pond scum ART – Ever seen algae up close?

— Quick Q&A: Julia

Hi Julia, let’s start at the very beginning. Why algae?

Algae are interesting to me for two reasons. One, they’re beautiful. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colours and they are ubiquitous in aquatic environments, so they are easy to find and image. And two, they have a very interesting evolutionary history.

How old are the things we’re looking at?

The organisms on Couch Microscopy are ‘extant organisms’ whose lineages have survived up to 4 billion years of evolution that all life today has endured. The first few billion years of life on Earth only had microbes. There was no real multicellular life until recently (in evolutionary time).

How vital are microbes to life on Earth?

We came from microbes and our evolution is the product of microbes evolving alongside and within other microbes. Microbes can sometimes make us sick but our relationship with them is so much more than that. They give us life and food and resources. They build the soil beneath our feet, they help plants and trees grow, they produce the oxygen we breathe, and they help us digest the food that we eat and the air we breathe. Given this information, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t be interested in the hidden biodiversity of the planet! It is humbling to gain a deeper understanding of what different types of life look like and the similarities and differences we share with these organisms.

Would algae be better off without humans on this planet?

Most organisms would probably be better off without humans on the planet, unfortunately. But ecology and evolution wouldn’t produce fit and well-adapted populations of organisms that outcompete one another, if it wasn’t for competition and the push and pull of organisms that aren’t always good to each other. Without humans, there would be fewer human-caused algal blooms because there would be less chemical pollution in the environment so aquatic ecosystems would be more stable in that respect. Otherwise, microbes aren’t as affected by human activity as the other organisms we see. We are much more harmful to plants and animals. Algae, other protists, and all other microbes will largely survive and reproduce whether or not we are here.

What can we learn from these extremophiles when it comes to apocalypse survival techniques?

I work with red algae that can live at temperatures over 60 degrees Celsius, pH as low as 0, high salt, fluctuating light, and among lots of toxic heavy metals. That might sound “extreme” to us because humans couldn’t live in those conditions but there are plenty of bacteria and archaea that can live in even more hostile conditions than the “extremophilic” algae that I study.  We mostly think of the life that’s on the surface of the Earth, but there are organisms living pretty deep in the Earth’s crust and in caves, or in the oceans, all the way down to the hydrothermal vents. Something that may not be an “extremophile” now may end up being part of the chance group of survivors that is able to adapt to a new conditions the planet. We won’t know until it happens!

What in your own research has most surprised you most? 

I like that the algae I study are part of the red algae or Rhodophyta clade but they are actually green! Most red algae (and why they got their colourful name) contain the pigment phycoerythrin that makes them reflect red light and appear red/pinkish but the algae I study for my PhD (the Cyanidiophyceae) evolved to no longer express phycoerythrin and instead have pigments that reflect light in the blue/green portion of the visible light spectrum. So they are green! This confuses a lot of people but it’s is a good example of how life doesn’t fit moulds and there are exceptions of every rule that humans try to impose when it comes to classifying organisms.

What is one totally unexpected powerful outcome you’ve seen thanks to your work?

I’ve received many messages since I started my account almost five years ago that people who follow me on social media have become interested in microscopy and have purchased their own microscopes or bought microscopes for their children. The diversity of life that we see with our eyes is minimal and most organisms on the planet are microscopic, so it makes me really happy to spark an interest in microbes and hobby microscopy in other people, especially kids.

I want to take some teeny tiny photos. What do I need to get started?

There are some relatively inexpensive options for aspiring hobby microscopists. I personally use an Amscope T340B microscope and MU120 camera also from Amscope. The whole setup was about $500. There are other brands like Omax, Motic, or other models at Amscope that are even cheaper and take really good photos. There are also lots of iPhone attachments and portable microscopes smartphone attachments for macro photography, or little phone microscopes – but in my experience they aren’t that great. If you end up buying or getting access to a microscope of some sort, all you have to do is collect some dirt or water – place a few drops onto a slide and observe!