{"dp_type": "Project", "free_text": "BACTERIA/ARCHAEA"}
[{"awards": "2228257 Michaud, Alexander", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(-112.05 -79.28)", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The goals of this work are to determine the taxonomic identity of viable and preserved microbial cells, and decode the genetic repertoire that confers survival of burial and long-term viability within glacial ice. We will achieve these goals by utilizing subsamples from the ~65 ka record of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WD) Ice Core. WD samples will be melted using the Desert Research Institute\u2019s ice core melting system that is optimized for glaciobiological sampling. Microbial cells from the meltwater will be sorted using fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and individually sorted cells will have their genomes sequenced. The fluorescence-based methods will discern the viable (metabolically active) cells from those cells that are non-viable but preserved in the ice (DNA-containing). Our genomic analysis will identify the taxonomy of each cell, presence of known genes that confer survival in permanently frozen environments, and comparatively analyze genomes to determine the core set of genes required by viable cells to persist in an ice sheet. Accomplishing these goals contains significant risk because microbial cells within the ice sheet may have damaged membranes and DNA, rendering their genomes inadequate for sequencing. However, existing methods to study ice core biology cannot produce results with the low-biomass and small sample volumes from ice coring projects. While there are unknowns surrounding the suitability of the cells for flow cytometric sorting and single cell sequencing, making this project an exploratory endeavor; it will be a transformative step toward understanding the ecology of one of the most understudied environments on Earth.", "east": -112.05, "geometry": "POINT(-112.05 -79.28)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; WAIS divide; ICE SHEETS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; ICE CORE RECORDS", "locations": "WAIS divide", "north": -79.28, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Michaud, Alexander; Winski, Dominic A.", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -79.28, "title": "EAGER: ANT LIA: Persist or Perish: Records of Microbial Survival and Long-term Persistence from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "uid": "p0010421", "west": -112.05}, {"awards": "2133684 Fierer, Noah", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 07 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Not all of Antarctica is covered in ice. In fact, soils are common to many parts of Antarctica, and these soils are often unlike any others found on Earth. Antarctic soils harbor unique microorganisms able to cope with the extremely cold and dry conditions common to much of the continent. For decades, microbiologists have been drawn to the unique soils in Antarctica, yet critical knowledge gaps remain. Most notably, it is unclear what properties allow certain microbes to thrive in Antarctic soils. By using a range of methods, this project is developing comprehensive model that discovers the unique genomic features of soils diversity, distributions, and adaptations that allow Antarctic soil microbes to thrive in extreme environments. The proposed work will be relevant to researchers in many fields, including engineers seeking to develop new biotechnologies, ecologists studying the contributions of these microbial communities to the functioning of Antarctic ecosystems, microbiologists studying novel microbial adaptations to extreme environmental conditions, and even astrobiologists studying the potential for life on Mars. More generally, the proposed research presents an opportunity to advance our current understanding of the microbial life found in one of the more distinctive microbial habitats on Earth, a habitat that is inaccessible to many scientists and a habitat that is increasingly under threat from climate change.\r\n\r\nThe research project explores the microbial diversity in Antarctic soils and links specific features to different soil types and environmental conditions. The overarching questions include: What microbial taxa are found in a variety of Antarctic environments? What are the environmental preferences of specific taxa or lineages? What are the genomic and phenotypic traits of microorganisms that allow them to persist in extreme environments and determine biogeographical differneces? This project will analyze archived soils collected from across Antarctica by a network of international collaborators, with samples selected to span broad gradients in soil and site conditions. The project uses cultivation-independent, high-throughput genomic analysis methods and cultivation-dependent approaches to analyze bacterial and fungal communities in soil samples. The results will be used to predict the distributions of specific taxa and lineages, obtain genomic information for the more ubiquitous and abundant taxa, and quantify growth responses in vitro across gradients in temperature, moisture, and salinity. This integration of ecological, environmental, genomic, and trait-based information will provide a comprehensive understanding of microbial life in Antarctic soils. This project will also help facilitate new collaborations between scientists across the globe while providing undergraduate students with \u0027\u0027hands-on\u0027\u0027 research experiences that introduce the next generation of scientists to the field of Antarctic biology.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF\u0027\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "FUNGI; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; CONTINENT \u003e ANTARCTICA", "locations": "CONTINENT \u003e ANTARCTICA", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Fierer, Noah; Quandt, Alisha A; Lemonte, Joshua", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: ANT LIA Integrating Genomic and Phenotypic Analyses to understand Microbial Life in Antarctic Soils", "uid": "p0010414", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1937546 Morgan-Kiss, Rachael; 1937595 Briggs, Brandon", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162 -77.616667,162.1 -77.616667,162.2 -77.616667,162.3 -77.616667,162.4 -77.616667,162.5 -77.616667,162.6 -77.616667,162.7 -77.616667,162.8 -77.616667,162.9 -77.616667,163 -77.616667,163 -77.6283336,163 -77.6400002,163 -77.6516668,163 -77.6633334,163 -77.67500000000001,163 -77.68666660000001,163 -77.69833320000001,163 -77.7099998,163 -77.7216664,163 -77.733333,162.9 -77.733333,162.8 -77.733333,162.7 -77.733333,162.6 -77.733333,162.5 -77.733333,162.4 -77.733333,162.3 -77.733333,162.2 -77.733333,162.1 -77.733333,162 -77.733333,162 -77.7216664,162 -77.7099998,162 -77.69833320000001,162 -77.68666660000001,162 -77.67500000000001,162 -77.6633334,162 -77.6516668,162 -77.6400002,162 -77.6283336,162 -77.616667))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Wed, 27 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": " Microbial communities are of more than just a scientific curiosity. Microbes represent the single largest source of evolutionary and biochemical diversity on the planet. They are the major agents for cycling carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements through the ecosystem. Despite their importance in ecosystem function, microbes are still generally overlooked in food web models and nutrient cycles. Moreover, microbes do not live in isolation: their growth and metabolism are influenced by complex interactions with other microorganisms. This project will focus on the ecology, activity and roles of microbial communities in Antarctic Lake ecosystems. The team will characterize the genetic underpinnings of microbial interactions and the influence of environmental gradients (e.g. light, nutrients, oxygen, sulfur) and seasons (e.g. summer vs. winter) on microbial networks in Lake Fryxell and Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley within the McMurdo Dry Valley region. Finally, the project furthers the NSF goals of training new generations of scientists by including undergraduate and graduate students, a postdoctoral researcher and a middle school teacher in both lab and field research activities. This partnership will involve a number of other outreach training activities, including visits to classrooms and community events, participation in social media platforms, and webinars. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003ePart II: Technical description: Ecosystem function in the extreme Antarctic Dry Valleys ecosystem is dependent on complex biogeochemical interactions between physiochemical environmental factors (e.g. light, nutrients, oxygen, sulfur), time of year (e.g. summer vs. winter) and microbes. Microbial network complexity can vary in relation to specific abiotic factors, which has important implications on the fragility and resilience of ecosystems under threat of environmental change. This project will evaluate the influence of biogeochemical factors on microbial interactions and network complexity in two Antarctic ice-covered lakes. The study will be structured by three main objectives: 1) infer positive and negative interactions from rich spatial and temporal datasets and investigate the influence of biogeochemical gradients on microbial network complexity using a variety of molecular approaches; 2) directly observe interactions among microbial eukaryotes and their partners using flow cytometry, single-cell sorting and microscopy; and 3) develop metabolic models of specific interactions using metagenomics. Outcomes from amplicon sequencing, meta-omics, and single-cell genomic approaches will be integrated to map specific microbial network complexity and define the role of interactions and metabolic activity onto trends in limnological biogeochemistry in different seasons. These studies will be essential to determine the relationship between network complexity and future climate conditions. Undergraduate researchers will be recruited from both an REU program with a track record of attracting underrepresented minorities and two minority-serving institutions. To further increase polar literacy training and educational impacts, the field team will include a teacher as part of a collaboration with the successful NSF-funded PolarTREC program and participation in activities designed for public outreach.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThis award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 163.0, "geometry": "POINT(162.5 -77.67500000000001)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MICROALGAE; AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS; Antarctica; LAKE/POND; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; COMMUNITY DYNAMICS", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -77.616667, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Morgan-Kiss, Rachael; Briggs, Brandon", "platforms": null, "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -77.733333, "title": "ANT LIA: Collaborative Research: Genetic Underpinnings of Microbial Interactions in Chemically Stratified Antarctic Lakes", "uid": "p0010355", "west": 162.0}, {"awards": "2055455 Duhaime, Melissa", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part 1: Non-technical description:\r\nIt is well known that the Southern Ocean plays an important role in global carbon cycling and also receives a disproportionately large influence of climate change. The role of marine viruses on ocean productivity is largely understudied, especially in this global region. This team proposes to use combination of genomics, flow cytometry, and network modeling to test the hypothesis that viral biogeography, infection networks, and viral impacts on microbial metabolism can explain variations in net community production (NCP) and carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. The project includes the training of a postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and undergraduate students. It also includes the development of a new Polar Sci ReachOut program in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History especially targeted to middle-school students and teachers and the general public. The team will also produce a Science for Tomorrow (SFT) program for use in middle schools in metro-Detroit communities and lead a summer Research Experience for Teachers (RET) fellows. \r\n\r\nPart 2: Technical description: \r\nThe study will leverage hundreds of existing samples collected for microbes and viruses from the Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition (ACE). These samples provide the first contiguous survey of viral diversity and microbial communities around Antarctica. Viral networks are being studied in the context of biogeochemical data to model community networks and predict net community production (NCP), which will provide a way to evaluate the role of viruses in Southern Ocean carbon cycling. Using cutting edge molecular and flow cytometry approaches, this project addresses the following questions: 1) How/why are Southern Ocean viral populations distributed across environmental gradients? 2a) Do viruses interfere with \"keystone\" metabolic pathways and biogeochemical processes of microbial communities in the Southern Ocean? 2b) Does nutrient availability or other environmental variables drive changes in virus-microbe infection networks in the Southern Ocean? Results will be used to develop and evaluate generative models of NCP predictions that incorporate the importance of viral traits and virus-host interactions.