microbe zoo

What is a microbe?
List the FOUR MAJOR groups of microbes.
What is microbial ecology?
Now begin browsing the sites (go back to the main page). As you go, keep a log of what kinds of microbes you find and where you found them.
Record the Zoo Location and What kinds of microbes are there? Include a short description or interesting information.
Include some pictures

Microbes are single-cell organisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle.  They are the oldest form of life on earth. Microbe fossils date back more than 3.5 billion years to a time when the Earth was covered with oceans that regularly reached the boiling point, hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the earth.  Without microbes, we couldn’t eat or breathe.

Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa.

Microbial ecology is the ecology of microorganisms: their relationship with one another and with their environment. It concerns the three major domains of life — Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria — as well as viruses.

DirtLand-Root cellar-Glomus intraradix

Root fungi, also called mycorrhizal fungi, are symbiotic organsims which associate with the roots of nearly all plants. This is sorghum root infected with the Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungus Glomus intraradix. The image shows hyphal growth (the thin hairs) and vesicles (little ovals) inside the host's root. Root fungi, also called mycorrhizal fungi, are symbiotic organsims which associate with the roots of nearly all plants.

Animal Pavilion-Habitat on Humanity-teeth

When you eat sugar, you are not only feeding yourself, but you are also feeding the millions of microbes that call your mouth home. These microbes grow and stick to your teeth, forming plaque which can cause cavities and tooth decay.

 

Snack Bar-Yeast:

Yeast are small fungi which are incredibly important in the food and beverage industries. Yeast ferement the sugars in fruits to make wine, the sugars in grains to make beers. When grown in the presence of oxygen, yeast give off the gas carbon dioxide which makes bread rise. Yeast can grow with oxygen, (aerobically) or without oxygen (anaerobically.) Because it can grow either aerobically or anaerobically, it is known as a "facultative aerobe."

Space Adventure- Frequent Flyer-Bacillus megaterium

 

This bacterium, like all species of Bacillus, forms spores, like the one shown here. These spores help the bacteria survive hostile conditions, such as heat and drying out. The genus Bacillus contains many related species of bacteria. Because of their spores, many species of Bacillus are found in the desert. This particular species is relatively big, as bacteria go, and hence the name "mega".

 

Water World-Pond-Diatom

The large, round object in the center of this view is a diatom. Diatoms are protists that grow a silica shell around themselves. When diatoms divide, each offspring takes half of the original shell with it, and grows another matching half to complement the inherited shell portion. Diatoms are frequently found in wet environments, such as ponds. They also grow on most soil. Diatoms grow on the surface layer of soil, where they can use sunlight to produce food via photosynthesis. This species of diatom is yellow-brown in color when viewed with visible light. There are two basic types of diatoms: elongate ones and round ones, like this microbe. Elongated diatoms can move themselves about; round diatoms cannot. There may be as many as 10,000 species of diatoms. Huge accumulations of fossilized diatoms make up diatomaceous earth, which is used in toothpaste and in filters.

Site2:

1)   Use arrows to identify the microbes in the pond. You only need to pick 5 microbes on the picture, write their common names or phylum (group)

2. Choose ONE of the microbes in the jar and list the following information about the organism
a) What is its size?
b) Where are they usually found in the pond?
c) Describe one feature that makes them interesting.

 

1.    Spirogyra, Daphnia, Stentor, Volvox, and Cypris.

2.    Name (genus): Cypris

      Size : 0.5 - 3 mm

Where to find them : Amongst aquatic vegetation and browsing the surface     layers of bottom mud

Notes : The body of an ostracod, including the head, is enclosed by a bean-shaped shell (the carapace). If seen at low power under the microscope, just the antennae and limbs appear out of the gap between the two halves of the shell as they move amongst vegetation and mud.

Some of the smaller rounded water fleas (e.g. Chydorus) may be confused for an ostracod, but the shell of a water flea is usually much more transparent.

The ostracods, although quite easy to recognise, are often hard to identify further, because externally they all look rather alike!

Classification :
Kingdom - Animalia, Phylum - Crustacea, Class - Ostracoda