TECHNICAL NOTE: Development of a gradient tube method for examining microbial population structures in floating sulphur biofilms

Abstract

Floating biofilms occur in thin layers of between 50 μm and 500 µm on the surface of certain organic, sulphidic aquatic environments and, at times, may only be several cells deep. While these structures may be important in terms of energy flow pathways, and possibly also in wastewater treatment operations, little is known about their structural/functional properties. This is due, in part, to their flimsy nature but also to methodological constraints related to their sampling and manipulation. We have investigated floating sulphur biofilms that appear as white layers on the surface of anoxic sulphidic organic waste waters and describe here the development of a novel gradient tube method for investigating these systems. This approach enables testing of the hypothesis that these floating sulphur biofilms are complex well-differentiated structures rather than disordered dispersions of microbial biomass as has been previously thought.

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