Dino experiment

ZaneTer · Feb 28, 2018

I am considering trying an experiment involving sending a sample of water containing many dinoflagellates to be ICP tested. I need some suggestions for chemically breaking down the dinos so that it wont be filtered out of the sample before testing.
My idea is that i should see greatly elevated levels of various elements due to the high presence of dinos in the sample.
I am interested in exactly what elements they are made up of and whether careful reduction of these specific elements (one at a time) may be able to lead the discovery of an effective control method for managing the population. Please give me your thoughts on this and any suggestions for chemically breaking down the dinos in the sample (acid perhaps? i dont know i am not a chemist).

Perhaps this has been tried before but not to my knowledge.

sundog101 · Mar 1, 2018

Interesting idea. Following

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 1, 2018

ZaneTer said:
I am considering trying an experiment involving sending a sample of water containing many dinoflagellates to be ICP tested. I need some suggestions for chemically breaking down the dinos so that it wont be filtered out of the sample before testing.
My idea is that i should see greatly elevated levels of various elements due to the high presence of dinos in the sample.
I am interested in exactly what elements they are made up of and whether careful reduction of these specific elements (one at a time) may be able to lead the discovery of an effective control method for managing the population. Please give me your thoughts on this and any suggestions for chemically breaking down the dinos in the sample (acid perhaps? i dont know i am not a chemist).

Perhaps this has been tried before but not to my knowledge.

Unfortunately, I think this won't tell you what you want. We know what most organisms are made of, and the list of elements (when trace elements are considered) is pretty long:

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/mb302/field/Lecture12.htm

Scientists have studied dinos and there does not appear to bet some special element that only they use:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-3646.2003.03-090.x/full

But, if you want to proceed with the experiment, you can either contact the ICP company tha tyou want to use and ask them to not filter or centrifuge the sample prior to insertion into the plasma, or you can digest the dinos into fully soluble molecules with something like bleach. problem is, if you are mostly interested in trace elements, you need to be sure the bleach is not adding more than the dinos does, and that would require a lot more work and testing.

ZaneTer · Mar 1, 2018

Thank you Dr Randy
I’m guessing the only options left then may be chemical additions, predation or nutrient competition.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 1, 2018

ZaneTer said:
Thank you Dr Randy
I’m guessing the only options left then may be chemical additions, predation or nutrient competition.

If by nutrients you also include trace elements, I'd probably agree.

I think a lot of the evidence supports the possibility of trace element limitation being a viable approach. We just don't know which one (if it is even happening).

ZaneTer · Mar 1, 2018

Dr Randy I read the links you posted and in the second link they state that the hard part of organisms were excluded. This is actually the part I am interested in. My original thinking was if it is possible to starve the hard cell wall formation of necessary elements it may help may dinos more susceptible to attack from other organisms. I am in two minds about continuing this but I will contact ATI and see if they are willling to assist me by not filtering/centrifuge.

Again thank you