Question

Supposedly, you are assigned to monitor the microbial communities in a fish pond for a year

Describe how you will accomplish that task following the below outline:

1. How often, how much and how will you collect samples?
2. How will you know what types of microbes are there in the samples?
3. How will you quantify the densities of the microbial cells in the samples?
4. In your opinion, what would be the possible groups of microbes found in the pond? How would you recognize algae among other microbes?

Answer 1

The task is to monitor the microbial communities in a fish pond for a year.

The study would involve weekly sampling of biofilms from fish and water from the pond during the period. Fish eggs wold also be used for study. The water would be filtered using appropriate filter units to collect all the micro-organisms. For harvesting the biofilm, sterile cable ties would be placed in the pond, also swabs would be used for direct harvest of biofilms.

The types of microbes present in the sample can be studied using 16s rRNA gene sequencing technique.

Alternating current electrokinetics (ACEK) capacitive sensing could be used to quantify the densities of microbial cells in samples.

In a fish pond, the microbes found naturally are bacteria, virus, protozoa, hydras, algae.

Algae can be rocognised by looking under the microscope.