Biogeochemical Cycles

Actually, we continued the topic of principle of ecology a little bit but I think what I explained in previous post had all the big picture of that topic. So I will just move on to the next topic which is Biogeochemical Cycles.

Dr Wan asked us to answer a question on Padlet.

And again, my internet connection is very slow so I will upload the picture of the padlet later.

With decomposers, recycling of nutrients will occur. But without decomposers, nutrients are trapped. 

The characteristics of biogeochemical cycles are; they are transformed and cycled through oxidation-reduction reactions, and all cycles are linked. 

The cycles are; carbon cycle, sulfur cycle, iron cycle, manganese cycle and nitrogen cycle.

Microbial Group and Principle of Microbial Ecology.

 Microbial group is based on size of population and not individual growth. The methods of microbial growth are;

Binary fission--budding--fragmentation--formation of spores--sexual reproduction.

 

The physical growth requirements are;

light--temperature--pH--water activity and osmotic pressure.

The chemical growth requirements are;

water--carbon--oxygen--nitrogen,phosphorus,sulfur--special growth factors--trace elements

 

 There are 2 major nutritional concern; 

source of energy and source of carbon(light, carbon dioxide, organic molecules,inorganic molecules)

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

 

We learned about what is ecology and the hierarchy

(species--populations--communities--ecosystems--biosphere)

 

Homeostasis is dynamic balance of processes materials and organisms in the ecosystem and biosphere. 

 But, how to balance the ecosystem?

 

The flow of energy balance the ecosystem.

 

This flow of energy starts with producers--consumers--decomposers.

And there are few important things about energy; energy itself does not recycle-- it cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transferred. However, conversion of energy is never 100% efficient.

 

 

 

 

Because of Baksis

So every semester, at this point of semester, lecturers have to face the fact that half of class will be missing. Of course, because of Baksis. Mine was last week, that's why my entry for last week was just one entry hehehe. So, as half of my classmates went to Baksis, Dr Wan decided to assign us with one task. Which was, asking us to make a quiz and those people who went to Baksis, will have to anwer it later (at first, then us also who did the quiz must anwer it as well hmm).

So the quiz must be done using EDPUZZLE. You guys can try it at home, sign up as teacher okayy. We were divided into groups. My group's topic was on archaea. So we used this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W25nI9kpxtU 

The video was basically about the characteristics, morphology, reproduction and diversity of archaea. Students must answer the question based on the video (supposedly). So here is some of the things you could find on EDPUZZLE. 

 Okay just one photo haha. As this was the only thing did last Friday, so that's all for now. Til then.

Presentation Day

So today was my group presentation day, Protozoa. Basically we explained about the morphology, nutrition, locomotory organelles, reproduction, and classifications. Here, I attach the mind map we had done using popplet. 

My part was on the reproduction. Reproduction is divided into two, asexual and sexual. For asexual, protozoa undergoes binary fission while for sexual, protozoa undergoes conjugation.

Next, the presentation from virus group.

 In my opinion, popplet is a really good medium for students to do a group work efficiently. However, taking myself as an example, I don't really catch up the presentation using popplet as there will be only mind map and other points mostly explained verbally. For me, I can't really understand it as I need both visual and verbal explanation. So, I actually do not cover these topics well yet. Of course I am going to revise them later. Hence, not much I can write for now.

Till then. 

Algae and Fungi.

So today was Algae's and Fungi's group turn to do their presentation.

Basically, they explained about the general things which are the characteristics, morphology, reproduction, divisions and benefits.

I am trying to insert the pictures of their popplet as well but my internet connection now is so slow, so maybe later I'm gonna upload it. 

Archaea kind of day

It was archaea group's turn to present. Here, attached the mind map done by archaea group.

So, there are 4 categories based on its cell wall ---- Gram -ve bacteria + cell wall, Gram +ve bacteria + cell wall, Bacteria lacking cell wall and the archaebacteria. 

The extreme habitats for archaea are cold and hot environments, high salinity and anaerobic environments. 

The unique features of archaea are the cell wall, membrane lipids, metabolism and genetics.

Special cell wall for Methanogens-- the benefits are: methane--> clean burning fuel--> energy for heat and electricity. Crenarcheota is the only known archaea with outer membrane.

Metabolism -- use many sources of energy --- phototrophs, lithotrophs, organotrophs.    

We also did some SCL questions, which Dr Wan asked us to find the answer by searching some related journals. For my group, the question was  explain the adaptation of archaea to withstand acidic conditions. Well, I couldn't recall the padlet page, so I will just explain how archaea withstand acidic conditions, based on the journal.

cidophilic enzymes have optimal structure and stability in acidic environments and have been shown to be catalytically active at pHs as low as 1. Most known acidophiles are also thermophiles, and hence their proteins reflect thermophilic features. Interestingly, the adaptation of acidophilic proteins to pH is unclear and inconsistent.

Acidophilic proteins must adapt to the low pH because acid interferes with the charge on many residues. At low pH many polar charged residues become protonated and, therefore, their charges change. This has the possibility of disrupting stabilizing structural interactions, unfolding the protein.

While the specific adaptation has not been explored in great detail, the activity of these proteins at low pH seems to be attributed to the prevalence of acidic (negatively charged at a neutral pH) amino acids on the surface of these enzymes and proteins.

That's all for this entry. Thank you!