\r\n\r\nThis award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Southern Ocean; AMD/US; AMD; FIELD INVESTIGATION; USA/NSF; AQUATIC SCIENCES; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; VIRUSES; USAP-DC", "locations": "Southern Ocean", "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Duhaime, Melissa; Zaman, Luis", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -90.0, "title": "ANT LIA - Viral Ecogenomics of the Southern Ocean: Unifying Omics and Ecological Networks to Advance our Understanding of Antarctic Microbial Ecosystem Function", "uid": "p0010333", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "1341429 Ball, Becky", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-68.205783 -60.706633,-65.9444531 -60.706633,-63.6831232 -60.706633,-61.4217933 -60.706633,-59.1604634 -60.706633,-56.8991335 -60.706633,-54.6378036 -60.706633,-52.3764737 -60.706633,-50.1151438 -60.706633,-47.8538139 -60.706633,-45.592484 -60.706633,-45.592484 -62.1204014,-45.592484 -63.5341698,-45.592484 -64.9479382,-45.592484 -66.3617066,-45.592484 -67.775475,-45.592484 -69.1892434,-45.592484 -70.6030118,-45.592484 -72.0167802,-45.592484 -73.4305486,-45.592484 -74.844317,-47.8538139 -74.844317,-50.1151438 -74.844317,-52.3764737 -74.844317,-54.6378036 -74.844317,-56.8991335 -74.844317,-59.1604634 -74.844317,-61.4217933 -74.844317,-63.6831232 -74.844317,-65.9444531 -74.844317,-68.205783 -74.844317,-68.205783 -73.4305486,-68.205783 -72.0167802,-68.205783 -70.6030118,-68.205783 -69.1892434,-68.205783 -67.775475,-68.205783 -66.3617066,-68.205783 -64.9479382,-68.205783 -63.5341698,-68.205783 -62.1204014,-68.205783 -60.706633))", "dataset_titles": "Climatic and environmental constraints on aboveground-belowground linkages and diversity across a latitudinal gradient in Antarctica", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200289", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "OSF - Center for Open Science", "science_program": null, "title": "Climatic and environmental constraints on aboveground-belowground linkages and diversity across a latitudinal gradient in Antarctica", "url": "https://osf.io/8xfrc/"}], "date_created": "Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing rapid environmental changes, which will influence the community of organisms that live there. However, we know very little about the microscopic organisms living in the soil in this region. Soil biology (including bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates) are responsible for many important processes that sustain ecosystems, such as nutrient recycling. Without understanding the environmental conditions that influence soil biodiversity along the Antarctic Peninsula, our ability to predict the consequences of global change is strongly limited. This project will identify the soil community at many sites along the Antarctic Peninsula to discover how the community changes with environmental conditions from north to south. The project will also identify how the soil community at each site differs under different types of plants. Understanding more about the ways in which plant cover and climate conditions influence soil biodiversity will allow predictions of how communities will respond to future changes such as climate warming and invasive plant species. The project will also further the NSF goals of making scientific discoveries available to the general public and of training new generations of scientists. The investigators will engage with outreach to K-12 students and the general public both directly and through a blog and will participate in workshops for K-12 teachers. Additionally, the project will provide the opportunity for many undergraduate and graduate students of diverse backgrounds to be trained in interdisciplinary research.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe investigators will determine the nature and strength of plant-soil linkages in influencing soil community composition and diversity over a latitudinal gradient of environmental and climatic conditions. The goals are to (1) increase our understanding of current biogeography and diversity by providing in-depth knowledge of soil community composition and complexity as it relates to environmental and climatic characteristics; and (2) determine the nature of aboveground-belowground community linkages over varying spatial scales. The team will identify the composition and diversity of soil communities under key habitat types (grass, moss, algae, etc.). Microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, archaea) will be investigated using pyrosequencing for community composition analysis and metagenomic sequencing to identify functional capabilities. Invertebrates (nematodes, tardigrades, rotifers, microarthropods) will be extracted and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Soil chemistry (pH, nutrient content, soil moisture, etc.) and climate conditions will be measured to determine the relationship between soil communities and physical and chemical properties. Structural equation modeling will be used to identify aboveground-belowground linkage pathways and quantify link strengths under varying environmental conditions.", "east": -45.592484, "geometry": "POINT(-56.8991335 -67.775475)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "FUNGI; FIELD INVESTIGATION; AMD; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; USA/NSF; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; SOIL CHEMISTRY; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; Antarctic Peninsula; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; USAP-DC; AMD/US", "locations": "Antarctic Peninsula", "north": -60.706633, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ball, Becky; Van Horn, David", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "OSF - Center for Open Science", "repositories": "OSF - Center for Open Science", "science_programs": null, "south": -74.844317, "title": "Collaborative Research: Climatic and Environmental Constraints on Aboveground-Belowground Linkages and Diversity across a Latitudinal Gradient in Antarctica", "uid": "p0010314", "west": -68.205783}, {"awards": "1932876 Ball, Becky", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-59.666116 -62.15,-59.5128377 -62.15,-59.3595594 -62.15,-59.2062811 -62.15,-59.0530028 -62.15,-58.8997245 -62.15,-58.7464462 -62.15,-58.5931679 -62.15,-58.4398896 -62.15,-58.2866113 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.1731502,-58.133333 -62.1963004,-58.133333 -62.2194506,-58.133333 -62.2426008,-58.133333 -62.265751,-58.133333 -62.2889012,-58.133333 -62.3120514,-58.133333 -62.3352016,-58.133333 -62.3583518,-58.133333 -62.381502,-58.2866113 -62.381502,-58.4398896 -62.381502,-58.5931679 -62.381502,-58.7464462 -62.381502,-58.8997245 -62.381502,-59.0530028 -62.381502,-59.2062811 -62.381502,-59.3595594 -62.381502,-59.5128377 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.3583518,-59.666116 -62.3352016,-59.666116 -62.3120514,-59.666116 -62.2889012,-59.666116 -62.265751,-59.666116 -62.2426008,-59.666116 -62.2194506,-59.666116 -62.1963004,-59.666116 -62.1731502,-59.666116 -62.15))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I: Non-technical summary\u003cbr/\u003eThe Antarctic Peninsula warmed very rapidly in the late part of the 20th century, much faster than the global average, and this warming is predicted to resume and continue over the rest of the 21st century. One consequence of this rapid warming is the melting and subsequent retreat of glaciers, leading to an increase in newly-exposed land on the Peninsula that was previously covered with ice. Once new terrain is exposed, the process of ecological succession begins, with the arrival of early-colonizing plants, such as moss and lichens, and soil organisms - a process commonly referred to as the \u201cgreening\u201d of Antarctica. Early stages of succession will be an increasingly common feature on the Antarctic Peninsula, but the mechanisms by which they occur on the Antarctic continent is not well understood. Once the plants have established on the newly-exposed soil, they can change many important properties, such as water dynamics, nutrient recycling, soil development, and habitat for microscopic organisms, which will ultimately determine the structure and functioning of the future ecosystem as it develops. These relationships between vegetation, soil, and the associated microorganisms, referred to as \u201cplant-soil\u201d interactions, are something we know virtually nothing about. This project will be the first to make a comprehensive study of how the type of colonizing plant, and the expansion of those plants from climate change, will influence terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica. Understanding these processes is critical to understanding how the greening Antarctica is occurring and how soil communities and processes are influenced by these expanding plant communities. Through this work the research team, will also be intensively training undergraduate and graduate students, including training of students from underrepresented groups and collaborative training of students from Chile and the US. Additionally, the research groups will continue their focus on scientific outreach with K-12 schools and the general public to expand awareness of the effects of climate change in Antarctica.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003ePart II: Technical summary\u003cbr/\u003eIn this study, the researchers will use surveys across succession sites along the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc as well as a manipulative field experiment at glacier succession sites to test how species-specific plant functional traits impact soil properties and associated microbial and invertebrate communities in a greening Antarctica. In doing so, they will pursue three integrated aims to understand how Antarctic plant functional traits alter their soil environment and soil communities during succession after glacial retreat. AIM 1) Characterize six fundamental plant functional traits (thermal conductivity, water holding capacity, albedo, decomposability, tissue nutrient content, and secondary chemistry) among diverse Antarctica flora; AIM 2) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil physical properties and soil biogeochemistry across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica; and AIM 3) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil microbial and invertebrate communities across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica. They will explore how early-colonizing plants, especially mosses and lichens, alter soil physical, biogeochemical, and biological components, potentially impacting later patterns of succession. The researhcers will use intensive surveys of plant-soil interactions across succession sites and a manipulative transplant experiment in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica to address their aims. The investigators will collect data on plant functional traits and their effects on soil physical properties, biogeochemistry, biotic abundance, and microbial metagenomics. The data collected will be the first comprehensive measures of the relative importance of plant functional types during glacial retreat and vegetative expansion from climate change in Antarctica, aiding our understanding of how plant functional group diversity and abundance are changing in a greening Antarctica.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThis award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": -58.133333, "geometry": "POINT(-58.8997245 -62.265751)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "AMD; FIELD SURVEYS; ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS; USA/NSF; AMD/US; 25 de Mayo/King George Island; SOIL CHEMISTRY; Antarctic Peninsula; PLANTS; FUNGI; ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES; USAP-DC; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA", "locations": "25 de Mayo/King George Island; Antarctic Peninsula", "north": -62.15, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Ball, Becky", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -62.381502, "title": "Collaborative Research: Exploring the Functional Role of Antarctic Plants during Terrestrial Succession", "uid": "p0010315", "west": -59.666116}, {"awards": "2046800 Thurber, Andrew", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((162 -77,162.6 -77,163.2 -77,163.8 -77,164.4 -77,165 -77,165.6 -77,166.2 -77,166.8 -77,167.4 -77,168 -77,168 -77.1,168 -77.2,168 -77.3,168 -77.4,168 -77.5,168 -77.6,168 -77.7,168 -77.8,168 -77.9,168 -78,167.4 -78,166.8 -78,166.2 -78,165.6 -78,165 -78,164.4 -78,163.8 -78,163.2 -78,162.6 -78,162 -78,162 -77.9,162 -77.8,162 -77.7,162 -77.6,162 -77.5,162 -77.4,162 -77.3,162 -77.2,162 -77.1,162 -77))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Sat, 21 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Due to persistent cold temperatures, geographical isolation, and resulting evolutionary distinctness of Southern Ocean fauna, the study of Antarctic reducing habitats has the potential to fundamentally alter our understanding of the biologic processes that inhibit greenhouse gas emissions from our oceans. Marine methane, a greenhouse gas 25x as potent as carbon dioxide for warming our atmosphere, is currently a minor component of atmospheric forcing due to the microbial oxidation of methane within the oceans. Based on studies of persistent deep-sea seeps at mid- and northern latitudes we have learned that bacteria and archaea create a \u2018sediment filter\u2019 that oxidizes methane prior to its release. As increasing global temperatures have and will continue to alter the rate and variance of methane release, the ability of the microbial filter to respond to fluctuations in methane cycles is a critical yet unexplored avenue of research. Antarctica contains vast reservoirs of methane, equivalent to all of the permafrost in the Arctic, and yet we know almost nothing about the fauna that may mitigate its release, as until recently, we had not discovered an active methane seep.