This is the last of failing integration in the cell structure of a piece of fruit decaying in water. You can still make out some faint cell structure. But protists are quickly converting the solid structure into a liquid.
https://youtu.be/gK8EKaLLCn0
The Failing Integrity of Plant Cells
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DonSchaeffer
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Bruce Taylor
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Re: The Failing Integrity of Plant Cells
I've enjoyed your posts about the ongoing changes in your water! 
Your protists (flagellates and ciliates) are more like the "cleanup crew", consuming live bacteria and various nourishing substances made available by the breakdown of organic matter. Most protists are incapable of directly "attacking" vegetal matter (with the exception of "water moulds"...protists that lead a fungal lifestyle).
Ecologists sometimes refer to ciliates and colorless (non-photosynthetic) flagellates as "consumers"--that is, creatures which live by eating other organisms--as opposed to "decomposers," (enzymatic digesters, like bacteria and fungi). A third microbial category consists "producers" (algae, mainly), but you will not encounter many of these in this kind of water.
If you're curious, here's a diagram (drawn by Czech ecologist V. Sládeček in 1972) showing what organisms you can expect to find in the water at different levels of "saprobity" (i.e. the amount of decaying organic stuff):
At the left, you have "clean" water, dominated by producers (P), and at the far right you have very saprobic (polluted) water, dominated by bacteria (B). In between, at various levels of saprobity, you will find populations of ciliates (C) and flagellates (F), filtering bacteria and generally purifying the brew.
Most of that work is not being done by protists but by bacteria and fungi, the so-called "primary decomposers". They secrete enzymes that break down vegetal matter, liberating chemical nutrients and energy.But protists are quickly converting the solid structure into a liquid.
Your protists (flagellates and ciliates) are more like the "cleanup crew", consuming live bacteria and various nourishing substances made available by the breakdown of organic matter. Most protists are incapable of directly "attacking" vegetal matter (with the exception of "water moulds"...protists that lead a fungal lifestyle
).Ecologists sometimes refer to ciliates and colorless (non-photosynthetic) flagellates as "consumers"--that is, creatures which live by eating other organisms--as opposed to "decomposers," (enzymatic digesters, like bacteria and fungi). A third microbial category consists "producers" (algae, mainly), but you will not encounter many of these in this kind of water.
If you're curious, here's a diagram (drawn by Czech ecologist V. Sládeček in 1972) showing what organisms you can expect to find in the water at different levels of "saprobity" (i.e. the amount of decaying organic stuff):
- Saprobic succession from Sladecek.JPG (116.83 KiB) Viewed 160 times
At the left, you have "clean" water, dominated by producers (P), and at the far right you have very saprobic (polluted) water, dominated by bacteria (B). In between, at various levels of saprobity, you will find populations of ciliates (C) and flagellates (F), filtering bacteria and generally purifying the brew.
Re: The Failing Integrity of Plant Cells
My brother has been in waste water plant work for his career.
One of the first stops if not the first is a huge swimming pool with a cover.
Bacteria are used.
The cover is blown way up in the air by the methane gas of their poop.
Oh the original product was not poop like a municipality, it is blood etc from the animals.
(food plant)
One of the first stops if not the first is a huge swimming pool with a cover.
Bacteria are used.
The cover is blown way up in the air by the methane gas of their poop.
Oh the original product was not poop like a municipality, it is blood etc from the animals.
(food plant)
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DonSchaeffer
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Re: The Failing Integrity of Plant Cells
Wow! Thanks for putting some real knowledge in the mix. I just have a minimum of learning and my eyes. What things look like is often not what they are.