Echoes - Stromatolite Reef - Hypersaline

[rhizotron]

Something intriguing I've been reminded of...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12920

Desert biocrust is not aquatic, but this could be a neat concept for another display model ecosystem built as a terrarium.

A tank enclosing regolith and sediment with slow-growing microbes maybe would not be much to look at in the regular way, but conceptually interesting.

Even though they grow on usually very dry soil surfaces, desert biocrusts develop in a similar way to the biofilms of stromatolites and intertidal microbial mats, with the cyanobacteria (in biocrusts, often Microcoleus vaginatus) growing a relatively thick sugary polymer mat that then provides a substrate and food source for many other microorganisms.

 

[rhizotron]

To date I've mainly just been casually observing this setup while it works its way through steps of ecological succession. I have been checking with the refractometer to keep the water at 85ppt, but pretty soon I will also start a regular calcium measurement with the economy API titration test. I also got a 2-part calcium and carbonate dosing kit for maintaining high dissolved Ca, which is intended encourage CaCO3 precipitation and sediment accretion within the living stromatolite microbial mat.

Some of the smooth top surfaces are still bare, but the stones are mostly colonized with the hypersaline cyanobacteria. I hope that sulfur bacteria and other microbial mat organisms are also gaining a foothold. At least two distinct cyanobacteria strains are growing here. A golden brown mat covers areas of brighter light and faster water flow, while a dark green cyanobacteria grows in more shaded locations with more gentle water flow, including some areas of sand.

 

[rhizotron]

I have a side note with a few extra pictures to share here.

While living stromatolites are found in a few special kinds of habitats around the world, especially hypersaline lakes, lagoons and bays, my original idea was to develop this tank as a representation of an ocean billions of years ago in the deep past when cyanobacteria and other microbes were still the primary photosynthesizers.

In fact I'm developing a series of model ecosystem displays with related themes in mind using living organisms in combination with diorama elements to represent ancient environments.

This is another display I have had going for some time already. With live sapling Sequoia sempervirens, a Zamia cycad, ferns and plants in early-diverging angiosperm groups, it is intended to represent a North America redwood forest during the Late Cretaceous, about 76.5 million years ago. Featured along with the plants is a replica dinosaur nest containing a clutch of replica eggs from the smallest non-avian dinosaur yet known from North America, the chicken-sized Hesperonychus elizabethae. While fossil eggs or nest remains are not known for this species, the eggs are arranged in a neat ring shape as is characteristic of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, and of a size (about 1 in3) and shape likely close to that of the living animal.

The enclosure is a 24" X 24" X 32" (about 76 gallons) glass tank that I built myself. The plants have been growing very well and maintenance is very easy. All it demands is hand watering a few times a week along with occasional glass cleaning and refreshing of the redwood forest leaf litter.

Unfortunately, the cast resin eggs will never hatch.

 

[MaddyP]

Beyond interesting! Definitely along for the ride…

 

[rhizotron]

Beyond interesting! Definitely along for the ride…

Here's another one I'm working on. This is in a larger 165-gallon tank that is like a tent enclosure with an open front and no glass. It needs more work, although the planting is coming along...

I have some pretty cool plants in there. This one is intended to recreate an environment for a nesting oviraptorid dinosaur. They have been finding some pretty amazing complete fossilized nest with eggs attributed to Oviraptoridae and with preservation of fine details in Mongolia and China...

https://app.pan.pl/archive/published/app64/app004972018.pdf

I still need to grow the plants up some more and also build the replica eggs. Some of those fossil nests have as many as three dozen eggs.

 

[rhizotron]

Took me forever to round everything up, but I have this new enclosure mostly ready for a related concept...

This is a 12G bookshelf aquarium on a MDF floating shelf.



I have some pretty cool stuff to put in here. I'll try to post more soon.

 

[rhizotron]

More set up pics for the bookshelf tank...

This is going to be another terrarium. The plastic mesh covers an egg crate false bottom providing drainage. Stones are vesicular basalt AKA scoria. I still need to add gravel soil substrate before introducing live organisms...