\r\n\r\nIn 2012, a methane seep was discovered in the Ross Sea, Antarctica that formed in 2011 providing the first opportunity to study an active Antarctic methane-fueled habitat and simultaneously the impact of microbial succession on the oxidation of methane, a critical ecosystem service. Previous work has shown that after 5 years of seepage, the community was at an early stage of succession and unable to mitigate the release of methane from the seafloor. In addition, additional areas of seepage had begun nearby. This research aims to quantify the community trajectory of these seeps in relation to their role in the Antarctic Ecosystem, from greenhouse gas mitigation through supporting the food web. Through the application of genomic and transcriptomic approaches, taxa involved in methane cycling and genes activated by the addition of methane will be identified and contrasted with those from other geographical locations. These comparisons will elucidate how taxa have evolved and adapted to the polar environment.\r\n\r\nThis research uses a \u2018genome to ecosystem\u2019 approach to advance our understanding of organismal and systems ecology in Antarctica. By quantifying the trajectory of community succession following the onset of methane emission, the research will decipher temporal shifts in biodiversity/ecosystem function relationships. Phylogenomic approaches focusing on taxa involved in methane cycling will advance the burgeoning field of microbial biogeography on a continent where earth\u2019s history may have had a profound yet unquantified impact on microbial evolution. Further, the research will empirically quantify the role of chemosynthesis as a form of export production from seeps and in non-seep habitats in the nearshore Ross Sea benthos, informing our understanding of Antarctic carbon cycling.\r\n", "east": 168.0, "geometry": "POINT(165 -77.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "AMD; USA/NSF; USAP-DC; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; McMurdo Sound; BENTHIC; FIELD SURVEYS; AMD/US; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS", "locations": "McMurdo Sound", "north": -77.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Thurber, Andrew", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "CAREER: Ecosystem Impacts of Microbial Succession and Production at Antarctic Methane Seeps", "uid": "p0010250", "west": 162.0}, {"awards": "1846837 Bowman, Jeff", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Fri, 25 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The coastal Antarctic is undergoing great environmental change. Physical changes in the environment, such as altered sea ice duration and extent, have a direct impact on the phytoplankton and bacteria species which form the base of the marine foodweb. Photosynthetic phytoplankton are the ocean\u0027s primary producers, transforming (fixing) CO2 into organic carbon molecules and providing a source of food for zooplankton and larger predators. When phytoplankton are consumed by zooplankton, or killed by viral attack, they release large amounts of organic carbon and nutrients into the environment. Heterotrophic bacteria must eat other things, and function as \"master recyclers\", consuming these materials and converting them to bacterial biomass which can feed larger organisms such as protists. Some protists are heterotrophs, but others are mixotrophs, able to grow by photosynthesis or heterotrophy. Previous work suggests that by killing and eating bacteria, protists and viruses may regulate bacterial populations, but how these processes are regulated in Antarctic waters is poorly understood. This project will use experiments to determine the rate at which Antarctic protists consume bacteria, and field studies to identify the major bacterial taxa involved in carbon uptake and recycling. In addition, this project will use new sequencing technology to obtain completed genomes for many Antarctic marine bacteria. To place this work in an ecosystem context this project will use microbial diversity data to inform rates associated with key microbial processes within the PALMER ecosystem model.\r\n\r\nThis project addresses critical unknowns regarding the ecological role of heterotrophic marine bacteria in the coastal Antarctic and the top-down controls on bacterial populations. Previous work suggests that at certain times of the year grazing by heterotrophic and mixotrophic protists may meet or exceed bacterial production rates. Similarly, in more temperate waters bacteriophages (viruses) are thought to contribute significantly to bacterial mortality during the spring and summer. These different top-down controls have implications for carbon flow through the marine foodweb, because protists are grazed more efficiently by higher trophic levels than are bacteria. This project uses a combination of grazing experiments and field observations to assess the temporal dynamics of mortality due to temperate bacteriophage and protists. Although many heterotrophic bacterial strains observed in the coastal Antarctic are taxonomically similar to strains from other regions, recent work suggest that they are phylogenetically and genetically distinct. To better understand the ecological function and evolutionary trajectories of key Antarctic marine bacteria, their genomes will be isolated and sequenced. Then, these genomes will be used to improve the predictions of the paprica metabolic inference pipeline, and our understanding of the relationship between heterotrophic bacteria and their major predators in the Antarctic marine environment. Finally, the research team will modify the Regional Test-Bed Model model to enable microbial diversity data to be used to optimize the starting conditions of key parameters, and to constrain the model\u0027s data assimilation methods.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Magmatic Volatiles; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; VIRUSES; USA/NSF; Palmer Station; AMD/US; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; LABORATORY; PROTISTS; AMD; USAP-DC", "locations": "Palmer Station", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Bowman, Jeff; Connors, Elizabeth", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "CAREER: Understanding microbial heterotrophic processes in coastal Antarctic waters", "uid": "p0010201", "west": null}, {"awards": "1643466 Hollibaugh, James; 1643345 Popp, Brian", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-78.20206667 -64.03195833,-76.785055836 -64.03195833,-75.368045002 -64.03195833,-73.951034168 -64.03195833,-72.534023334 -64.03195833,-71.1170125 -64.03195833,-69.700001666 -64.03195833,-68.282990832 -64.03195833,-66.865979998 -64.03195833,-65.448969164 -64.03195833,-64.03195833 -64.03195833,-64.03195833 -64.554377497,-64.03195833 -65.076796664,-64.03195833 -65.599215831,-64.03195833 -66.121634998,-64.03195833 -66.644054165,-64.03195833 -67.166473332,-64.03195833 -67.688892499,-64.03195833 -68.211311666,-64.03195833 -68.733730833,-64.03195833 -69.25615,-65.448969164 -69.25615,-66.865979998 -69.25615,-68.282990832 -69.25615,-69.700001666 -69.25615,-71.1170125 -69.25615,-72.534023334 -69.25615,-73.951034168 -69.25615,-75.368045002 -69.25615,-76.785055836 -69.25615,-78.20206667 -69.25615,-78.20206667 -68.733730833,-78.20206667 -68.211311666,-78.20206667 -67.688892499,-78.20206667 -67.166473332,-78.20206667 -66.644054165,-78.20206667 -66.121634998,-78.20206667 -65.599215831,-78.20206667 -65.076796664,-78.20206667 -64.554377497,-78.20206667 -64.03195833))", "dataset_titles": "\"Collaborative research: Chemoautotrophy in Antarctic bacterioplankton communities supported by the oxidation of urea-derived nitrogen\"; Expedition data of LMG1801", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200124", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition data of LMG1801", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/LMG1801"}, {"dataset_uid": "200193", "doi": "Not yet assigned", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "BCO-DMO", "science_program": null, "title": "\"Collaborative research: Chemoautotrophy in Antarctic bacterioplankton communities supported by the oxidation of urea-derived nitrogen\"", "url": "https://www.bco-dmo.org/project/775717"}], "date_created": "Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The project addressed fundamental questions regarding the role of nitrification (the conversion of ammonium to nitrate by a two-step process involving two different guilds of microorganisms: ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizers) in the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Specifically, the project evaluated the contribution of carbon fixation supported by energy derived from the oxidation of nitrogen compounds (chemoautotrophy) to the overall supply of organic carbon to the food web of the Southern Ocean. Additionally, the project aimed to determine the significance of the contribution of other sources of reduced nitrogen, specifically organic nitrogen and urea, to nitrification because these contributions may not be assessed by standard protocols. \n\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe quantified the oxidation rates of 15N supplied as ammonium, urea and nitrite, which allowed us to estimate the contribution of urea-derived N and complete nitrification (ammonia to nitrate, N-3 to N+5) to chemoautotrophy in Antarctic coastal waters. We compared these estimates to direct measurements of the incorporation of dissolved inorganic 14C into organic matter in the dark for an independent estimate of chemoautotrophy. We made measurements on samples taken from the major water masses: surface water (~10 m), winter water (35-174 m), circumpolar deep water (175-1000 m) and slope water (\u003e1000 m); on a cruise surveying the continental shelf and slope west of the Antarctic Peninsula in the austral summer of 2018 (LMG18-01). Samples were also taken to measure the concentrations of nitrite, ammonia, urea and polyamines; for qPCR analysis of the abundance of relevant marker genes; and for studies of processes related to the core questions of the study. The project relied on collaboration with the Palmer LTER for ancillary data (bacterioplankton abundance and production, chlorophyll, physical and additional chemical variables). The synergistic activities of this project along with the LTER activities provides a unique opportunity to assess chemoautotrophy in context of the overall ecosystem\u0027s dynamics, including both primary and secondary production processes.\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis project resulted in the training of a postdoctoral researcher and provide undergraduate students opportunities to gain hand-on experience with research on microbial geochemistry. This project contributed substantially to understanding an important aspect of nitrogen cycling and bacterioplankton production in the study area. Both PIs participate fully in the education and outreach efforts of the Palmer LTER, including making highlights of the findings available for posting to the LTER project web site, posting material to web sites at their respective departments, and incorporating material from the study in lectures and seminars presented at their respective institutions. \n", "east": -64.03195833, "geometry": "POINT(-71.1170125 -66.644054165)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "NITROGEN; SHIPS; USAP-DC; MARINE ECOSYSTEMS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES; AMD/US; West Antarctic Shelf; USA/NSF; PAL-LTER; AMD", "locations": "West Antarctic Shelf", "north": -64.03195833, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Hollibaugh, James T.; Popp, Brian", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e SHIPS", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "BCO-DMO; R2R", "science_programs": null, "south": -69.25615, "title": "Collaborative Research: Chemoautotrophy in Antarctic Bacterioplankton Communities Supported by the Oxidation of Urea-derived Nitrogen", "uid": "p0010150", "west": -78.20206667}, {"awards": "1620976 Johnson, Sarah", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((160 -77,160.3 -77,160.6 -77,160.9 -77,161.2 -77,161.5 -77,161.8 -77,162.1 -77,162.4 -77,162.7 -77,163 -77,163 -77.1,163 -77.2,163 -77.3,163 -77.4,163 -77.5,163 -77.6,163 -77.7,163 -77.8,163 -77.9,163 -78,162.7 -78,162.4 -78,162.1 -78,161.8 -78,161.5 -78,161.2 -78,160.9 -78,160.6 -78,160.3 -78,160 -78,160 -77.9,160 -77.8,160 -77.7,160 -77.6,160 -77.5,160 -77.4,160 -77.3,160 -77.2,160 -77.1,160 -77))", "dataset_titles": "GenBank Sequence Read Archive with accession numbers SRR8217969 - SRR8217976 and project accession PRJNA506221", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200164", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "GenBank Sequence Read Archive with accession numbers SRR8217969 - SRR8217976 and project accession PRJNA506221", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA506221/"}], "date_created": "Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Despite recent advances, we still know little about how life and its traces persist in extremely harsh conditions. What survival strategies do cells employ when pushed to their limit? Using a new technique, this project will investigate whether Antarctic paleolakes harbor \"microbial seed banks,\" or caches of viable microbes adapted to past paleoenvironments that could help transform our understanding of how cells survive over ancient timescales. Findings from this investigation could also illuminate novel DNA repair pathways with possible biomedical and biotechnology applications and help to refine life detection strategies for Mars. The project will bring Antarctic research to Georgetown University\u0027\u0027s campus for the first time, providing training opportunities in cutting edge analytical techniques for multiple students and a postdoctoral fellow. The field site will be the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which provide an unrivaled opportunity to investigate fundamental questions about the persistence of microbial life. Multiple lines of evidence, from interbedded and overlying ashfall deposits to parameterized models, suggest that the large-scale landforms there have remained essentially fixed as far back as the middle of the Miocene Epoch (i.e., ~8 million years ago). This geologic stability, coupled with geographic isolation and a steady polar climate, mean that biological activity has probably undergone few qualitative changes over the last one to two million years. The team will sample paleolake facies using sterile techniques from multiple Dry Valleys sites and extract DNA from entombed organic material. Genetic material will then be sequenced using Pacific Biosciences\u0027\u0027 Single Molecule, Real-Time DNA sequencing technology, which sequences native DNA as opposed to amplified DNA, thereby eliminating PCR primer bias, and enables read lengths that have never before been possible. The data will be analyzed with a range of bioinformatic techniques, with results that stand to impact our understanding of cell biology, Antarctic paleobiology, microbiology and biogeography, biotechnology, and planetary science.", "east": 163.0, "geometry": "POINT(161.5 -77.