Harvesting

On Wednesday,  October 2nd, we harvested the Zea mays bioassay that had been growing in the conetainers for 5 weeks. The 59 samples that survived were around a foot and a half tall and healthy, so we knew that the root systems were pretty strong. We were a little bit sad for our experiment to be leaving the Ecodome, but it will be moving on to bigger and better things!

RIP Zea mays bioassay August 29-October 2

The first step was to separate the roots and shoots of the sample. We harvested the plants by putting the shoots in paper bags to dry in the drying oven and then placed the roots in freezer bags in the freezer to wait until it is their turn to be washed. 

The latest task has been to wash all of the roots for staining and mounting on slides for us to examine. Today, while the Environmental Institute was empty and quiet with everyone on fall break, I made the polyvinyl alcohol-lactic acid-glycerol (PVLG) that we will be using to mount and preserve all of the roots so that they can be stored for around 20 years.  We will view these slides under a microscope and quantify the amount of mycorrhizae present in the roots, using a system that Dr. Chaudhary taught me and I practiced over the summer. 

Getting the roots washed and sorted for slide placement has been one of the more time-consuming processes that I have had to do with this project, which is ironic because the slides are the smallest-scale aspect of the project. For starters, we have 60 samples that need to have their roots washed and freed from the soil, detritus, and rocks that they grew into. This involves several transfers.  Below is a root sample after 2 washes, note the brown specks of soil that are still in the water.

Samples are then laid out and cut into 1 to 2 inch sections to ensure that we are getting an accurate representation of the roots included in each slide. Using forceps, I then take samples from each section of the sample to go into the root cassettes for the time being. Once the PVLG is ready and I have finished washing all the samples and they are cleaned up a bit, we will be able to mount them onto the slides.

As one can see, the root cassettes don't end up holding a large amount of roots, but the rest of the roots are not wasted. We have been recording their freshly harvested mass and then putting them in the drying oven with their shoots, so that we will be able to measure their organic carbon mass once they have dried. 

This process of washing and slide preparation will probably take a couple weeks for me to complete, but hopefully I will be able to post some graphs and other aspects of our project. I am about to begin delving deeper into the evolution of mycorrhizal fungi to supplement the current research. If you see me  and I have soil under my nails in the next couple of weeks, I apologize, but according to Anglo-Saxon law, "Whatever is affixed to the soil, belongs to the soil". Keep letting your roots spread deep, readers! 

Bioassay Part 2

Well, the bioassay is still going strong in the Institute of Environmental Sustainability Ecodome. We have only had one casualty in the 4 weeks that the corn has been in there. While they've been in there, we have had everything from 95 degree days to 60 degree days. There have been days where the experiment has needed watering twice a day and days when the soil is still moist after 24 hours. Okay, before I start sounding like James Taylor's 'Fire and Rain', I think you get the picture.

The plants look pretty good-aside from the purple stems and some withered leaves. This could be due to either/both a lack of sunlight or nutrients. We will hopefully have a better answer once we harvest the plants in the next couple weeks. To do so, we will pull the plants out of the cones and separate the roots from the stems/leaves. We will then be boiling the roots to clear out their interiors, then dyeing them for viewing under a microscope. We will be taking the rest of the plant and placing them in drying ovens for a couple days in order to measure the organic carbon that they are composed of. I will post links for these experimental methods once we harvest! 

I am also continuing to make graphs to see the correlation between different variables for the roof plots from which the samples were taken. Starting to see some really interesting graphs that will certainly contribute a lot to our experimental results. 

Planting

Thursday, August 29, we began the bioassay experiment.

The purpose of the bioassay is to study the impact of the different soil samples from Loyola's green roofs on the growth of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. We germinated the Zea mays before planting it in the conetainers of soil, and had to replant a couple on September 3rd as they had not yet sprouted. I took note of which samples those were, and now most of the samples look healthy and strong.

It's been so fun to watch these guys grow up! I will post more detail about the qualities of plants of different roots soon-as they are all the same species of plant, it is pretty easy to see subtle differences in the leaves and size of the individual samples. With the opening of the new Institute of Environmental Sustainability that houses our research lab, it's been a little chaotic to gather a lot of data!

Beyond watching the bioassay, we have been working to add more data elements to the data sheets we have been creating all summer regarding the different green roofs. As with all science, there is much to do and so many great ideas of things we can do, but time also flies by!

In the words of one of my favorite scientific creatives, Albert Einstein, " If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?"

                             

 

Here We Go!

As today was my first school day of my senior year, it is also my first day as an official undergraduate researcher in the soil lab of Dr. Bala Chaudhary. Therefore, I am posting some details and goals of the project that are long overdue, as I joined the research group in June!

The project focuses on the mycorrhizal fungi of green roofs on Loyola University Chicago's campuses. So far we have taken soil samples and stability measurements at a variety of locations and elevations and are now trying to determine the fungal diversity of a variety of green roof types-from pre-made sedum tiles to prairie plants planted 5 stories up. We hope that our findings on the fungal community can be useful in the implementation of green roofs, improving their sustainability, and providing guidance on options for green roofs.

Using a bioassay of corn, we hope to see the diversity of fungi that associate with the corn plants. Today I started germinating the Zea mays in the hopes that we can grow the corn in the next couple weeks in Loyola's new Ecodome in the Institute of Environmental Sustainability. I will have more details about the specifics of the project as our lab, the Ecodome, and Institute itself are finished and ready for some very interesting research!