Body Position Key To Water-Cleaning Effectiveness Of Microorganisms
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
New research could make tiny organisms more useful to the water industry.
A study recently published in the Biophysical Journal uncovered that the ability of microorganisms to filter water depends in large part on the position of their bodies. This research could help maximize the value of these creatures in assessing water quality.
"Our findings will allow scientists to make better estimates about how much water each of these tiny organisms can filter and clean, which can help us to make better estimates about how quickly bodies of water can recover after contamination caused by oil spills and sewage leaks," said lead study author Rachel Pepper of the University of California, Berkeley, in a posting issued by the publication Cell Press.
According to an abstract of the study, "angled feeding increases nutrient and particle uptake [of these organisms] by reducing the reprocessing of depleted water."
The water industry benefits from various practical applications of microorganisms. For instance, algae can be used to test water quality by measuring their rate of photosynthesis, according to the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Tiny organisms helped create the Swimming Behavioral Spectrophotometer, a new technology that detects water pollution "through monitoring the movements of one-celled protozoa, genus Tetrahymena, in water," the Institute said. The Association of University Technology Managers selected it as a 2010 “Better World” technology.
In another example, a researcher at the University of Maine, is working with microorganisms to test the quality of groundwater around landfills, the New York Times reported.
The organisms in the new study are known as sessile suspension feeders, specifically, Vorticella. They live in fresh or salt water, "attached by a slender, unciliated stalk to aquatic plants, surface scum, submerged objects, or aquatic animals," MicroscopyU said. They eat "bacteria and small protozoans, using their cilia to sweep prey into their mouth-like openings."
Check out what a feeding Vorticella looks like on YouTube. To read about denitrification organisms on Water Online, click here.
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