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; CYANOBACTERIA (BLUE-GREEN ALGAE); LABORATORY; Dry Valleys", "locations": "Dry Valleys", "north": -77.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Johnson, Sarah", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY", "repo": "NCBI GenBank", "repositories": "NCBI GenBank", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.0, "title": "EAGER: Single-Molecule DNA Sequencing of Antarctic Paleolakes", "uid": "p0010125", "west": 160.0}, {"awards": "1543441 Fricker, Helen; 1543405 Leventer, Amy; 1543453 Lyons, W. Berry; 1543396 Christner, Brent; 1543537 Priscu, John; 1543347 Rosenheim, Brad", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-163.611 -84.33543,-162.200034 -84.33543,-160.789068 -84.33543,-159.378102 -84.33543,-157.967136 -84.33543,-156.55617 -84.33543,-155.145204 -84.33543,-153.734238 -84.33543,-152.323272 -84.33543,-150.912306 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.3659157,-149.50134 -84.3964014,-149.50134 -84.4268871,-149.50134 -84.4573728,-149.50134 -84.4878585,-149.50134 -84.5183442,-149.50134 -84.5488299,-149.50134 -84.5793156,-149.50134 -84.6098013,-149.50134 -84.640287,-150.912306 -84.640287,-152.323272 -84.640287,-153.734238 -84.640287,-155.145204 -84.640287,-156.55617 -84.640287,-157.967136 -84.640287,-159.378102 -84.640287,-160.789068 -84.640287,-162.200034 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.6098013,-163.611 -84.5793156,-163.611 -84.5488299,-163.611 -84.5183442,-163.611 -84.4878585,-163.611 -84.4573728,-163.611 -84.4268871,-163.611 -84.3964014,-163.611 -84.3659157,-163.611 -84.33543))", "dataset_titles": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ01-WIS_GroundingZone_01 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ13-WIS_GroundingZone_13 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA02-WIS_LAKES_02 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA06-WIS_LAKES_06 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA07-WIS_LAKES_07 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA09-WIS_LAKES_09 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Bistatic Radar Sounding of Whillans Ice Stream, Antarctica and Store Glacier, Greenland; CTD data from Mercer Subglacial Lake and access borehole; Discrete bulk sediment properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake; Isotopic data from Whillans Ice Stream grounding zone, West Antarctica; Mercer Subglacial Lake radiocarbon and stable isotope data ; Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) microbial composition: 16S rRNA genes (Sequence Read Archive; BioProject: PRJNA790995); Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) noble gas and isotopic data; Mercer Subglacial Lake water column viral metagenomic sequencing; Salsa sediment cores; Sediment porewater properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake; Water column biogeochemical data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601360", "doi": "10.15784/601360", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere; Radiocarbon; Sediment; Whillans Ice Stream", "people": "Venturelli, Ryan A", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "WISSARD", "title": "Isotopic data from Whillans Ice Stream grounding zone, West Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601360"}, {"dataset_uid": "200217", "doi": "10.7283/3JMY-Y504", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA09-WIS_LAKES_09 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/3JMY-Y504"}, {"dataset_uid": "200215", "doi": "10.7283/C503-KS23", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA06-WIS_LAKES_06 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/C503-KS23"}, {"dataset_uid": "200212", "doi": "10.7283/PT0Q-JB95", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ01-WIS_GroundingZone_01 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/PT0Q-JB95"}, {"dataset_uid": "601498", "doi": "10.15784/601498", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Noble Gas", "people": "Lyons, W. Berry; Gardner, Christopher B.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) noble gas and isotopic data", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601498"}, {"dataset_uid": "601657", "doi": "10.15784/601657", "keywords": "Antarctica; Conductivity; Cryosphere; CTD; Depth; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Hot Water Drill; Mercer Subglacial Lake; physical properties; SALSA; subglacial lake; Temperature", "people": "Rosenheim, Brad; Priscu, John; Dore, John; Leventer, Amy", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "CTD data from Mercer Subglacial Lake and access borehole", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601657"}, {"dataset_uid": "601661", "doi": "10.15784/601661", "keywords": "Antarctica; Carbon; Cryosphere; Glacier; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Iron; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Mineralogy; Particle Size; physical properties; SALSA; Sediment Core; sulfur; West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "people": "Science Team, SALSA; Tranter, Martyn; Skidmore, Mark; Hawkings, Jon; Michaud, Alexander; Campbell, Timothy; Dore, John; Venturelli, Ryan A", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Discrete bulk sediment properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601661"}, {"dataset_uid": "200213", "doi": "10.7283/F7BB-JH05", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - GZ13-WIS_GroundingZone_13 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/F7BB-JH05"}, {"dataset_uid": "200214", "doi": "10.7283/YW8Z-TK03", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA02-WIS_LAKES_02 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/YW8Z-TK03"}, {"dataset_uid": "200246", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "OSU-MGR", "science_program": null, "title": "Salsa sediment cores", "url": "https://osu-mgr.org"}, {"dataset_uid": "601663", "doi": "10.15784/601663", "keywords": "Antarctica; Carbon; Cell Counts; Cryosphere; geochemistry; Glacier; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Microbes; Nutrients; SALSA; Stable Isotopes; Trace Elements; West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "people": "Science Team, SALSA; Tranter, Martyn; Barker, Joel; Li, Wei; Steigmeyer, August; Hawkings, Jon; Skidmore, Mark; Dore, John; Priscu, John", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Water column biogeochemical data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601663"}, {"dataset_uid": "200282", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake (SLM) microbial composition: 16S rRNA genes (Sequence Read Archive; BioProject: PRJNA790995)", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/?term=PRJNA790995"}, {"dataset_uid": "200342", "doi": null, "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake water column viral metagenomic sequencing", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/biosample/32811410"}, {"dataset_uid": "601664", "doi": "10.15784/601664", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere; gases; geochemistry; Glacier; Glaciology; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Methane; SALSA; Sediment Core; West Antarctic Ice Sheet", "people": "Tranter, Martyn; Science Team, SALSA; Dore, John; Michaud, Alexander; Skidmore, Mark; Steigmeyer, August", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Sediment porewater properties data from Mercer Subglacial Lake", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601664"}, {"dataset_uid": "601672", "doi": "10.15784/601672", "keywords": "Antarctica; Cryosphere; isotopes; Mercer Subglacial Lake; Radiocarbon; Subglacial lakes", "people": "Venturelli, Ryan; Rosenheim, Brad", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Mercer Subglacial Lake radiocarbon and stable isotope data ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601672"}, {"dataset_uid": "601472", "doi": "10.15784/601472", "keywords": "Antarctica; Bistatic Radar; Cryosphere; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; GPS Data; Greenland; Lake Whillans; Radar; Store Glacier; Whillans Ice Stream; WISSARD", "people": "Siegfried, Matthew; Christoffersen, Poul; Dawson, Eliza; MacKie, Emma; Peters, Sean; Schroeder, Dustin; Bienert, Nicole", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "WISSARD", "title": "Bistatic Radar Sounding of Whillans Ice Stream, Antarctica and Store Glacier, Greenland", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601472"}, {"dataset_uid": "200216", "doi": "10.7283/F8NH-CV04", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica - PI Continuous - LA07-WIS_LAKES_07 P.S. - GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/F8NH-CV04"}], "date_created": "Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The Antarctic subglacial environment remains one of the least explored regions on Earth. This project will examine the physical and biological characteristics of Subglacial Lake Mercer, a lake that lies 1200m beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This study will address key questions relating to the stability of the ice sheet, the subglacial hydrological system, and the deep-cold subglacial biosphere. The education and outreach component aims to widely disseminate results to the scientific community and to the general public through short films, a blog, and a website.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eSubglacial Lake Mercer is one of the larger hydrologically active lakes in the southern basin of the Whillans Ice Plain, West Antarctica. It receives about 25 percent of its water from East Antarctica with the remainder originating from West Antarctica, is influenced by drain/fill cycles in a lake immediately upstream (Subglacial Lake Conway), and lies about 100 km upstream of the present grounding line of the Ross Ice Shelf. This site will yield information on the history of the Whillans and Mercer Ice Streams, and on grounding line migration. The integrated study will include direct sampling of basal ice, water, and sediment from the lake in concert with surface geophysical surveys over a three-year period to define the hydrological connectivity among lakes on the Whillans Ice Plain and their flow paths to the sea. The geophysical surveys will furnish information on subglacial hydrology, aid the site selection for hot-water drilling, and provide spatial context for interpreting findings. The hot-water-drilled boreholes will be used to collect basal ice samples, provide access for direct measurement of subglacial physical, chemical, and biological conditions in the water column and sediments, and to explore the subglacial water cavities using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with sensors, cameras, and sampling equipment. Data collected from this study will address the overarching hypothesis \\\"Contemporary biodiversity and carbon cycling in hydrologically-active subglacial environments associated with the Mercer and Whillans ice streams are regulated by the mineralization and cycling of relict marine organic matter and through interactions among ice, rock, water, and sediments\\\". The project will be undertaken by a collaborative team of scientists, with expertise in microbiology, biogeochemistry, hydrology, geophysics, glaciology, marine geology, paleoceanography, and science communication.", "east": -149.50134, "geometry": "POINT(-156.55617 -84.4878585)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "SEDIMENTS; Antarctica; ISOTOPES; USAP-DC; VIRUSES; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; LABORATORY; Radiocarbon; Whillans Ice Stream; AMD; SALSA; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS; RADIOCARBON; FIELD INVESTIGATION; AMD/US; ICE MOTION; subglacial lake; Mercer Ice Stream; USA/NSF; GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS", "locations": "Antarctica; Mercer Ice Stream; Whillans Ice Stream", "north": -84.33543, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Glaciology; Antarctic Instrumentation and Support; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Rosenheim, Brad; Fricker, Helen; Priscu, John; Leventer, Amy; Dore, John; Lyons, W. Berry; Christner, Brent", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e PHYSICAL MODELS \u003e LABORATORY; LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "GenBank; NCBI GenBank; OSU-MGR; UNAVCO; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -84.640287, "title": "Collaborative Research: Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA): Integrated Study of Carbon Cycling in Hydrologically-active Subglacial Environments", "uid": "p0010119", "west": -163.611}, {"awards": "1642570 Thurber, Andrew", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(166.666 -77.8)", "dataset_titles": "Microbial community composition of the Cinder Cones Cold Seep", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200035", "doi": "DOI:10.1575/1912/bco-dmo.756997.1", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "BCO-DMO", "science_program": null, "title": "Microbial