What kind of bacterial mat is in the insulation room at Ginnie?
Thanks to the low flow at Ginnie I was finally able to swim to the insulation room. It's a very cool passage. Does anyone know the type of the bacteria that is growing there? It looks very similar to the mats that grow in Maunds. It's neat looking stuff whatever it is.
Wingman should have some data around that...
Joe
Originally Posted by Richard Pyle
Yes we did some work on that. We collected samples of the biofilm in the insulation room and using a 250mL sample examined fragments for bacterial, fungal, archaeal, and algal species using the automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) that amplifies the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region or so I have been informed. This allows detection down to the species and sometimes the strain level. We ended up with 5 DNA samples that were extracted using a phenol-chloroform process and analyzed spectrophotometrically for purity and DNA quality. The DNA samples were amplified using a PCR (polymerase chain reaction). The samples were then further processed and loaded onto an ABI DNA sequencer and run according to the ARISA protocol. In each sample algae and bacteria were present and in a majority of the samples there was evidence for fungi. There were also indications of Archea results and most probably new species but that is not that unusual. So the insulation is a microbial community of algae, fungi, bacteria, and archaea bacteria. As a side note I have observed what appears to be this same biofilm in spots in the Ginnie Springs cavern. Bill
"With regard to cave diving, the great thing is to be carried where you could not have imagined you would ever be, and then to come back alive."
"Wilderness. The word itself is music." Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Seems like a lot of work. Couldn't you have just tasted it?
"Have you ever noticed
When you're feeling really good
There's always a pigeon
That'll come shiat on your hood?" John Prine 4-7-2020
"Into the blue again; in the silent water
Under the rocks, and stones; there is water underground" Talking Heads
"Cave diving is for grown ups. Make grown up decisions."
-AJ
For MikeT: Ya know when ya wake up in the mornin an you run you tongue all over you remaining teeth and you go wtf that feels slimy like there's a layer of crud in ya mouth and ya start wunerin what mighta crawled in ya piehole and died whilst you were a sawin them logs? Well what's in your mouth is similar to what you are looking at in the insulation room only on a larger scale and with a differing microbial diversity... whoops again, change differing microbial diversity to buncha diffrint really tiny critters.
"With regard to cave diving, the great thing is to be carried where you could not have imagined you would ever be, and then to come back alive."
"Wilderness. The word itself is music." Abbey, Desert Solitaire
That was the first test...tasted like chicken salad, hard to get a good mouthful though. Have you ever tried to sample the stuff? It does not combine nicely. I'm sure you have seen what an errant fin kick can do in there. You can just about tell along the main passage when someone has been in that room as there are bits of the stuff floating everywhere sort of like tiny feathers. Bill
"With regard to cave diving, the great thing is to be carried where you could not have imagined you would ever be, and then to come back alive."
"Wilderness. The word itself is music." Abbey, Desert Solitaire
You're way off base...my mouth never tastes like chicken salad in the morning.
"Cave diving is for grown ups. Make grown up decisions."
-AJ
That's really awesome. Thanks for the explanation.
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