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Go to http://www.squarespace.com/microcosmos to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Have you ever wondered what seasons look like to a microbe? How they navigate the highs, the lows, and all the muddy, slushy in-betweens?
Follow Journey to the Microcosmos:
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Shop The Microcosmos:
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Support the Microcosmos:
http://www.patreon.com/journeytomicro
More from Jam’s Germs:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jam_and_germs
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn4UedbiTeN96izf-CxEPbg
Hosted by Deboki Chakravarti:
https://www.debokic.com/
Music by Andrew Huang:
https://www.youtube.com/andrewhuang
Journey to the Microcosmos is a Complexly production.
Find out more at https://www.complexly.com
SOURCES:
https://vertexaquaticsolutions.com/seasonal-changes-in-ponds-and-lakes/
https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/lake-ecosystems/ecological-zonation-in-lakes.html
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2016.0408
Have you ever wondered what seasons look like to a microbe? How they navigate the highs, the lows, and all the muddy, slushy in-betweens?
Follow Journey to the Microcosmos:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/journeytomicro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JourneyToMicro
Shop The Microcosmos:
https://www.microcosmos.store
Support the Microcosmos:
http://www.patreon.com/journeytomicro
More from Jam’s Germs:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jam_and_germs
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn4UedbiTeN96izf-CxEPbg
Hosted by Deboki Chakravarti:
https://www.debokic.com/
Music by Andrew Huang:
https://www.youtube.com/andrewhuang
Journey to the Microcosmos is a Complexly production.
Find out more at https://www.complexly.com
SOURCES:
https://vertexaquaticsolutions.com/seasonal-changes-in-ponds-and-lakes/
https://www.climate-policy-watcher.org/lake-ecosystems/ecological-zonation-in-lakes.html
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2016.0408
This episode is sponsored by Squarespace.
Go to squarespace.com/microcosmos to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Have you ever wondered what seasons look like to a microbe?
How they navigate the highs, the lows, and all the muddy, slushy in-betweens? The answers are as varied as the number of climates in this vast world. So today, let’s travel to a pond in Poland and see the way its own tiny universe changes over the course of a year.
James, our master of microscopes, has been collecting samples from the same ponds in Warsaw over and over again for the past six years. And you might think that would get dull and repetitive, but over that time, he’s found unique and rare organisms that have taught us so much about how the microbial world works. And even when things do get repetitive, there’s still something exciting happening.
James has noticed that some microbes make appearances in these ponds at around the same time each year. For example, summer is a great time to find green things. With all the light coming in from the sun, photosynthetic organisms like algae and euglenids thrive in the areas James frequents.
And as filamentous algae like spirogyra start expanding their populations with the warmer temperatures, the landscape shifts. These algae create branches that tangle together. And as they carry out photosynthesis, they also produce little bubbles of air that get stuck in the masses of their own bodies, raising them to the surface.
The tangles of filamentous algae look like giant blobs just floating on top of the water. But they also become prime real estate for organisms like stentors that latch themselves onto the algae. The proximity to the surface means that the stentors will have access to both oxygen-rich water, and to plenty of food.
And like stentors, hydras will attach themselves to the floating algae, extending themselves to try and catch water fleas swimming in the pond. But summer doesn’t last forever, and in Warsaw, the transition from season to season is marked by changes in temperature that shape the ponds and lakes these organisms live in. In the summer, when temperatures are high, the warmer surface waters are lower in density than the colder waters towards the bottom. This creates two layers that don’t mix together much, and where the bottom layer becomes more and more depleted of oxygen.
But as temperatures cool down, those waters begin to mix again, circulating oxygen throughout these layers. Fall is really a period of transition in the microcosmos, a bridge from summer to winter. The green of summer shifts to muddier hues, thanks to golden algae like synura that thrive in the increasingly cold waters.
Their population booms so much that the water they live in will turn brown. Another organism that seems to fare well in fall are dinoflagellates. But as winter approaches, these dinoflagellates prepare for the microcosmos equivalent of hibernation: they turn into cysts that drop to the bottom sediments, waiting for spring and better conditions.
And of course, winter means more changes in the water, as the colder, darker days settle in and ice covers the surface. There’s less oxygen and less light, so aquatic plants and algae start dying, and that decaying organic matter consumes oxygen under the ice. So you might think that winter is a terrible time to look for microbes.
But for James, winter samples are his favorite, even if dealing with the cold makes it very unpleasant. And it must be really fascinating to see what creatures are able to handle the winter. One organism that seems to continue on as normal are diatoms, which might be surprising given that diatoms are photosynthetic.
During a season marked by darkness and cold, it seems like diatoms should be as miserable as the rest of their photosynthetic counterparts. But instead, they survive, thanks in part to oil droplets in their bodies that store nutrients for times like these. Then there are these green stentors, which James hasn’t yet been able to identify.
But one thing to note is that they are filled with algae. In fact, one of the surprising details of winter pond life is that it doesn’t completely lose its greenery, as endosymbiotic algae cash in on their relationship with their ciliate hosts. During the summer months, the algae can provide some of its photosynthetic products to the host.