community composition of the Cinder Cones Cold Seep", "url": "https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/756997"}], "date_created": "Fri, 24 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is naturally emitted into the oceans by geologic seeps and microbial production. Based on studies of persistent deep-sea seeps at mid- and northern latitudes, researchers have learned that bacteria and archaea can create a \"sediment filter\" that oxidizes methane prior to its release. Antarctica is thought to contain large reservoirs of organic carbon buried beneath its ice which could a quantity of methane equivalent to all of the permafrost in the Arctic and yet we know almost nothing about the methane oxidizing microbes in this region. How these microbial communities develop and potentially respond to fluctuations in methane levels is an under-explored avenue of research. A bacterial mat was recently discovered at 78 degrees south, suggesting the possible presence of a methane seep, and associated microbial communities. This project will explore this environment in detail to assess the levels and origin of methane, and the nature of the microbial ecosystem present. \u003cbr/\u003e \u003cbr/\u003eAn expansive bacterial mat appeared and/or was discovered at 78 degrees south in 2011. This site, near McMurdo Station Antarctica, has been visited since the mid-1960s, but this mat was not observed until 2011. The finding of this site provides an unusual opportunity to study an Antarctic marine benthic habitat with active methane cycling and to examine the dynamics of recruitment and community succession of seep fauna including bacteria, archaea, protists and metazoans. This project will collect the necessary baseline data to facilitate further studies of Antarctic methane cycling. The concentration and source of methane will be determined at this site and at potentially analogous sites in McMurdo Sound. In addition to biogeochemical characterization of the sites, molecular analysis of the microbial community will quantify the time scales on which bacteria and archaea respond to methane input and provide information on rates of community development and succession in the Southern Ocean. Project activities will facilitate the training of at least one graduate student and results will be shared at both local and international levels. A female graduate student will be mentored as part of this project and data collected will form part of her dissertation. Lectures will be given in K-12 classrooms in Oregon to excite students about polar science. National and international audiences will be reached through blogs and presentations at a scientific conference. The PI\u0027s previous blogs have been used by K-12 classrooms as part of their lesson plans and followed in over 65 countries.\u003cbr/\u003e", "east": 166.666, "geometry": "POINT(166.666 -77.8)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Sea Floor; USAP-DC; Ross Sea; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; NOT APPLICABLE", "locations": "Ross Sea; Sea Floor", "north": -77.8, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Thurber, Andrew", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "BCO-DMO", "repositories": "BCO-DMO", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.8, "title": "EAGER: Elucidating the Antarctic Methane Cycle at the Cinder Cones Reducing Habitat.", "uid": "p0010030", "west": 166.666}, {"awards": "1543412 Reinfelder, John", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "16S rRNA gene libraries of krill gut microbial communities; Microbial gene libraries of krill gut microbial communities", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200024", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "Microbial gene libraries of krill gut microbial communities", "url": "https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fbioproject%2F531145\u0026amp;data=02%7C01%7Creinfeld%40envsci.rutgers.edu%7C7e30a0192dc748ab271408d6b9d57d08%7Cb92d2b234d35447093ff69aca6632ffe%7C1%7C0%7C636900723909188941\u0026amp;sdata=G6cNg4bBHzeikrWSCYITcT6XS3NLWwjQ1yNdwtrALPc%3D\u0026amp;reserved=0"}, {"dataset_uid": "601171", "doi": "10.15784/601171", "keywords": "Antarctica; Biology; Biosphere; Cryosphere; Krill; LTER Palmer Station; Microbiome; Oceans; Southern Ocean", "people": "Reinfelder, John", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": "LTER", "title": "16S rRNA gene libraries of krill gut microbial communities", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601171"}], "date_created": "Sun, 31 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The goal of this project was to conduct a preliminary assessment of gut microbiomes in Antarctic krill (Euphasia superba) collected in coastal waters west of the Antarctic Peninsula and identify organisms potentially capable of catalyzing the production of methylmercury. DNA was extracted from composite krill digestive tracts and eukaryotic DNA removed. Prokaryotic microbial DNA extracted from krill digestive tracts was sequenced and gene libraries were constructed. Genera of anaerobic microorganisms which are known to support mercury methylation were identified.", "east": -68.2816, "geometry": "POINT(-69.09295 -66.8017)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; Antarctica; NOT APPLICABLE; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -65.8708, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Schaefer, Jeffra; Reinfelder, John; Barkar, T.", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "NCBI GenBank", "repositories": "NCBI GenBank; USAP-DC", "science_programs": "LTER", "south": -67.7326, "title": "Methylmercury in Antarctic Krill Microbiomes", "uid": "p0010023", "west": -69.9043}, {"awards": "1144192 Tulaczyk, Slawek; 1144176 Lyons, W. Berry; 1144177 Pettit, Erin; 1727387 Mikucki, Jill", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((161.8 -77.7,161.88 -77.7,161.96 -77.7,162.04000000000002 -77.7,162.12 -77.7,162.2 -77.7,162.28 -77.7,162.36 -77.7,162.44 -77.7,162.51999999999998 -77.7,162.6 -77.7,162.6 -77.70700000000001,162.6 -77.714,162.6 -77.721,162.6 -77.728,162.6 -77.735,162.6 -77.742,162.6 -77.749,162.6 -77.756,162.6 -77.76299999999999,162.6 -77.77,162.51999999999998 -77.77,162.44 -77.77,162.36 -77.77,162.28 -77.77,162.2 -77.77,162.12 -77.77,162.04000000000002 -77.77,161.96 -77.77,161.88 -77.77,161.8 -77.77,161.8 -77.76299999999999,161.8 -77.756,161.8 -77.749,161.8 -77.742,161.8 -77.735,161.8 -77.728,161.8 -77.721,161.8 -77.714,161.8 -77.70700000000001,161.8 -77.7))", "dataset_titles": "Ablation Stake Data from of Taylor Glacier near Blood Falls; Antarctica Support 2014/2015 - C-528 Blood Falls GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset; Blood Falls, McMurdo Dry Va. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. Dataset/Seismic Network; FLIR thermal imaging data near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier; Ground Penetrating Radar Data near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier; Ice Temperature in Shallow Boreholes Near Blood Falls at the Terminus of Taylor Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica; NCBI short read archive -Metagenomic survey of Antarctic Groundwater; Terrestrial Radar Interferometry near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier; The Geochemistry of englacial brine from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica; Time Lapse imagery of the Blood Falls feature, Antarctica ; Vaisala Integrated Met Station near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601164", "doi": "10.15784/601164", "keywords": "Antarctica; Basal Crevassing; Cryosphere; Glacier Hydrology; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Snow/Ice", "people": "Pettit, Erin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Ablation Stake Data from of Taylor Glacier near Blood Falls", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601164"}, {"dataset_uid": "601167", "doi": "10.15784/601167", "keywords": "Antarctica; Basal Crevassing; Cryosphere; Glacier Hydrology; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Photographs; Photo/Video; Snow/Ice; Taylor Glacier; Time Laps Images", "people": "Pettit, Erin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Time Lapse imagery of the Blood Falls feature, Antarctica ", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601167"}, {"dataset_uid": "601166", "doi": "10.15784/601166", "keywords": "Antarctica; Basal Crevassing; Cryosphere; Glacier Hydrology; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; GPR; Ground Penetrating Radar; Radar; Snow/Ice; Taylor Glacier", "people": "Pettit, Erin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Terrestrial Radar Interferometry near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601166"}, {"dataset_uid": "601165", "doi": "10.15784/601165", "keywords": "Antarctica; Basal Crevassing; Cryosphere; Glacier Hydrology; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; GPR; Ground Penetrating Radar; Radar; Snow/Ice; Taylor Glacier", "people": "Pettit, Erin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Ground Penetrating Radar Data near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601165"}, {"dataset_uid": "601179", "doi": "10.15784/601179", "keywords": "Antarctica; Chemistry:Ice; Cryosphere; Geochemistry; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Subglacial Brine", "people": "Lyons, W. Berry; Gardner, Christopher B.", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "The Geochemistry of englacial brine from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601179"}, {"dataset_uid": "200074", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCBI GenBank", "science_program": null, "title": "NCBI short read archive -Metagenomic survey of Antarctic Groundwater", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/?term=SRR6667787"}, {"dataset_uid": "601169", "doi": "10.15784/601169", "keywords": "Antarctica; Basal Crevassing; Cryosphere; Glacier Hydrology; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Infrared Imagery; Photo/Video; Taylor Glacier; Thermal Camera; Time Laps Images", "people": "Pettit, Erin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "FLIR thermal imaging data near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601169"}, {"dataset_uid": "601139", "doi": "10.15784/601139", "keywords": "Antarctica; Borehole; Borehole Logging; Cryosphere; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Ice Temperature; Snow/Ice; Temperature; Temperature Profiles", "people": "Tulaczyk, Slawek", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Ice Temperature in Shallow Boreholes Near Blood Falls at the Terminus of Taylor Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601139"}, {"dataset_uid": "200029", "doi": "10.7914/SN/YW_2013", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "IRIS", "science_program": null, "title": "Blood Falls, McMurdo Dry Va. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. Dataset/Seismic Network", "url": "http://www.fdsn.org/networks/detail/YW_2013/"}, {"dataset_uid": "601168", "doi": "10.15784/601168", "keywords": "Antarctica; Atmosphere; Basal Crevassing; Cryosphere; Glacier Hydrology; Glaciers/Ice Sheet; Glaciology; Meteorology; Taylor Glacier; Temperature; Weather Station Data; Wind Speed", "people": "Pettit, Erin", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Vaisala Integrated Met Station near Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601168"}, {"dataset_uid": "200028", "doi": "10.7283/FCEN-8050", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "UNAVCO", "science_program": null, "title": "Antarctica Support 2014/2015 - C-528 Blood Falls GPS/GNSS Observations Dataset", "url": "https://www.unavco.org/data/doi/10.7283/fcen-8050"}], "date_created": "Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Recent discoveries of widespread liquid water and microbial ecosystems below the Antarctic ice sheets have generated considerable interest in studying Antarctic subglacial environments. Understanding subglacial hydrology, the persistence of life in extended isolation and the evolution and stability of subglacial habitats requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. The collaborative project, Minimally Invasive Direct Glacial Exploration (MIDGE) of the Biogeochemistry, Hydrology and Glaciology of Blood Falls, McMurdo Dry Valleys will integrate geophysical measurements, molecular microbial ecology and geochemical analyses to explore a unique Antarctic subglacial system known as Blood Falls. Blood Falls is a hypersaline, subglacial brine that supports an active microbial community. The subglacial brine is released from a crevasse at the surface of the Taylor Glacier providing an accessible portal into an Antarctic subglacial ecosystem. Recent geochemical and molecular analyses support a marine source for the salts and microorganisms in Blood Falls. The last time marine waters inundated this part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys was during the Late Tertiary, which suggests the brine is ancient. Still, no direct samples have been collected from the subglacial source to Blood Falls and little is known about the origin of this brine or the amount of time it has been sealed below Taylor Glacier. Radar profiles collected near Blood Falls delineate a possible fault in the subglacial substrate that may help explain the localized and episodic nature of brine release. However it remains unclear what triggers the episodic release of brine exclusively at the Blood Falls crevasse or the extent to which the brine is altered as it makes its way to the surface. