Winogradsky column lab page!


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Welcome to the Winogradsky column lab page! Students from the Departments of Biological Applications and Technology, University of Ioannina and Icthyology and Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly, Greece and the Microbiology course, Faculty of Sciences, University of Cádiz, Spain, discuss their findings on Winogradsky columns they constructed!

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Καλωσορίσατε στη σελίδα των Winobloggers! Διαδικτυακός τόπος συνάντησης φοιτητών, φοιτητριών και διδασκόντων δύο Τμημάτων από την Ελλάδα: Tμήμα Βιολογικών Εφαρμογών και Τεχνολογιών, Παν/μιο Ιωαννίνων και Τμήμα Γεωπονίας, Ιχθυολογίας και Υδάτινου Περιβάλλοντος, Παν/μιο Θεσσαλίας και ενός από την Ισπανία: Σχολή Θετικών Επιστημών, Πανεπιστήμιο του Cadiz. Παρακολουθούμε, σχολιάζουμε, ρωτάμε, απαντάμε σχετικά με τα πειράματά μας, τις στήλες Winogradsky!


Bienvenidos a la pagina web de los Winobloggers! Aquí los estudiantes y profesores de dos departamentos griegos, el Departamento de Aplicaciones y Tecnologías Biológicas de la Universidad de Ioannina y el Departmento de Agricultura, Ictiología y Sistemas Acuáticos de la Universidad de Thessalia, junto con los estudiantes de Microbiología de la Facultad de Ciencias en la Universidad de Cádiz, se reúnen para observar, comentar, preguntar y responder a preguntas relacionadas con nuestro experimento, la columna Winogradsky.


Winogradksy columns

Winogradksy columns
'In the field of observation, chance only favors the prepared mind' Pasteur 1854

Blog posts

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Yeast enriched and water bath Winogradsky Columns

Students: Bakratsas Georgios , Nikolaou Tasos  
Department of Biological Applications and Technologies, University of Ioannina

Experimental course
Sampling for the construction of the Winogradsky column took place on 20/10/2017 in the Koronissia region on the Gulf of Amvrakikos. After collecting the necessary amount of sludge (for 3 Winogradsky columns), it was enriched with the following nutrients:
• 3 g CaCO3
• 3 g CaSO4
• 3/4 of the newspaper page
• 3 eggs
• 12 g of onion-garlic mixture.
It is noted that a small amount of sludge was not enriched with nutrients to form the upper layer of the Winogradsky columns.
Our team constructed 3 columns, which were filled with 3/5 sludge, 1/5 water from the lagoon and 1/5 air. From the three columns one was the control and was placed at room temperature near a window (access to solar radiation ), the second identical to the control was placed in a water bath at a temperature of 50-55 ° C while the third was enriched with 8 g of activated yeast in the sludge layer and placed at room temperature near a window.
The second and third columns will be compared to the control.

Experimental hypotheses

1. The column placed in the water bath is expected to have less microbial variation due to the effect of temperature, which only allows the development of heat-resistant micro-organisms.

2. Larger microbial diversity is expected in the yeast column since, with the introduction of yeast, the production of alcohol which is a nutrient of the sulfur-reducing bacteria is accelerated. Therefore, the sulfur cycle is enhanced by increasing the populations of micro-organisms affected by it.

Results

At the time being, the experiment is not in a stage in which we can gather sufficient data about the bacteria in order to conclude a specific result.
Over the course of two months, we only observed a small bacterial growth in the control Winogradsky column in the upper sludge layer. In particular, the developed bacteria had a reddish color which lead us to the assumption that they belonged to the purple non-sulfur bacteria. Apart from the bacteria, there was a development of a white Fungi in the upper layer. Regarding the second and the third column, there was no observable bacterial development.
 As far as the hypotheses are concerned, both of them were rejected since neither the addition of yeast did accelerate the bacterial growth (more bacterial growth in the control) nor the amount of time for the processing of the experiment was enough for the development of heat-resistant micro-organisms (no comparison with the control is available).

Picture 1 Winogradsky columns first day
  
















 Picture 2 Purple bacteria and white Fungi in Control


  













1 comment:

  1. Did you observe fungi growth in columns 2 and 3? Any idea why they were favored against bacteria in the several columns? :)

    ReplyDelete