Green Lake, New York - Building a Freshwater Microbialite Reef

[hydrophyte]

Green Lake, New York - Building a Freshwater Microbialite Reef

This is a biotope journal thread continuation of an another discussion I started right over here..

Approximating and Maintaining Water Chemistry of a Meromictic Lake

It took me a while to figure out a tank configuration and hardscape concept, but I finally settled on one of my shallow 24" X 24" enclosures and this nice sandstone outcrop slab I purchased from a local landscape supplier...

This pic form the field collection day shows Deadman's Point, the area of Green Lake with the largest microbialite reef development. You can't see a lot of detail here, but the reef is visible as a broad shelf projecting out into the lake with a steep dropoff into deeper waters...

Here is the culture tank I set up with 72 days of growth for coccoid Cyanobacteria, benthic Diatoms, filamentous Green Algae and other microflora. I have a couple more things to organize, but I should be able to introduce these later this week. Exciting!

 

[hydrophyte]

Actually the tank is currently just filled with tapwater. It finally dawned on me that instead of measuring out individual portion salt blends, I can just make a big batch, then use the scale to take 16L portions from that for mixing in a 5-gallon pail.

I've been thinking about this thing forever and I'm excited to finally get the stuff in there.

 

[hydrophyte]

Exciting!

It took a few days and I had to use to CO2, but I got almost 92 grams (leaving just a little sediment on the bottom of the pail at the end) of the Green Lake salt blend to dissolve into about 56 liters of RO to make this very hard water...

There has been excellent periphyton growth on the beer bottle in the culture tank with a number of new things developing...

While transferring material to seed the new tank I also got some more microscopy images. I'll process these some more to make my standard format, but here's a preview...

I used the edge of a forceps to scrape the living periphyton into the display, but left some on the beer bottle to maintain in the culture tank. Then I weighted them I used small limestone chips to weigh them down on the sandstone outcrop slab...

Lastly I dosed with some BG-11 at a very dilute concentration, just 15ml for the whole tank. I'll add some additional ferts later, but just wanted to give them something to start off with while keeping it pretty lean...

I'll post some more microscope pics a bit later. Stay tuned!

 

[hydrophyte]

Here are five distinct things I sampled from the mixed culture for microscopy while transferring material to the display tank. Photographs were captured at 100x, 250x and 2500x magnification...

I was extremely pleased to see this Chara sp. Macroalga pop up in the mixed culture. I hope I can keep this going. So cool...

I was sorry to see this bright green Green Alga with a very pretty, geometric, elkhorn branching pattern melting back in the culture tank...

Closer inspection revealed these spherical sexual reproducton structures (can somebody please help with terminology?) developing while the algal cell walls were emptied of cytoplasm...

When I saw a brown tuft developing on one area of the beer bottle I initially though it to be the benthic Diatoms I photographed a few weeks ago, but then as it grew some more it became apparent it was something else. Microscope examination revealed these brown Cyanobacterium filaments...

Look at the numerous calcite crystals apparently developing along with growth of the Cyanobacteria and Green Alga in this shot. This is a great result!

That Cyanobacterium at much higher, 2500x magnification...

A green Cyanobacterium with calcite crystals also developing among its filaments...

2500x magnification.

Lastly I also observed this second photogenic hair algae Green Alga. This stuff has been growing well in the culture tank...

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I was extremely pleased to see this Chara sp. Macroalga pop up in the mixed culture. I hope I can keep this going. So cool...

I like a Charophyte. @Iain Sutherland had some appear in <"one of his shrimp tanks">.

Closer inspection revealed these spherical sexual reproducton structures (can somebody please help with terminology?) developing while the algal cell walls were emptied of cytoplasm...

I think they <"might be Akinetes"> and may actually belong to a Cyanobacteria, which would also account for the colour?

If they do belong to the Green Algae, it may be a Pithophora sp. <"https://www.researchgate.net/public...loom_of_the_Filamentous_Green_Alga_Pithophora"> or <"Greens Oedogonium - Live Algae Specimens"> etc.

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Hi all,

I like a Charophyte. @Iain Sutherland had some appear in <"one of his shrimp tanks">.