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe MIDGE project aims to determine the mechanism of brine release at Blood Falls, evaluate changes in the geochemistry and the microbial community within the englacial conduit and assess if Blood Falls waters have a distinct impact on the thermal and stress state of Taylor Glacier, one of the most studied polar glaciers in Antarctica. The geophysical study of the glaciological structure and mechanism of brine release will use GPR, GPS, and a small passive seismic network. Together with international collaborators, the \u0027Ice Mole\u0027 team from FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany (funded by the German Aerospace Center, DLR), MIDGE will develop and deploy innovative, minimally invasive technologies for clean access and brine sample retrieval from deep within the Blood Falls drainage system. These technologies will allow for the collection of samples of the brine away from the surface (up to tens of meters) for geochemical analyses and microbial structure-function experiments. There is concern over the contamination of pristine subglacial environments from chemical and biological materials inherent in the drilling process; and MIDGE will provide data on the efficacy of thermoelectric probes for clean access and retrieval of representative subglacial samples. Antarctic subglacial environments provide an excellent opportunity for researching survivability and adaptability of microbial life and are potential terrestrial analogues for life habitats on icy planetary bodies. The MIDGE project offers a portable, versatile, clean alternative to hot water and mechanical drilling and will enable the exploration of subglacial hydrology and ecosystem function while making significant progress towards developing technologies for minimally invasive and clean sampling of icy systems.", "east": 162.6, "geometry": "POINT(162.2 -77.735)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "NOT APPLICABLE; BACTERIA/ARCHAEA; USAP-DC", "locations": null, "north": -77.7, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Instrumentation and Support; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science; Antarctic Integrated System Science", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Tulaczyk, Slawek; Pettit, Erin; Lyons, W. Berry; Mikucki, Jill", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "IRIS; NCBI GenBank; UNAVCO; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.77, "title": "Collaborative Research: MIDGE: Minimally Invasive Direct Glacial Exploration of Biogeochemistry, Hydrology and Glaciology of Blood Falls, McMurdo Dry Valleys", "uid": "p0000002", "west": 161.8}]
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Project Title/Abstract/Map | NSF Award(s) | Date Created | PIs / Scientists | Dataset Links and Repositories | Abstract | Bounds Geometry | Geometry | Selected | Visible | |||||
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EAGER: ANT LIA: Persist or Perish: Records of Microbial Survival and Long-term Persistence from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
|
2228257 |
2023-05-31 | Michaud, Alexander; Winski, Dominic A. | No dataset link provided | The goals of this work are to determine the taxonomic identity of viable and preserved microbial cells, and decode the genetic repertoire that confers survival of burial and long-term viability within glacial ice. We will achieve these goals by utilizing subsamples from the ~65 ka record of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WD) Ice Core. WD samples will be melted using the Desert Research Institute’s ice core melting system that is optimized for glaciobiological sampling. Microbial cells from the meltwater will be sorted using fluorescence-activated cell sorting, and individually sorted cells will have their genomes sequenced. The fluorescence-based methods will discern the viable (metabolically active) cells from those cells that are non-viable but preserved in the ice (DNA-containing). Our genomic analysis will identify the taxonomy of each cell, presence of known genes that confer survival in permanently frozen environments, and comparatively analyze genomes to determine the core set of genes required by viable cells to persist in an ice sheet. Accomplishing these goals contains significant risk because microbial cells within the ice sheet may have damaged membranes and DNA, rendering their genomes inadequate for sequencing. However, existing methods to study ice core biology cannot produce results with the low-biomass and small sample volumes from ice coring projects. While there are unknowns surrounding the suitability of the cells for flow cytometric sorting and single cell sequencing, making this project an exploratory endeavor; it will be a transformative step toward understanding the ecology of one of the most understudied environments on Earth. | POINT(-112.05 -79.28) | POINT(-112.05 -79.28) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: ANT LIA Integrating Genomic and Phenotypic Analyses to understand Microbial Life in Antarctic Soils
|
2133684 |
2023-04-07 | Fierer, Noah; Quandt, Alisha A; Lemonte, Joshua | No dataset link provided | Not all of Antarctica is covered in ice. In fact, soils are common to many parts of Antarctica, and these soils are often unlike any others found on Earth. Antarctic soils harbor unique microorganisms able to cope with the extremely cold and dry conditions common to much of the continent. For decades, microbiologists have been drawn to the unique soils in Antarctica, yet critical knowledge gaps remain. Most notably, it is unclear what properties allow certain microbes to thrive in Antarctic soils. By using a range of methods, this project is developing comprehensive model that discovers the unique genomic features of soils diversity, distributions, and adaptations that allow Antarctic soil microbes to thrive in extreme environments. The proposed work will be relevant to researchers in many fields, including engineers seeking to develop new biotechnologies, ecologists studying the contributions of these microbial communities to the functioning of Antarctic ecosystems, microbiologists studying novel microbial adaptations to extreme environmental conditions, and even astrobiologists studying the potential for life on Mars. More generally, the proposed research presents an opportunity to advance our current understanding of the microbial life found in one of the more distinctive microbial habitats on Earth, a habitat that is inaccessible to many scientists and a habitat that is increasingly under threat from climate change. The research project explores the microbial diversity in Antarctic soils and links specific features to different soil types and environmental conditions. The overarching questions include: What microbial taxa are found in a variety of Antarctic environments? What are the environmental preferences of specific taxa or lineages? What are the genomic and phenotypic traits of microorganisms that allow them to persist in extreme environments and determine biogeographical differneces? This project will analyze archived soils collected from across Antarctica by a network of international collaborators, with samples selected to span broad gradients in soil and site conditions. The project uses cultivation-independent, high-throughput genomic analysis methods and cultivation-dependent approaches to analyze bacterial and fungal communities in soil samples. The results will be used to predict the distributions of specific taxa and lineages, obtain genomic information for the more ubiquitous and abundant taxa, and quantify growth responses in vitro across gradients in temperature, moisture, and salinity. This integration of ecological, environmental, genomic, and trait-based information will provide a comprehensive understanding of microbial life in Antarctic soils. This project will also help facilitate new collaborations between scientists across the globe while providing undergraduate students with ''hands-on'' research experiences that introduce the next generation of scientists to the field of Antarctic biology. This award reflects NSF''s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation''s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||
ANT LIA: Collaborative Research: Genetic Underpinnings of Microbial Interactions in Chemically Stratified Antarctic Lakes
|
1937546 1937595 |
2022-07-27 | Morgan-Kiss, Rachael; Briggs, Brandon | No dataset link provided | Microbial communities are of more than just a scientific curiosity. Microbes represent the single largest source of evolutionary and biochemical diversity on the planet. They are the major agents for cycling carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements through the ecosystem. Despite their importance in ecosystem function, microbes are still generally overlooked in food web models and nutrient cycles. Moreover, microbes do not live in isolation: their growth and metabolism are influenced by complex interactions with other microorganisms. This project will focus on the ecology, activity and roles of microbial communities in Antarctic Lake ecosystems. The team will characterize the genetic underpinnings of microbial interactions and the influence of environmental gradients (e.g. light, nutrients, oxygen, sulfur) and seasons (e.g. summer vs. winter) on microbial networks in Lake Fryxell and Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley within the McMurdo Dry Valley region. Finally, the project furthers the NSF goals of training new generations of scientists by including undergraduate and graduate students, a postdoctoral researcher and a middle school teacher in both lab and field research activities. This partnership will involve a number of other outreach training activities, including visits to classrooms and community events, participation in social media platforms, and webinars. <br/><br/>Part II: Technical description: Ecosystem function in the extreme Antarctic Dry Valleys ecosystem is dependent on complex biogeochemical interactions between physiochemical environmental factors (e.g. light, nutrients, oxygen, sulfur), time of year (e.g. summer vs. winter) and microbes. Microbial network complexity can vary in relation to specific abiotic factors, which has important implications on the fragility and resilience of ecosystems under threat of environmental change. This project will evaluate the influence of biogeochemical factors on microbial interactions and network complexity in two Antarctic ice-covered lakes. The study will be structured by three main objectives: 1) infer positive and negative interactions from rich spatial and temporal datasets and investigate the influence of biogeochemical gradients on microbial network complexity using a variety of molecular approaches; 2) directly observe interactions among microbial eukaryotes and their partners using flow cytometry, single-cell sorting and microscopy; and 3) develop metabolic models of specific interactions using metagenomics. Outcomes from amplicon sequencing, meta-omics, and single-cell genomic approaches will be integrated to map specific microbial network complexity and define the role of interactions and metabolic activity onto trends in limnological biogeochemistry in different seasons. These studies will be essential to determine the relationship between network complexity and future climate conditions. Undergraduate researchers will be recruited from both an REU program with a track record of attracting underrepresented minorities and two minority-serving institutions. To further increase polar literacy training and educational impacts, the field team will include a teacher as part of a collaboration with the successful NSF-funded PolarTREC program and participation in activities designed for public outreach.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((162 -77.616667,162.1 -77.616667,162.2 -77.616667,162.3 -77.616667,162.4 -77.616667,162.5 -77.616667,162.6 -77.616667,162.7 -77.616667,162.8 -77.616667,162.9 -77.616667,163 -77.616667,163 -77.6283336,163 -77.6400002,163 -77.6516668,163 -77.6633334,163 -77.67500000000001,163 -77.68666660000001,163 -77.69833320000001,163 -77.7099998,163 -77.7216664,163 -77.733333,162.9 -77.733333,162.8 -77.733333,162.7 -77.733333,162.6 -77.733333,162.5 -77.733333,162.4 -77.733333,162.3 -77.733333,162.2 -77.733333,162.1 -77.733333,162 -77.733333,162 -77.7216664,162 -77.7099998,162 -77.69833320000001,162 -77.68666660000001,162 -77.67500000000001,162 -77.6633334,162 -77.6516668,162 -77.6400002,162 -77.6283336,162 -77.616667)) | POINT(162.5 -77.67500000000001) | false | false | |||||
ANT LIA - Viral Ecogenomics of the Southern Ocean: Unifying Omics and Ecological Networks to Advance our Understanding of Antarctic Microbial Ecosystem Function
|
2055455 |
2022-06-03 | Duhaime, Melissa; Zaman, Luis | No dataset link provided | Part 1: Non-technical description: It is well known that the Southern Ocean plays an important role in global carbon cycling and also receives a disproportionately large influence of climate change. The role of marine viruses on ocean productivity is largely understudied, especially in this global region. This team proposes to use combination of genomics, flow cytometry, and network modeling to test the hypothesis that viral biogeography, infection networks, and viral impacts on microbial metabolism can explain variations in net community production (NCP) and carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. The project includes the training of a postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and undergraduate students. It also includes the development of a new Polar Sci ReachOut program in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History especially targeted to middle-school students and teachers and the general public. The team will also produce a Science for Tomorrow (SFT) program for use in middle schools in metro-Detroit communities and lead a summer Research Experience for Teachers (RET) fellows. Part 2: Technical description: The study will leverage hundreds of existing samples collected for microbes and viruses from the Antarctic Circumpolar Expedition (ACE). These samples provide the first contiguous survey of viral diversity and microbial communities around Antarctica. Viral networks are being studied in the context of biogeochemical data to model community networks and predict net community production (NCP), which will provide a way to evaluate the role of viruses in Southern Ocean carbon cycling. Using cutting edge molecular and flow cytometry approaches, this project addresses the following questions: 1) How/why are Southern Ocean viral populations distributed across environmental gradients? 2a) Do viruses interfere with "keystone" metabolic pathways and biogeochemical processes of microbial communities in the Southern Ocean? 2b) Does nutrient availability or other environmental variables drive changes in virus-microbe infection networks in the Southern Ocean? Results will be used to develop and evaluate generative models of NCP predictions that incorporate the importance of viral traits and virus-host interactions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Climatic and Environmental Constraints on Aboveground-Belowground Linkages and Diversity across a Latitudinal Gradient in Antarctica