And during the winter, the ciliate can provide nutrients and protection for the algae. In fact, James has noticed that these ciliates filled with endosymbionts become way more common in winter than summer, which he thinks might be because they don’t have as many predators to worry about during this season. Eventually though, spring makes its presence known.
The temperatures rise, the ice melts, and the days fill with more sunlight. And with the shift in seasons, James starts to see hardy algae like the trachelomonas appear in his samples. In the same way that fall was a transition from summer to winter, spring is a transition in the reverse direction.
The dinoflagellate cysts that lay dormant through winter awaken as the sediments fill with diatoms and algae. And meanwhile, invertebrates like snails begin increasing in number, munching away at the fragments of filamentous algae left behind from the previous fall. And this cycles back, of course, to summer, when those filamentous algae will come to dominate the pond and make a structure for other organisms to live in.
It’s like this whole world is constantly in motion, changing in response to the larger forces around it, and creating a steady rhythm that builds over the course of a year, but takes even longer to fully appreciate. But even these cycles can go through their own disruptions. Sometimes these changes are small, like instead of Synura blooming in the fall, James might see a different golden algae species.
Those seemingly minor shifts are fascinating in their own right, a reminder that these little niches can be filled with so many different species. But then there are the big changes. Over the recent years, James has observed more and more cyanobacteria blooms in the summer, as excess nutrients send populations of cyanobacteria soaring.
And while that might sound great for the cyanobacteria, it can doom the rest of the pond by blocking sunlight and consuming all of the nutrients and oxygen that other organisms need to survive. In fact, last summer, one of James’ favorite ponds was so overwhelmed with a cyanobacteria bloom that it didn’t provide the abundance of other microbes he usually associates with that time and place. So the way the microcosmos experiences seasons shifts as well, which makes sense.
After all, seasons are more than just hot and cold, sunshine and clouds. They’re also the landscape, and the life that fills it. If there’s a little puddle of water outside your door right now, it can give you a snapshot of the season that’s as vivid as an autumn leaf or a spring rain.
And each time someone takes a peek at one of those snapshots— whether it’s a master of microscopes dedicated to his task or you watching one of these videos— the images fill in a story about this planet, one that is ever-changing even when it's at its most familiar. Thank you for coming on this journey with us as we explore the unseen world that surrounds us. And thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this episode.
Squarespace is a powerful online platform that’ll help you create your own website. So whether you’re looking to create an online portfolio, start a blog, or even create an online cooking course, Squarespace can help you out. With Squarespace’s new courses feature you can start with a layout that fits your brand, upload videos, and then customize everything with next-gen tools to help you create lessons that your audience will love.
Squarespace also offers robust analytics to monitor traffic and sales, giving you the data you need to grow your audience. And with Squarespace, you set the price for viewers to access your content, whether that’s a one-time fee or subscription, or members-only content. And with flexible payment options, checkout for your customers will be seamless.
So go to Squarespace.com to sign up for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/microcosmos to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. We’d also like to say thank you to each and every one of our Patrons. Some of their names are on the screen right now, and these are the people that make this channel, and videos like this possible and we are so so grateful.
If you’d like to become one of them, you can go to patreon.com/journeytomicro. If you’d like to see more from our Master of Microscopes, James Weiss, you can check out Jam & Germs on Instagram, and if you’d like to see more from us, there’s probably a subscribe button somewhere nearby.
Go to squarespace.com/microcosmos to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Have you ever wondered what seasons look like to a microbe?
How they navigate the highs, the lows, and all the muddy, slushy in-betweens? The answers are as varied as the number of climates in this vast world. So today, let’s travel to a pond in Poland and see the way its own tiny universe changes over the course of a year.
James, our master of microscopes, has been collecting samples from the same ponds in Warsaw over and over again for the past six years. And you might think that would get dull and repetitive, but over that time, he’s found unique and rare organisms that have taught us so much about how the microbial world works. And even when things do get repetitive, there’s still something exciting happening.
James has noticed that some microbes make appearances in these ponds at around the same time each year. For example, summer is a great time to find green things. With all the light coming in from the sun, photosynthetic organisms like algae and euglenids thrive in the areas James frequents.
And as filamentous algae like spirogyra start expanding their populations with the warmer temperatures, the landscape shifts. These algae create branches that tangle together. And as they carry out photosynthesis, they also produce little bubbles of air that get stuck in the masses of their own bodies, raising them to the surface.
The tangles of filamentous algae look like giant blobs just floating on top of the water. But they also become prime real estate for organisms like stentors that latch themselves onto the algae. The proximity to the surface means that the stentors will have access to both oxygen-rich water, and to plenty of food.
And like stentors, hydras will attach themselves to the floating algae, extending themselves to try and catch water fleas swimming in the pond. But summer doesn’t last forever, and in Warsaw, the transition from season to season is marked by changes in temperature that shape the ponds and lakes these organisms live in. In the summer, when temperatures are high, the warmer surface waters are lower in density than the colder waters towards the bottom. This creates two layers that don’t mix together much, and where the bottom layer becomes more and more depleted of oxygen.