I think they <"might be Akinetes"> and may actually belong to a Cyanobacteria, which would also account for the colour?

If they do belong to the Green Algae, it may be a Pithophora sp. <"https://www.researchgate.net/public...loom_of_the_Filamentous_Green_Alga_Pithophora"> or <"Greens Oedogonium - Live Algae Specimens"> etc.

cheers Darrel

A few summers ago I went snorkeling in the little pond where I learned how to swim many decades ago and found the bottom to be covered in Chara bank to to bank. I think there must be a mineral spring at the bottom of that pond because the water is very clear and the Chara were pearling like mad.

Those round spheres are only at 100x and visible with the naked eye in fact, so they are much too big to be a Cyanobacterium. But in another spot a respondent suggested possible Oedogonium, a Chlorophyte, and apparently their dormant cells are also called akinetes. Which seems funny, but apparently that's correct. I was sorry to see that alga melting back because it was very pretty. I hope it will reemerge sometime.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

and found the bottom to be covered in Chara bank to to bank. I think there must be a mineral spring at the bottom of that pond because the water is very clear and the Chara were pearling like mad.

The spring may be supplying CO2 as a well as minerals. Tom Barr (@plantbrain) talks about this in relation to karst springs in Florida <"Turning my Plants Red?"> and California <"Volcanic springs in CA, Hat Creek source, aquatic plant nirv">.

Also have a look at <"DR Congo Expedition to underwater garden lake Fwa"> I think this shows Charophytes (if it doesn't then they are in another of @zanguli-ya-zamba's threads).

Those round spheres are only at 100x and visible with the naked eye in fact, so they are much too big to be a Cyanobacterium.

They are.

But in another spot a respondent suggested possible Oedogonium, a Chlorophyte, and apparently their dormant cells are also called akinetes.

Green algae then.

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Hi all,

The spring may be supplying CO2 as a well as minerals. Tom Barr (@plantbrain) talks about this in relation to karst springs in Florida <"Turning my Plants Red?"> and California <"Volcanic springs in CA, Hat Creek source, aquatic plant nirv">.

Also have a look at <"DR Congo Expedition to underwater garden lake Fwa"> I think this shows Charophytes (if it doesn't then they are in another of @zanguli-ya-zamba's threads).

They are.

Green algae then.

cheers Darrel

Those videos are really something to see and thanks for sharing the links!

Among my favorite things to do is browse evolutionary/taxonomic relationship entries on Wikipedia. It looks as though order Charales (consisting of two families, Characeae and Feistiellaceae [elsewhere lumped together as Characeae] ) are the only real macroalgae representatives of division Charophyta. class Charophyceae..

Charophyta - Wikipedia

The extent of diversity in family Characeae...

Characeae - Wikipedia

Record for this interesting, possibly relictual taxon in a little lake just an hour north of here...

https://www.researchgate.net/figure...phological-characteristics-A-L_fig1_318746446

Could be worth a trip next summer to try and find it!

 

[hydrophyte]

Update - Day 18

Here's a quick update. There's quite a lot of this brown dusty Diatoms all over the top of the stone slab. This did not come with the field samples but was instead already growing here in a few spots before I added them. I had tried to keep substrates and the tank surfaces as clean as I could, but some of this survived and reestablished. It is smothering the Green Lake periphyton pieces a bit, but I've seen this kind of thing before and it generally grows like an early successional algae bloom in new tanks, so it should subside after a while. Fingers crossed.

I painted a couple of glass microscope slides with nail polish so I could keep track of them and added to the tank to track periphyton colonization. As far as I can see they just have the weedy Diatoms at this point, so I'll give them more time before examining.

 

[hydrophyte]

Update - Day 29

Coming along!

As anticipated, the weedy pioneer Diatom is beginning to melt away. For a week or so I was dismayed to see it growing all over the periphyton material introduced to the tank, but I now see new active growth from most of the obvious things that I had added. The brown Cyanobacterium in particular has several patches tightly adhered and expanding on the stone slab top surface. Based on my culture tank observations this is one of the organisms that definitely seems to be implicated in CaCO3 biomineralization and reef formation.