|
1341429 |
2022-04-14 | Ball, Becky; Van Horn, David |
|
The Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing rapid environmental changes, which will influence the community of organisms that live there. However, we know very little about the microscopic organisms living in the soil in this region. Soil biology (including bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates) are responsible for many important processes that sustain ecosystems, such as nutrient recycling. Without understanding the environmental conditions that influence soil biodiversity along the Antarctic Peninsula, our ability to predict the consequences of global change is strongly limited. This project will identify the soil community at many sites along the Antarctic Peninsula to discover how the community changes with environmental conditions from north to south. The project will also identify how the soil community at each site differs under different types of plants. Understanding more about the ways in which plant cover and climate conditions influence soil biodiversity will allow predictions of how communities will respond to future changes such as climate warming and invasive plant species. The project will also further the NSF goals of making scientific discoveries available to the general public and of training new generations of scientists. The investigators will engage with outreach to K-12 students and the general public both directly and through a blog and will participate in workshops for K-12 teachers. Additionally, the project will provide the opportunity for many undergraduate and graduate students of diverse backgrounds to be trained in interdisciplinary research.<br/><br/>The investigators will determine the nature and strength of plant-soil linkages in influencing soil community composition and diversity over a latitudinal gradient of environmental and climatic conditions. The goals are to (1) increase our understanding of current biogeography and diversity by providing in-depth knowledge of soil community composition and complexity as it relates to environmental and climatic characteristics; and (2) determine the nature of aboveground-belowground community linkages over varying spatial scales. The team will identify the composition and diversity of soil communities under key habitat types (grass, moss, algae, etc.). Microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, archaea) will be investigated using pyrosequencing for community composition analysis and metagenomic sequencing to identify functional capabilities. Invertebrates (nematodes, tardigrades, rotifers, microarthropods) will be extracted and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Soil chemistry (pH, nutrient content, soil moisture, etc.) and climate conditions will be measured to determine the relationship between soil communities and physical and chemical properties. Structural equation modeling will be used to identify aboveground-belowground linkage pathways and quantify link strengths under varying environmental conditions. | POLYGON((-68.205783 -60.706633,-65.9444531 -60.706633,-63.6831232 -60.706633,-61.4217933 -60.706633,-59.1604634 -60.706633,-56.8991335 -60.706633,-54.6378036 -60.706633,-52.3764737 -60.706633,-50.1151438 -60.706633,-47.8538139 -60.706633,-45.592484 -60.706633,-45.592484 -62.1204014,-45.592484 -63.5341698,-45.592484 -64.9479382,-45.592484 -66.3617066,-45.592484 -67.775475,-45.592484 -69.1892434,-45.592484 -70.6030118,-45.592484 -72.0167802,-45.592484 -73.4305486,-45.592484 -74.844317,-47.8538139 -74.844317,-50.1151438 -74.844317,-52.3764737 -74.844317,-54.6378036 -74.844317,-56.8991335 -74.844317,-59.1604634 -74.844317,-61.4217933 -74.844317,-63.6831232 -74.844317,-65.9444531 -74.844317,-68.205783 -74.844317,-68.205783 -73.4305486,-68.205783 -72.0167802,-68.205783 -70.6030118,-68.205783 -69.1892434,-68.205783 -67.775475,-68.205783 -66.3617066,-68.205783 -64.9479382,-68.205783 -63.5341698,-68.205783 -62.1204014,-68.205783 -60.706633)) | POINT(-56.8991335 -67.775475) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Exploring the Functional Role of Antarctic Plants during Terrestrial Succession
|
1932876 |
2022-04-14 | Ball, Becky | No dataset link provided | Part I: Non-technical summary<br/>The Antarctic Peninsula warmed very rapidly in the late part of the 20th century, much faster than the global average, and this warming is predicted to resume and continue over the rest of the 21st century. One consequence of this rapid warming is the melting and subsequent retreat of glaciers, leading to an increase in newly-exposed land on the Peninsula that was previously covered with ice. Once new terrain is exposed, the process of ecological succession begins, with the arrival of early-colonizing plants, such as moss and lichens, and soil organisms - a process commonly referred to as the “greening” of Antarctica. Early stages of succession will be an increasingly common feature on the Antarctic Peninsula, but the mechanisms by which they occur on the Antarctic continent is not well understood. Once the plants have established on the newly-exposed soil, they can change many important properties, such as water dynamics, nutrient recycling, soil development, and habitat for microscopic organisms, which will ultimately determine the structure and functioning of the future ecosystem as it develops. These relationships between vegetation, soil, and the associated microorganisms, referred to as “plant-soil” interactions, are something we know virtually nothing about. This project will be the first to make a comprehensive study of how the type of colonizing plant, and the expansion of those plants from climate change, will influence terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica. Understanding these processes is critical to understanding how the greening Antarctica is occurring and how soil communities and processes are influenced by these expanding plant communities. Through this work the research team, will also be intensively training undergraduate and graduate students, including training of students from underrepresented groups and collaborative training of students from Chile and the US. Additionally, the research groups will continue their focus on scientific outreach with K-12 schools and the general public to expand awareness of the effects of climate change in Antarctica.<br/><br/>Part II: Technical summary<br/>In this study, the researchers will use surveys across succession sites along the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc as well as a manipulative field experiment at glacier succession sites to test how species-specific plant functional traits impact soil properties and associated microbial and invertebrate communities in a greening Antarctica. In doing so, they will pursue three integrated aims to understand how Antarctic plant functional traits alter their soil environment and soil communities during succession after glacial retreat. AIM 1) Characterize six fundamental plant functional traits (thermal conductivity, water holding capacity, albedo, decomposability, tissue nutrient content, and secondary chemistry) among diverse Antarctica flora; AIM 2) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil physical properties and soil biogeochemistry across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica; and AIM 3) Measure the relative effects of fundamental plant functional traits on soil microbial and invertebrate communities across glacial succession gradients in Antarctica. They will explore how early-colonizing plants, especially mosses and lichens, alter soil physical, biogeochemical, and biological components, potentially impacting later patterns of succession. The researhcers will use intensive surveys of plant-soil interactions across succession sites and a manipulative transplant experiment in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica to address their aims. The investigators will collect data on plant functional traits and their effects on soil physical properties, biogeochemistry, biotic abundance, and microbial metagenomics. The data collected will be the first comprehensive measures of the relative importance of plant functional types during glacial retreat and vegetative expansion from climate change in Antarctica, aiding our understanding of how plant functional group diversity and abundance are changing in a greening Antarctica.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. | POLYGON((-59.666116 -62.15,-59.5128377 -62.15,-59.3595594 -62.15,-59.2062811 -62.15,-59.0530028 -62.15,-58.8997245 -62.15,-58.7464462 -62.15,-58.5931679 -62.15,-58.4398896 -62.15,-58.2866113 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.15,-58.133333 -62.1731502,-58.133333 -62.1963004,-58.133333 -62.2194506,-58.133333 -62.2426008,-58.133333 -62.265751,-58.133333 -62.2889012,-58.133333 -62.3120514,-58.133333 -62.3352016,-58.133333 -62.3583518,-58.133333 -62.381502,-58.2866113 -62.381502,-58.4398896 -62.381502,-58.5931679 -62.381502,-58.7464462 -62.381502,-58.8997245 -62.381502,-59.0530028 -62.381502,-59.2062811 -62.381502,-59.3595594 -62.381502,-59.5128377 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.381502,-59.666116 -62.3583518,-59.666116 -62.3352016,-59.666116 -62.3120514,-59.666116 -62.2889012,-59.666116 -62.265751,-59.666116 -62.2426008,-59.666116 -62.2194506,-59.666116 -62.1963004,-59.666116 -62.1731502,-59.666116 -62.15)) | POINT(-58.8997245 -62.265751) | false | false | |||||
CAREER: Ecosystem Impacts of Microbial Succession and Production at Antarctic Methane Seeps
|
2046800 |
2021-08-21 | Thurber, Andrew | No dataset link provided | Due to persistent cold temperatures, geographical isolation, and resulting evolutionary distinctness of Southern Ocean fauna, the study of Antarctic reducing habitats has the potential to fundamentally alter our understanding of the biologic processes that inhibit greenhouse gas emissions from our oceans. Marine methane, a greenhouse gas 25x as potent as carbon dioxide for warming our atmosphere, is currently a minor component of atmospheric forcing due to the microbial oxidation of methane within the oceans. Based on studies of persistent deep-sea seeps at mid- and northern latitudes we have learned that bacteria and archaea create a ‘sediment filter’ that oxidizes methane prior to its release. As increasing global temperatures have and will continue to alter the rate and variance of methane release, the ability of the microbial filter to respond to fluctuations in methane cycles is a critical yet unexplored avenue of research. Antarctica contains vast reservoirs of methane, equivalent to all of the permafrost in the Arctic, and yet we know almost nothing about the fauna that may mitigate its release, as until recently, we had not discovered an active methane seep. In 2012, a methane seep was discovered in the Ross Sea, Antarctica that formed in 2011 providing the first opportunity to study an active Antarctic methane-fueled habitat and simultaneously the impact of microbial succession on the oxidation of methane, a critical ecosystem service. Previous work has shown that after 5 years of seepage, the community was at an early stage of succession and unable to mitigate the release of methane from the seafloor. In addition, additional areas of seepage had begun nearby. This research aims to quantify the community trajectory of these seeps in relation to their role in the Antarctic Ecosystem, from greenhouse gas mitigation through supporting the food web. Through the application of genomic and transcriptomic approaches, taxa involved in methane cycling and genes activated by the addition of methane will be identified and contrasted with those from other geographical locations. These comparisons will elucidate how taxa have evolved and adapted to the polar environment. This research uses a ‘genome to ecosystem’ approach to advance our understanding of organismal and systems ecology in Antarctica. By quantifying the trajectory of community succession following the onset of methane emission, the research will decipher temporal shifts in biodiversity/ecosystem function relationships. Phylogenomic approaches focusing on taxa involved in methane cycling will advance the burgeoning field of microbial biogeography on a continent where earth’s history may have had a profound yet unquantified impact on microbial evolution. Further, the research will empirically quantify the role of chemosynthesis as a form of export production from seeps and in non-seep habitats in the nearshore Ross Sea benthos, informing our understanding of Antarctic carbon cycling. | POLYGON((162 -77,162.6 -77,163.2 -77,163.8 -77,164.4 -77,165 -77,165.6 -77,166.2 -77,166.8 -77,167.4 -77,168 -77,168 -77.1,168 -77.2,168 -77.3,168 -77.4,168 -77.5,168 -77.6,168 -77.7,168 -77.8,168 -77.9,168 -78,167.4 -78,166.8 -78,166.2 -78,165.6 -78,165 -78,164.4 -78,163.8 -78,163.2 -78,162.6 -78,162 -78,162 -77.9,162 -77.8,162 -77.7,162 -77.6,162 -77.5,162 -77.4,162 -77.3,162 -77.2,162 -77.1,162 -77)) | POINT(165 -77.5) | false | false | |||||
CAREER: Understanding microbial heterotrophic processes in coastal Antarctic waters
|
