Making Progress

With week two coming to a close, I figured a blog post was appropriate to wrap up the week. Sarah and I have made quite a bit of progress and have checked several things off our list. We set up a computer in the lab and installed software for a balance (seen on the left below) in order to weigh something and have it directly record the weight in excel. This function will help us cut out the human error that is often a part of recording and rewriting data. In addition, this week we installed a ductless fume hood on the 2nd floor of IES in a teaching lab (see below). We didn't do it all ourselves this week, in fact, I've had to make several phone calls for help; I called the company that produces the fume hoods in order to track down the manual (the fume hood was donated to us), ITS at Loyola to obtain access to download software on the computer, and the company that produces the balance because we ran into a "connection lost" error! Here are a couple pictures:

Our computer station and balance all set up!

Fume hood in the second floor teaching lab

Additionally, we've continued to research soil nutrient analysis methods and have contacted William Kent, Chemistry reference specialist, at Loyola University Chicago to help us track down essentially a how-to-guide for the IC pro. Amazing, right, a machine as complicated at the IC pro, doesn't even come with directions on how to perform analysis! We have also set up a meeting with Katrina and we look forward to talking to her next week about methods for using the machine.

Lastly, the MIP is doing great! We replaced one of the corn seeds in placement # 8 that did not survive the transplant. In a few weeks, we will begin to analyze the mycorrhizal colonization of each of the corn plants' roots in order to learn a little more about the presence of fungi in each of our different soils. With this crucial information, we will be able to make a more educated analysis of how the different treatments of soils have progressed throughout our experiment in terms of mycorrhizal fungal growth.

MIP Day 9

Have a great weekend!

Week Two

I have some exciting and unfortunate news to share. I'll give you the bad news first because that's always what I prefer: at the end of last week, we received the word that the experiment will no longer be able to be on top of the roof of the Institute of Environmental Sustainability because of safety concerns. However, Dr. Chaudhary is hard at work looking for another roof on campus where our experiment can find a home. Until then, we've been busy setting up the MIP, which has been successful (the good news):

Germinated corn with radical

Planting germinated corn kernels

After two days of sitting in water, the corn germinated (photo on left) and we were able to plant it in our "conetainers" (photo on right). We very carefully placed our five different treatments of soil in different "conetainers" (five replicates of each treatment). Throughout this process, we continually cleaned the beakers we used to distribute the soil, the small tools we used to make holes for the corn, and our hands, to ensure that there was no cross-contamination of the different soils. Additionally, we gave each "conetainer" a number between 1 and 30. Each position was also assigned a number so that we could randomly designate where our "conetainers" would be placed (using a random generator in excel), in order to eliminate variables such as sunlight, water, etc. Here's what the finished product looked like:

MIP all ready to go

 A few days later the shoots started emerging from the soil: 

MIP: Day 6

So, the MIP is off to a great start. We water the corn daily and make sure that each plant gets the same amount of water. We will continue to track the seedlings' progress until they are more mature plants, when we will start to analyze the amount of mycorrhizal fungi that has formed a symbiotic relationship with each of the plant's roots. 

In other good news, the sedum is looking great! One variety has even bloomed!

Flowering sedum

On another note, Sarah and I are working to better understand how we can use this fancy machine (photo below), the Ion Chromatograph, to perform soil nutrient analyses. This machine analyzes the anions and cations in a sample in parts per million. We are trying to write a protocol, in addition, on how to extract the ions we are most interested in (ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate) from soil into a solution that can be analyzed, since the ion chromatograph will not be able to handle the concentrations that are directly in the soil. This is quite a task for us both, so we will keep you up to date. We are hoping to meet with Katrina Binaku, a Loyola University PhD candidate, who knows the ins and outs of this machine in hopes of receiving some guidance.

881 Compact IC Pro

Until then, wish us luck!

First Day

Today was the official start date of my and Sarah Ashcraft-Johnson's soil research internship with Dr. Bala Chaudhary! Our experiment will consist of setting up a green roof (we hope on top of the Institute of Environmental Sustainability) at Loyola University Chicago in order to examine whether native plants or the traditional green roof sedum mix provides more green roof services like water retention, carbon sequestration, reduction of the urban heat island effect, and beneficial relationships between mycorrhizal fungi and plants. 

Native plants

We have already begun growing the plants in the greenhouse of IES and will be setting up the green roof next week (we hope).

Sedum mix

 Until then, we organized the lab and set up a MIP (Mycorrhizal Inoculum Potential). 

Here's a before and after of the lab:

Before

After

The MIP will provide a baseline of data on how much mycorrhizal fungi is already present in the soil before we begin the experiment. In order to view the live fungi, a bioassay is required. Corn will be used for the bioassay because it maximizes its relationship with the fung in order to receive lots of phosphate; each plant will grow in its own "conetainer" for a month in each of our different treatments of soils. The different treatments are: 
        1) soil with a live native inoculum that Dr. Chaudhary cultivated herself!
        2) soil with a sterilized inoculum 
        3) soil that was bare that will go to the Chicago Botanic Garden 
        4) soil that was bare that will go on Loyola's campus 
        5) soil planted with sedum that will go to CBG 
        6) soil planted with sedum that will go on Loyola's campus. 

Note: Kelly Ksiazek, a PhD candidate at Northwestern University, will be focusing on the  above-ground biomass of the experiment at two different locations. Check out here blog here: http://phippsbotanyinaction.org/

Once the plants are established, we will look at the mycorrhizal colonization of each of the treatments. While this seems to be a tedious task, it will be very important in providing a starting point when trying to measure the growth of the mycorrhizal colonies throughout our experiment, which will tell us a little more about about the effect mycorrhizal fungi has on the performance of plants in green roofs.

Organic corn germinating!

"Conetainers" labeled and ready to go

The corn germinates in a dish with just a little bit of deionized water (covering it about half-way). Certified organic corn seeds are used in order to ensure that no anti-fungal treatment has been applied to the seeds which would inhibit our results. Deionized water is also used in germinating the corn in order to prevent other contaminants that may be present in the water from interfering with the seeds. Once the corn has germinated, we will fill the "conetainers" with our treated soils. We will do five replicates of our six different treatments, thus, we will have 30 little corn plants. We hope to fill the "conetainers" with soil tomorrow and place the germinated corn seed in the soil (a small radical will have developed in two days). That's all for now!