The Effect of Photosynthetic Microorganisms on the Permeability of Marine Sediments

Tufail, Azra (1988) The Effect of Photosynthetic Microorganisms on the Permeability of Marine Sediments. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

(1) The main aim of the present work was to study the effects of microorganisms on permeability of marine sands. A secondary aim was to review the principle and theory of primary production in aquatic habitats with particular reference to the 14C assimilation technique for measuring primary production. The review is presented in the appendix. (2) Darcy's equation was mathematically derived to measure permeability by the falling head permeameter. (3) Three types of experiment were done. The first tested 3 core diameters and 4 bed heights in order to develop a suitable permeameter. The second tested the effects of fine material on permeability. The third tested the effects of different microorganisms in enrichment culture on permeability. (4) The results of the first experiment showed that no combination of sediment bed height and core diameter was better than any other. (5) The sediment treatments in the second experiment were natural sediment, natural sediment with fines removed, Rockware (quartz) sand, natural sediment with fines removed and then added, and Rockware sand with fines added. The results showed that the fine material reduced the permeability of sediment. Permeability also decreased with successive runs. This is probably due to sediment compaction. (6) In the third experiment, sediment cores were enriched with photosynthetic (M) medium and heterotrophic bacterial (B) medium, and then incubated either in the light (L) or in the dark (D) to give 4 treatments (ML, MD; BL, BD). Control (C) cores were incubated in formalin. The experiment was run for 25 days. (7) The permeability of the BL and BD cores fell dramatically during the experiment. The permeability of the ML and MD cores also fell but to a lesser extent. The permeability of the control (C) cores only fell slightly. This slight fall is attributed to compaction. (8) Chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls, 14C primary production and heterotrophic counts were measured at the end of the experiment. The ML cores had high chlorophylls and primary production. The BL cores had high bacteriochlorophylls and heterotrophic counts while the values for the control cores were very low or negligible.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Zoology
• Date of Award: 1988
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1988-77679
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Jan 2020 11:53
• Last Modified: 14 Jan 2020 11:53
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/77679