10.8: Activity 1 - Soil Incubation
- Page ID
- 14700
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Name: ______________________________
Section: _____________________________
Student ID#:__________________________
Microbial Observations
- Carefully retrieve the 3 plastic bottles from the incubation shelf keeping them vertical during the transfer from the incubation area to your desktop
- Open each bottle one at a time. Examine the contents of the bottles by performing the procedures indicated below.
- Move your hand across the top of the bottle bringing the air towards your nose.
- Smell the air and record the odor of what you smell.
- Examine the soil surface of each bottle for fungi using first your eyes and then the microscope. Fungi produce fungal mycelia as tissue that has the appearance of fine cotton threads or spider webs.
- Rate the appearance of fungal mycelium in the control, alfalfa, and sawdust bottles using the terms none, slight, abundant, or overgrown.
| Odor detected | Appearance of fungal mycelium | |
|---|---|---|
|
Control |
||
|
Alfalfa |
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|
Sawdust |
Carbon Dioxide
During the microbial incubation, the microbes decomposed the organic amendments and the humus in the soil, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere of the incubation bottle.
Date experiment was initiated = ____________ Date analyzed = __________________
Number of days of incubation = _____________