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What are small black insects flying over pond?
There have been two science shows on caves so far that I use in class.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/caves/extremophiles.html As a microbiologist by training I am fascinated with archeabacteria (the old ones) and the extremophiles, like those found in caves. The story begins at the sulfur plumes at the bottom of oceans where chemilithotrophs (rock feeding) bacteria use sulfur to get some high energy electrons to make ATP, they use the ATP to convert CO2 into glucose. The whole cycle does not use photosynthesis or oxygen. IN FACT, bacteria like this are at the bottoms of poorly oxygenated ponds that create a sulfurous stinking mess and toxic gases. Caves like Lechuguilla are filled with hydrogen sulfide and methane made by bacteria even lower down in the soil that are working away at organic deposits that are now oil. Our ponds are little scale models of the original conditions, and anybody who has had to clean out a badly crudded up pond finds the oily like gunk on the bottom. Our ponds are also little scale ecosysytems if there is algae. the bacteria feed on the algae, the itty bitty critters (protista) feed on the bacteria and our fish feed on the protistas. http://weloveteaching.com/hopepond/m...g/microbug.htm http://weloveteaching.com/hopepond/m...g/macrobug.htm Ingrid On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:05:32 CST, Galen Hekhuis wrote: It has been discovered, somewhat recently, that there are several kinds of bacteria that seem to be capable of transforming elements (in this case, sulphur) directly into energy, without requiring any external light input. (Well, I think it is pretty remarkable, anyway.) These bacteria may have played a greater role in cave development than water, in some cases. There are also some examples of food chains based on these same bacteria, but I digress. At first glance, a cave looks like a sterile environment. There is no light whatsoever, there is nothing growing, just water and rocks and mud. Surely nothing could survive there. But then there are speleobiologists and several many universities giving advanced degrees in speleobiology (speleo meaning "cave" in Greek) so there must be something to study. |
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