But as temperatures cool down, those waters begin to mix again, circulating oxygen throughout these layers. Fall is really a period of transition in the microcosmos, a bridge from summer to winter. The green of summer shifts to muddier hues, thanks to golden algae like synura that thrive in the increasingly cold waters.
Their population booms so much that the water they live in will turn brown. Another organism that seems to fare well in fall are dinoflagellates. But as winter approaches, these dinoflagellates prepare for the microcosmos equivalent of hibernation: they turn into cysts that drop to the bottom sediments, waiting for spring and better conditions.
And of course, winter means more changes in the water, as the colder, darker days settle in and ice covers the surface. There’s less oxygen and less light, so aquatic plants and algae start dying, and that decaying organic matter consumes oxygen under the ice. So you might think that winter is a terrible time to look for microbes.
But for James, winter samples are his favorite, even if dealing with the cold makes it very unpleasant. And it must be really fascinating to see what creatures are able to handle the winter. One organism that seems to continue on as normal are diatoms, which might be surprising given that diatoms are photosynthetic.
During a season marked by darkness and cold, it seems like diatoms should be as miserable as the rest of their photosynthetic counterparts. But instead, they survive, thanks in part to oil droplets in their bodies that store nutrients for times like these. Then there are these green stentors, which James hasn’t yet been able to identify.
But one thing to note is that they are filled with algae. In fact, one of the surprising details of winter pond life is that it doesn’t completely lose its greenery, as endosymbiotic algae cash in on their relationship with their ciliate hosts. During the summer months, the algae can provide some of its photosynthetic products to the host.
And during the winter, the ciliate can provide nutrients and protection for the algae. In fact, James has noticed that these ciliates filled with endosymbionts become way more common in winter than summer, which he thinks might be because they don’t have as many predators to worry about during this season. Eventually though, spring makes its presence known.
The temperatures rise, the ice melts, and the days fill with more sunlight. And with the shift in seasons, James starts to see hardy algae like the trachelomonas appear in his samples. In the same way that fall was a transition from summer to winter, spring is a transition in the reverse direction.
The dinoflagellate cysts that lay dormant through winter awaken as the sediments fill with diatoms and algae. And meanwhile, invertebrates like snails begin increasing in number, munching away at the fragments of filamentous algae left behind from the previous fall. And this cycles back, of course, to summer, when those filamentous algae will come to dominate the pond and make a structure for other organisms to live in.
It’s like this whole world is constantly in motion, changing in response to the larger forces around it, and creating a steady rhythm that builds over the course of a year, but takes even longer to fully appreciate. But even these cycles can go through their own disruptions. Sometimes these changes are small, like instead of Synura blooming in the fall, James might see a different golden algae species.
Those seemingly minor shifts are fascinating in their own right, a reminder that these little niches can be filled with so many different species. But then there are the big changes. Over the recent years, James has observed more and more cyanobacteria blooms in the summer, as excess nutrients send populations of cyanobacteria soaring.
And while that might sound great for the cyanobacteria, it can doom the rest of the pond by blocking sunlight and consuming all of the nutrients and oxygen that other organisms need to survive. In fact, last summer, one of James’ favorite ponds was so overwhelmed with a cyanobacteria bloom that it didn’t provide the abundance of other microbes he usually associates with that time and place. So the way the microcosmos experiences seasons shifts as well, which makes sense.
After all, seasons are more than just hot and cold, sunshine and clouds. They’re also the landscape, and the life that fills it. If there’s a little puddle of water outside your door right now, it can give you a snapshot of the season that’s as vivid as an autumn leaf or a spring rain.
And each time someone takes a peek at one of those snapshots— whether it’s a master of microscopes dedicated to his task or you watching one of these videos— the images fill in a story about this planet, one that is ever-changing even when it's at its most familiar. Thank you for coming on this journey with us as we explore the unseen world that surrounds us. And thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this episode.
Squarespace is a powerful online platform that’ll help you create your own website. So whether you’re looking to create an online portfolio, start a blog, or even create an online cooking course, Squarespace can help you out. With Squarespace’s new courses feature you can start with a layout that fits your brand, upload videos, and then customize everything with next-gen tools to help you create lessons that your audience will love.
Squarespace also offers robust analytics to monitor traffic and sales, giving you the data you need to grow your audience. And with Squarespace, you set the price for viewers to access your content, whether that’s a one-time fee or subscription, or members-only content. And with flexible payment options, checkout for your customers will be seamless.
So go to Squarespace.com to sign up for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/microcosmos to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. We’d also like to say thank you to each and every one of our Patrons. Some of their names are on the screen right now, and these are the people that make this channel, and videos like this possible and we are so so grateful.
If you’d like to become one of them, you can go to patreon.com/journeytomicro. If you’d like to see more from our Master of Microscopes, James Weiss, you can check out Jam & Germs on Instagram, and if you’d like to see more from us, there’s probably a subscribe button somewhere nearby.