 

[monicalooze]

More set up pics for the bookshelf tank...

This is going to be another terrarium. The plastic mesh covers an egg crate false bottom providing drainage. Stones are vesicular basalt AKA scoria. I still need to add gravel soil substrate before introducing live organisms...

This is amazing....now I wish I had attempted the false bottom. Wah wah wah. I love everything on this thread. I'll be watching it!

 

[rhizotron]

This is amazing....now I wish I had attempted the false bottom. Wah wah wah. I love everything on this thread. I'll be watching it!

Thanks very much! I have some more update on the way tonight probably.

 

[rhizotron]

So this new setup is intended to represent an early Earth (Archean) landscape with Cyanobacteria as the likely first terrestrial photosynthesizers growing as a soil biocrust.

Using one's imagination, it could alternatively be viewed as a speculative early Mars (Hesperian) environment with microbes growing in areas that were still moistened by water.

I acquired Mojave Mars Simulant to serve as the soil substrate...

This is the same material used by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to test Mars rover and other technology.

I had originally intended to find some Cyanobacteria biocrust in the wild from the area here. But then I thought it might be more compelling to start with pure lab cultures and identified species. I found five different ones from Carolina Biological that can grow as soil biocrusts...

I'm still working on the tank setup and I also thought it would be interesting to try to start some of these in more controlled conditions. So I set up ten Petri dishes with one containing red clay and and second with the Mojave Mars Simulant for each Cyanobacteria species...

Substrate was moistened with distilled water and I also added a few ml of Carolina Biological algae substrate to each dish.

I don't have sterile lab conditions here. I was just working on the dining room table, but I used my pandemic alcohol spritzer to get my hands and surfaces as much as I could while setting this up. Mainly I just don't want the cultures to contaminate each other, so I was working with them one-by-one and I also sealed the dishes up in zip bags.

This is totally experimental and I'll be happy if I see growth from anything. I hope the biocrust will also grow in the terrarium, but if that's a flop I'll just have to follow a Plan B.

 

[Sean Clark]

Cyanobacteria finally getting some respect.

 

[rhizotron]

Cyanobacteria finally getting some respect.

It's really fascinating. I got one more idea for an intertidal setup with a Cyanobacteria microbial mat and probably mangrove trees.

 

[rhizotron]

Today I finally got a closer look at the Great Salt Lake microbes growing in the stromatolite reef tank. This old Leitz was donated by an area battery manufacturer. The paired oculars are in kind of rough condition with mold or something inside, but the vertical camera eyepiece is more clear...

I think my pictures here are at 50X, 100X and 200X, although I had a difficult time reading the engraved specs on the objective lenses. I need to look again more carefully.

I got this shot of a thread of filamentous green cyanobacteria.

The clear gelatinous material must be the cyanobacteria extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). I also saw a lot of little protocist critters crawling around.

A closer view...

Here is the material growing as an amber-colored mat on the rock surfaces and more prevalent than the green cyanobacteria. It's not really filamentous at all...

Turns out this is actually benthic diatoms. I was not really aware of this, but these organisms can be major constituents of microbial mats and, like cyanobacteria, they exude EPS which in turn forms habitat for other microbes...

This is something new and fun to research some more.

Benthic diatoms are prevalent in Great Salt Lake...

https://faculty.weber.edu/sharley/aift/gsl-life.htm

This look likes a good one to read...

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-04036-2_10

Diatoms and stromatolite development...

https://www.researchgate.net/public..._Two_examples_from_modern_freshwater_settings

 

[rhizotron]

I'm getting the substrates ready for the Mars/Early Earth terrarium.

These rounded scoria stones that I got on eBay are pretty nice. I rinsed them off and then baked in the oven at 400F for an hour to more or less sterilize. I'm not trying to maintain controlled lab conditions, but I do want to prevent chunks of contaminant that might have lots of mold, Cyanobacteria or other live stuff from getting into the setup as it establishes...

