogradsky’s column we have chosen supply carbon with extract of yeast due to it is an excellent way to get nutrients like vitamins and amino acids. We have weighed 1,4g.

Later we have weighed 40g of mud and 0,6g of Na₂SO₄ which is the substrate to growth of sulphate reducing bacterias.

The mud and Na₂SO₄ are mixed with extract of yeast and they are divided in two columns.

Then we weighed 180g of sand and 60g of mud, then mixed and divided in columns. One column was put in the dark and the other one was put in natural light.

What we expect is that there is stablished oxygen gradient and an interdependence in the columns between different micro-organisms included in the columns.

In the zone below at columns micro-organisms that develop fermentatives process should grow producing alcohol and fatty acids like subproducts of their metabolism. This products are substrates for the development of sulphate reducing bacterias. This bacterias liberate sulphide that spread to the oxygenated higher zone creating a gradient where photosynthetic bacterias that use sulphur are developed.

Finally, the cianobacterias and algae grow in the higher zone and they liberate oxygen that keep this zone aerobic.

We haven't taken photos of our column in this first state, but later we will upload some of them.

UCA_5B_1: Day 1 (Germán López Toledo & Miguel Bruzón Lobatón)

We are first-year students of Biotechnology in Cádiz, and we will write three post about our Winogradsky Column. It is formed by two differentiated parts, which have unique chemical composition.  This experiment is been taken place in order to realise how and where the various microbial species can have it vital cycle.

The first day, we created our column with: 20 g of Río San Pedro´s mud, a little bit of water from the same place and 0´3 g of NaCl. Furthemore, we added 1 g of CaSO4 as a source of sulphate for anaerobic breathing and, as a carbon source, we added 1,6 g of Agar, 0´3 g of cellulose and 0´8 g of CaCO3. Finally, we added 20 g of sand and a little bit more of mud.

We think we have added too much of carbon source.

We will tell the changes in our Winogradsky Column in the next post .

UCA_3A_1: Day 1 - What's about our column?

Hi! We are María, Cristina and Ara, students of biotechnology. We will show you our experiment of Winogradsky column during this quarter.

In our column, we add 20 g of mud from Rio San Pedro. We have focused on the production of halophilic bacteria, that is to say that our bacteria will grow in a very high percentage of salt. Exactly, we add 1,2 g of NaCl. Moreover, we add 0,3 g of CaSO₄ as a sulphate source and 0,3 g of cellulose (paper) as a carbon source for our bacteria. Finally, we add 30 g of mud more, 22 g of sand and 1.99 g of NaCl more (we have put a lot of mud and just a bit of sand). We wait some months to be able to see our results!

We haven't taken photos of our column in its first state, but later we will upload some of them.

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.

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)