Aside from the weedy Diatom, I don't see much development on the glass slides. But I will keep them in there for a while longer.

A few botanicals were added a few days ago to reinforce the idea of a Great Lakes region forest. I don't want stained water in here, so I boiled all of this material with several water changes to minimize tannins. For water surface clarity, I I also nstalled an Oase CrystalSkim 350 in the back rear corner. I otherwise like the design of this device, but it directs its outflow in a downward direction, so it's awkward in a shallow tank like this one. I temporarily placed some small stones and Purigen bags (also removing tannins and other organics) beneath to absorb this energy and prevent sand from blowing around.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Apologies for the quality of the photo, but this is a tufa spring in Corsham (opposite the "Great Western" pub). It comes out of a pipe halfway up a retaining wall, so I don't know where the spring was originally.

The tufa deposit grows pretty quickly, but falls off soon after it gets this big. I assume the water is probably CO2 enriched, but it may just be the difference in temperature that causes the CaCO3 deposition. Most spring and seepages locally to us (geology is interbedded Jurassic age limestones and clays) are tufa forming, if they are in the shade.

Cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Hi all,
Apologies for the quality of the photo, but this is a tufa spring in Corsham (opposite the "Great Western" pub). It comes out of a pipe halfway up a retaining wall, so I don't know where the spring was originally.

The tufa deposit grows pretty quickly, but falls off soon after it gets this big. I assume the water is probably CO2 enriched, but it may just be the difference in temperature that causes the CaCO3 deposition. Most spring and seepages locally to us (geology is interbedded Jurassic age limestones and clays) are tufa forming, if they are in the shade.

View attachment 214820

Cheers Darrel

It would be interesting to know the conductivity TDS of that water. I bet it could make a real mess of home plumbing if drawn from a well.

In many tufa waterfalls the tufa formation seems to be biologically mediated in part through action of photosynthesizers and other organisms. But in some other cases apparently it is a more strictly physicochemical process.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

It would be interesting to know the conductivity TDS of that water.

The conductivity is a maximum of 800 microS (at 20 oC.). It is difficult to access that spring, but I've collected water from similar ones locally and the geology is all limestone in this area - <"Geology of the Bath area: Jurassic - MediaWiki">. Because nearly all the ions are Ca++ and 2HCO3-, the solubility of CaCO3 limits the maximum value.

The hot springs in Bath are a lot saltier, but the water has been a lot deeper underground for a lot longer <"Bath - Hot Springs | Bathnes">.

I bet it could make a real mess of home plumbing if drawn from a well.

We have something <"very similar as tap water"> (<"How achievable is a Nitrate environment?">) it <"tastes lovely">, but our water softener gets <"through a lot of salt"> and before we had the water softener electric showers etc had a very limited life span.

In many tufa waterfalls the tufa formation seems to be biologically mediated in part through action of photosynthesizers and other organisms. But in some other cases apparently it is a more strictly physicochemical process.

I used to have a colleague who worked on tufa formation <"Karst hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry and processes of tufa deposition in carboniferous limestone springs of the Mells Valley, Somerset - ResearchSPAce">, but she just does consultancy now.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
A paper for @hydrophyte
<"Maas, Benjamin & Wicks, C.. (2017). "CO2 Outgassing from Spring Waters". Aquatic Geochemistry. 23. 10.1007/s10498-016-9302-6. ">

......... however, CO2 released from carbonate springs has not been routinely included in the estimate of the global CO2 budget. The omission of carbonate spring water as a source of CO2 might result in an underestimation of the overall flux of CO2 from surface waters to the atmosphere. In this study, the flux of CO2 from carbonate springs was calculated and compared to the rate of outgassing of CO2 reported in the literature for other surface water bodies. The calculated fluxes of CO2 from carbonate springs ranged 280–380,000 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹. A range that is larger than the range of CO2 fluxes reported for estuaries (100–1900 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹), headwater streams and rivers (100–1600 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹), freshwater lakes (−300 to 3200 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹), and saline lakes (−300 to 9900 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹). This work demonstrates that the outgassing of CO2 from springs should be included in the global CO2 budget.