I also got a bag of 1" red lava stones and spent some time smashing them with a hammer for smaller 1/4" to 3/8" pieces. This of course made a dusty mess. I rinsed and screened this material and then sterilized in the oven...

The hot, moist lava gravel smells a lot like hot chocolate. I thought that was funny...

The Mojave Mars Simulant is also just lava gravel crushed up and then screened to size. And then they put it in these little bags for thirty bucks. Not a bad business model!

I could have just used the regular red lava gravel for probably the same results, but I thought it would be interesting to check out this stuff and that's why I ordered it.

I'm going to try to get this all set up in the tank tomorrow night.

A lot to wade through, but just found this master's thesis on biocrust development in lava gravel and sand on Hawaii...

https://dspace.lib.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10790/5140/Collier_hilo.hawaii_1418O_10166.pdf

 

[rhizotron]

I haven't seeded it yet, but here's the layout with red lava gravel, Mojave Mars Simulant and scoria...

 

[rhizotron]

I got the setup "planted" tonight.

I first irrigated with sterilized distilled water to moisten the substrates, then added 150ml of algae nutrient medium. With a syringe I drew 5ml of each culture medium to sprinkle on top of the soil area. I gave each Cyanobacteria about six inches of space and this picture is a reminder for me to have an idea later on of which establish or fail to establish.

This project is like an anti-reef aquarium. If I can just get a faint black or dark green crust to grow on the soil it will be a success.

I also have an idea in mind for a fitted top to maintain humidity, but for now I've just covered the tank with some cling wrap so it will stay moist inside.

 

[rhizotron]

More microscopy pics from last night. These are the same ones I'm using in the terrarium.

Cyanobacteria are more interesting to look than most Prokaryotes. They have more varied morphology. You can also see them better because they are pigmented and because many grow in filamentous colonies.

Anabaena

Nostoc

Oscillatoria

Tolypothrix

 

[rhizotron]

Some Mars images with rocks and dirt while I have them handy...

These are all from the Perseverance rover mission. I cropped a couple of them.

 

[rhizotron]

Back to work on the Mars terrarium tonight.

I procrastinate a lot.

I don't see much sign of Cyanobacteria establishment yet. There is faint green caste where I added the Anabaena. It looks like the Tolypothrix is also still alive. I'm confident I'll be able to get something started eventually. Now that the snow is melting I'll start looking for algae outside.

I finally got the top polycarbonate panels cut out on the router. My plan is for the setup to be more or less half semi-automated with an electrosonic fogger, internal air circulation, temp & humidity sensor and microcontroller. Of course because I was being an idiot I cut out the insert backwards, so it's on the wrong side of the tank.

This is OK, however, because I already see a couple of changes I want to make. So I'll just cut it out again the right way. This 10" piece is only a couple bucks worth of plastic.

I hope the sensor won't corrode too fast if I keep the air dryish on the inside.

I like the gritty sci fi view when the fogger is blowing.

 

[rhizotron]

Another Cyanobacteria side project....

I'm working on a new concept with a wall-mount vertical garden using a natural red clay panel growing surface. I planted the first one with mosses, Selaginella, mini Ficus and a few mini ferns. Now at day 108, I think it looks pretty good...

I like the way the mosses hug the clay nice and tight.

My test with Cyanobacteria liquid culture on red clay in Petri dishes has turned out well with three of five species growing and spreading...

The Oscillatoria and Cylindrospermum have not responded very well on the red clay. All I see in those two dishes are a few specks of white mold, so I presume the cyanosis are pretty dead.

Image below shows close-up with Tolypothrix.

Here's a few pictures to show the panel construction. This is industrial scrub pad impregnated with moist red clay and stitched to a plastic backing. I will need to build a waterproof finished case for hanging on the wall and light it up with a pendant LED for Cyanobacteria growth....

It looks like a chocolate cake with frosting, but that is all red clay. I pressed mini plastic tags into the clay with the Cyanobacteria names in pencil.