How to Create a Leaf Infusion for Protists
- 1). Filter one liter of seawater with a paper filter and dilute it by 10 percent with filtered, distilled fresh water in a sterile receptacle suitable for boiling water.
- 2
Radiolaria, or zooplankton, is found in the ocean and is an amoeboid protozoa and protist.Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
Boil cereal leaves obtained from a biological-chemical supplier in the 90% seawater solution for five minutes. The weight to volume ratio of the cereal leaves to water should be between 0.03 percent weight to volume and 0.1 percent weight to volume, as a general guide. - 3
Foraminifera is part of a large group of amoeboid protists, usually less than 1 mm in size, which create a hard calcium carbonate shell.Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
Filter the leaf infusion with a fine paper filter and dilute the filtered liquid with sterile, filtered seawater at a ratio of one to one. - 4). Buffer the leaf infusion with small amounts of bicarbonate, maintaining the pH at the proper level for the protist with which you are working. Bicarbonate will raise the pH level of the mixture. For seawater protists, a pH of about 10 is appropriate.
- 5). Add cystein, an amino acid, for additional nutrition in the leaf infusion.
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