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Update - Day 37

The Green Lake periphyton continues pretty nice development. There are patches of the brown Cyanobacterium with vigorous oxygen bubble generation and presumably calcium carbonate precipitation. The weedy Diatom dies back and melts away wherever this organism establishes.

I added a few additional Oak leaves and Pine cones. Some patches of green around the margins of the stone slab would be nice. A lot of plant material growth would compete with the periphyton, just as they do in a planted aquarium, but I wonder about just a few small sprigs of Egeria densa or other hard water plant. I would have liked to establish the Chara macroalga in here, but the pieces in the culture tank have vanished. I don't know what the secret is to growing that stuff(?).

This setup is mainly all about the microbialite periphyton, but some hard water-adaptable livestock would be nice for more motion and activity. Here is one idea.

(Source: Mississippi Grass Shrimp)

The native range for these does not quite include Green Lake, but it's close with extent into Lake Erie tributaries. Likewise not true to biotope, but a small, subdued wild-type livebearer fish, such as Heterandria formosa, could also/alternatively look good in here.

I reinstalled the ripple generator. I made a few modifications hoping for better performance, but got kind of disappointing results. It will need more work, but at least it's up and out of the way and off my desk for now. I did come up with a few more ideas and observations while tinkering with it. The ripples create a really trippy, psychedelic mandala motion reflection on the white ceiling.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

but I wonder about just a few small sprigs of Egeria densa or other hard water plant

Ceratophyllum demersum would do <"What is this tanganyika plant?">.

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Hi all,

Ceratophyllum demersum would do <"What is this tanganyika plant?">.

cheers Darrel

Any other ideas among plants I might be able to find as tissue culture? It's easy to imagine a common aquarium alga riding in with plants and growing to become dominant on the stone slab. I want to maintain the Green Lake mixed culture as pure as possible. I only see Egeria, Elodea and Ceratophyllum offered as bunched plants from submerged growth that will surely have algae. Probably also carrying snails.

For that matter, I intend to quarantine any livestock for at least a few weeks with water changes from the tank so they can clear any algae in their guts or on the outside.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Any other ideas among plants I might be able to find as tissue culture?

I think Tropica used to do a Bolivian version of Ceratophyllum demersum <"https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Ceratophyllumdemersum(021APOR)/4434"> but it may not have been tissue cultured (or still available).

It is a plant native to all continents except Antartica, so usually pretty safe as "biotope appropriate".

Were there any mosses in the lake?

cheers Darrel

 

[hydrophyte]

Hi all,

I think Tropica used to do a Bolivian version of Ceratophyllum demersum <"https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Ceratophyllumdemersum(021APOR)/4434"> but it may not have been tissue cultured (or still available).

It is a plant native to all continents except Antartica, so usually pretty safe as "biotope appropriate".

Were there any mosses in the lake?

cheers Darrel

I picked up some Ceratophyllum at the LFS and it's currently in a culture tank with some other stuff. Maybe I'll put some in this setup, but at this point I'm enjoying the periphyton development as the main focus. If I decide to add the Hornwort or other plant a bit later, I'll use a bleach dip in several steps over the course of a few weeks and I hope that can rid the foliage of any Algae hitchhikers.

According to the published references, there are Mosses in the lake. But I could not find any species determinations and I did not see any live Mosses with the field collection material.

 

[hydrophyte]

Update.

Good development of the epilithon—I have learned this term as more correct in comparison with periphyton—with at least four different things growing in a nice patchwork mosaic.

1. The filamentous green Cyanobacterium in microscopy images above. This kind of looks like a hair algae Green Alga, but I think it's Cyanobateria.
2. Brown Cyanobacteria also observed with microscope. This thing along with #1 really had a lot of apparent calcite crystals among their filaments.
3. A new green Cyanobacterium that grows as more of a gelatinous mat like the the ones that appear like pests in aquariums. It has a distinct blue-green color and seersucker sheen.
4. These bare patches have been present all along. It think there must be something with an inhibitory, allelopathic effect here, maybe a Fungus or a Myxobacterium. I should investigate with the microscope.