Watching Bacteria Grow: Winogradsky Panel Day 14

There are many interesting changes over the last few days. The black areas in the sulfur enriched mud are coalescing, and there are some light pinkish-red colonies developing at the surface. The olive-green band next to the orange is either disappearing or getting covered up as the orange stripe expands.

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The unenriched mud is developing more visible colonies too, as various browns and some very pale greens start to appear.  A few emerald greens are now visible, most of them very faint but there is one larger bright one with a big gas bubble.IMG_6014
It turns out that the bloodworms (midge larvae) are not dead.  In the past, when I have prepared columns (instead of a panel), they all die within the first few days.  Here, they seem to be doing quite well.  Notice the worm tracks in the top left (photos taken Day 11).  It will be interesting to see how the bacterial colonies develop in this area in the presence of this disturbance.

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