hydrophyte
Member
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2009
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Biomineralization | Tufa Waterfall Biotope
Last fall I had an opportunity to visit a local tufa waterfall. In this very unique natural feature, new tufa rock forms where calcium and bicarbonate-enriched water tumbles down a cliff face. Water agitation causes rapid CO2 off-gassing, dropping pH and encouraging CaCO3 precipitation. This process is hastened further with dense growth of mosses and other organisms that strip CO2 with photosynthesis. The waterfall really was very impressive.
Moss covered most of the waterfall, but where water dripped down at the base I found two different Green Algae as well as a fine Cyanobacteria crust.
With permission, I also collected a few small tufa rock, sediment and organism samples for this project. Here is the unidentified moss covering most of the tufa waterfall. This plant had an un-mosslike rough, sandpapery texture owing to the development of many CaCO3 crystals in its foliage.
I took a few botany classes in college, but never did venture into bryology. Anybody have any ID suggestions?
The tufa rock has a texture similar to that of the moss.
Some microscopy images with 100x, 250x and 2500x magnification showing that Moss, a Green Alga and a Cyanobacterium.
The setup hardware is a work in process and I still have the live stuff in a culture tank, but the basic display will be this UNS 45s 5-gallon on top of an 80-20 stand I built with corner brackets and some plastic parts cut out on the CNC router.
Last fall I had an opportunity to visit a local tufa waterfall. In this very unique natural feature, new tufa rock forms where calcium and bicarbonate-enriched water tumbles down a cliff face. Water agitation causes rapid CO2 off-gassing, dropping pH and encouraging CaCO3 precipitation. This process is hastened further with dense growth of mosses and other organisms that strip CO2 with photosynthesis. The waterfall really was very impressive.
Moss covered most of the waterfall, but where water dripped down at the base I found two different Green Algae as well as a fine Cyanobacteria crust.
With permission, I also collected a few small tufa rock, sediment and organism samples for this project. Here is the unidentified moss covering most of the tufa waterfall. This plant had an un-mosslike rough, sandpapery texture owing to the development of many CaCO3 crystals in its foliage.
I took a few botany classes in college, but never did venture into bryology. Anybody have any ID suggestions?
The tufa rock has a texture similar to that of the moss.
Some microscopy images with 100x, 250x and 2500x magnification showing that Moss, a Green Alga and a Cyanobacterium.
The setup hardware is a work in process and I still have the live stuff in a culture tank, but the basic display will be this UNS 45s 5-gallon on top of an 80-20 stand I built with corner brackets and some plastic parts cut out on the CNC router.