1846837 |
2021-06-25 | Bowman, Jeff; Connors, Elizabeth | No dataset link provided | The coastal Antarctic is undergoing great environmental change. Physical changes in the environment, such as altered sea ice duration and extent, have a direct impact on the phytoplankton and bacteria species which form the base of the marine foodweb. Photosynthetic phytoplankton are the ocean's primary producers, transforming (fixing) CO2 into organic carbon molecules and providing a source of food for zooplankton and larger predators. When phytoplankton are consumed by zooplankton, or killed by viral attack, they release large amounts of organic carbon and nutrients into the environment. Heterotrophic bacteria must eat other things, and function as "master recyclers", consuming these materials and converting them to bacterial biomass which can feed larger organisms such as protists. Some protists are heterotrophs, but others are mixotrophs, able to grow by photosynthesis or heterotrophy. Previous work suggests that by killing and eating bacteria, protists and viruses may regulate bacterial populations, but how these processes are regulated in Antarctic waters is poorly understood. This project will use experiments to determine the rate at which Antarctic protists consume bacteria, and field studies to identify the major bacterial taxa involved in carbon uptake and recycling. In addition, this project will use new sequencing technology to obtain completed genomes for many Antarctic marine bacteria. To place this work in an ecosystem context this project will use microbial diversity data to inform rates associated with key microbial processes within the PALMER ecosystem model. This project addresses critical unknowns regarding the ecological role of heterotrophic marine bacteria in the coastal Antarctic and the top-down controls on bacterial populations. Previous work suggests that at certain times of the year grazing by heterotrophic and mixotrophic protists may meet or exceed bacterial production rates. Similarly, in more temperate waters bacteriophages (viruses) are thought to contribute significantly to bacterial mortality during the spring and summer. These different top-down controls have implications for carbon flow through the marine foodweb, because protists are grazed more efficiently by higher trophic levels than are bacteria. This project uses a combination of grazing experiments and field observations to assess the temporal dynamics of mortality due to temperate bacteriophage and protists. Although many heterotrophic bacterial strains observed in the coastal Antarctic are taxonomically similar to strains from other regions, recent work suggest that they are phylogenetically and genetically distinct. To better understand the ecological function and evolutionary trajectories of key Antarctic marine bacteria, their genomes will be isolated and sequenced. Then, these genomes will be used to improve the predictions of the paprica metabolic inference pipeline, and our understanding of the relationship between heterotrophic bacteria and their major predators in the Antarctic marine environment. Finally, the research team will modify the Regional Test-Bed Model model to enable microbial diversity data to be used to optimize the starting conditions of key parameters, and to constrain the model's data assimilation methods. | None | None | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Chemoautotrophy in Antarctic Bacterioplankton Communities Supported by the Oxidation of Urea-derived Nitrogen
|
1643466 1643345 |
2020-12-18 | Hollibaugh, James T.; Popp, Brian |
|
The project addressed fundamental questions regarding the role of nitrification (the conversion of ammonium to nitrate by a two-step process involving two different guilds of microorganisms: ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizers) in the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Specifically, the project evaluated the contribution of carbon fixation supported by energy derived from the oxidation of nitrogen compounds (chemoautotrophy) to the overall supply of organic carbon to the food web of the Southern Ocean. Additionally, the project aimed to determine the significance of the contribution of other sources of reduced nitrogen, specifically organic nitrogen and urea, to nitrification because these contributions may not be assessed by standard protocols. <br><br>We quantified the oxidation rates of 15N supplied as ammonium, urea and nitrite, which allowed us to estimate the contribution of urea-derived N and complete nitrification (ammonia to nitrate, N-3 to N+5) to chemoautotrophy in Antarctic coastal waters. We compared these estimates to direct measurements of the incorporation of dissolved inorganic 14C into organic matter in the dark for an independent estimate of chemoautotrophy. We made measurements on samples taken from the major water masses: surface water (~10 m), winter water (35-174 m), circumpolar deep water (175-1000 m) and slope water (>1000 m); on a cruise surveying the continental shelf and slope west of the Antarctic Peninsula in the austral summer of 2018 (LMG18-01). Samples were also taken to measure the concentrations of nitrite, ammonia, urea and polyamines; for qPCR analysis of the abundance of relevant marker genes; and for studies of processes related to the core questions of the study. The project relied on collaboration with the Palmer LTER for ancillary data (bacterioplankton abundance and production, chlorophyll, physical and additional chemical variables). The synergistic activities of this project along with the LTER activities provides a unique opportunity to assess chemoautotrophy in context of the overall ecosystem's dynamics, including both primary and secondary production processes. <br><br>This project resulted in the training of a postdoctoral researcher and provide undergraduate students opportunities to gain hand-on experience with research on microbial geochemistry. This project contributed substantially to understanding an important aspect of nitrogen cycling and bacterioplankton production in the study area. Both PIs participate fully in the education and outreach efforts of the Palmer LTER, including making highlights of the findings available for posting to the LTER project web site, posting material to web sites at their respective departments, and incorporating material from the study in lectures and seminars presented at their respective institutions. | POLYGON((-78.20206667 -64.03195833,-76.785055836 -64.03195833,-75.368045002 -64.03195833,-73.951034168 -64.03195833,-72.534023334 -64.03195833,-71.1170125 -64.03195833,-69.700001666 -64.03195833,-68.282990832 -64.03195833,-66.865979998 -64.03195833,-65.448969164 -64.03195833,-64.03195833 -64.03195833,-64.03195833 -64.554377497,-64.03195833 -65.076796664,-64.03195833 -65.599215831,-64.03195833 -66.121634998,-64.03195833 -66.644054165,-64.03195833 -67.166473332,-64.03195833 -67.688892499,-64.03195833 -68.211311666,-64.03195833 -68.733730833,-64.03195833 -69.25615,-65.448969164 -69.25615,-66.865979998 -69.25615,-68.282990832 -69.25615,-69.700001666 -69.25615,-71.1170125 -69.25615,-72.534023334 -69.25615,-73.951034168 -69.25615,-75.368045002 -69.25615,-76.785055836 -69.25615,-78.20206667 -69.25615,-78.20206667 -68.733730833,-78.20206667 -68.211311666,-78.20206667 -67.688892499,-78.20206667 -67.166473332,-78.20206667 -66.644054165,-78.20206667 -66.121634998,-78.20206667 -65.599215831,-78.20206667 -65.076796664,-78.20206667 -64.554377497,-78.20206667 -64.03195833)) | POINT(-71.1170125 -66.644054165) | false | false | |||||
EAGER: Single-Molecule DNA Sequencing of Antarctic Paleolakes
|
1620976 |
2020-09-01 | Johnson, Sarah |
|
Despite recent advances, we still know little about how life and its traces persist in extremely harsh conditions. What survival strategies do cells employ when pushed to their limit? Using a new technique, this project will investigate whether Antarctic paleolakes harbor "microbial seed banks," or caches of viable microbes adapted to past paleoenvironments that could help transform our understanding of how cells survive over ancient timescales. Findings from this investigation could also illuminate novel DNA repair pathways with possible biomedical and biotechnology applications and help to refine life detection strategies for Mars. The project will bring Antarctic research to Georgetown University''s campus for the first time, providing training opportunities in cutting edge analytical techniques for multiple students and a postdoctoral fellow. The field site will be the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which provide an unrivaled opportunity to investigate fundamental questions about the persistence of microbial life. Multiple lines of evidence, from interbedded and overlying ashfall deposits to parameterized models, suggest that the large-scale landforms there have remained essentially fixed as far back as the middle of the Miocene Epoch (i.e., ~8 million years ago). This geologic stability, coupled with geographic isolation and a steady polar climate, mean that biological activity has probably undergone few qualitative changes over the last one to two million years. The team will sample paleolake facies using sterile techniques from multiple Dry Valleys sites and extract DNA from entombed organic material. Genetic material will then be sequenced using Pacific Biosciences'' Single Molecule, Real-Time DNA sequencing technology, which sequences native DNA as opposed to amplified DNA, thereby eliminating PCR primer bias, and enables read lengths that have never before been possible. The data will be analyzed with a range of bioinformatic techniques, with results that stand to impact our understanding of cell biology, Antarctic paleobiology, microbiology and biogeography, biotechnology, and planetary science. | POLYGON((160 -77,160.3 -77,160.6 -77,160.9 -77,161.2 -77,161.5 -77,161.8 -77,162.1 -77,162.4 -77,162.7 -77,163 -77,163 -77.1,163 -77.2,163 -77.3,163 -77.4,163 -77.5,163 -77.6,163 -77.7,163 -77.8,163 -77.9,163 -78,162.7 -78,162.4 -78,162.1 -78,161.8 -78,161.5 -78,161.2 -78,160.9 -78,160.6 -78,160.3 -78,160 -78,160 -77.9,160 -77.8,160 -77.7,160 -77.6,160 -77.5,160 -77.4,160 -77.3,160 -77.2,160 -77.1,160 -77)) | POINT(161.5 -77.5) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA): Integrated Study of Carbon Cycling in Hydrologically-active Subglacial Environments
|
1543441 1543405 1543453 1543396 1543537 1543347 |
2020-07-16 | Rosenheim, Brad; Fricker, Helen; Priscu, John; Leventer, Amy; Dore, John; Lyons, W. Berry; Christner, Brent | The Antarctic subglacial environment remains one of the least explored regions on Earth. This project will examine the physical and biological characteristics of Subglacial Lake Mercer, a lake that lies 1200m beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This study will address key questions relating to the stability of the ice sheet, the subglacial hydrological system, and the deep-cold subglacial biosphere. The education and outreach component aims to widely disseminate results to the scientific community and to the general public through short films, a blog, and a website.<br/><br/>Subglacial Lake Mercer is one of the larger hydrologically active lakes in the southern basin of the Whillans Ice Plain, West Antarctica. It receives about 25 percent of its water from East Antarctica with the remainder originating from West Antarctica, is influenced by drain/fill cycles in a lake immediately upstream (Subglacial Lake Conway), and lies about 100 km upstream of the present grounding line of the Ross Ice Shelf. This site will yield information on the history of the Whillans and Mercer Ice Streams, and on grounding line migration. The integrated study will include direct sampling of basal ice, water, and sediment from the lake in concert with surface geophysical surveys over a three-year period to define the hydrological connectivity among lakes on the Whillans Ice Plain and their flow paths to the sea. The geophysical surveys will furnish information on subglacial hydrology, aid the site selection for hot-water drilling, and provide spatial context for interpreting findings. The hot-water-drilled boreholes will be used to collect basal ice samples, provide access for direct measurement of subglacial physical, chemical, and biological conditions in the water column and sediments, and to explore the subglacial water cavities using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with sensors, cameras, and sampling equipment. Data collected from this study will address the overarching hypothesis \"Contemporary biodiversity and carbon cycling in hydrologically-active subglacial environments associated with the Mercer and Whillans ice streams are regulated by the mineralization and cycling of relict marine organic matter and through interactions among ice, rock, water, and sediments\". The project will be undertaken by a collaborative team of scientists, with expertise in microbiology, biogeochemistry, hydrology, geophysics, glaciology, marine geology, paleoceanography, and science communication. | POLYGON((-163.611 -84.33543,-162.200034 -84.33543,-160.789068 -84.33543,-159.378102 -84.33543,-157.967136 -84.33543,-156.55617 -84.33543,-155.145204 -84.33543,-153.734238 -84.33543,-152.323272 -84.33543,-150.912306 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.33543,-149.50134 -84.3659157,-149.50134 -84.3964014,-149.50134 -84.4268871,-149.50134 -84.4573728,-149.50134 -84.4878585,-149.50134 -84.5183442,-149.50134 -84.5488299,-149.50134 -84.5793156,-149.50134 -84.6098013,-149.50134 -84.640287,-150.912306 -84.640287,-152.323272 -84.640287,-153.734238 -84.640287,-155.145204 -84.640287,-156.55617 -84.640287,-157.967136 -84.640287,-159.378102 -84.640287,-160.789068 -84.640287,-162.200034 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.640287,-163.611 -84.6098013,-163.611 -84.5793156,-163.611 -84.5488299,-163.611 -84.5183442,-163.611 -84.4878585,-163.611 -84.4573728,-163.611 -84.4268871,-163.611 -84.3964014,-163.611 -84.3659157,-163.611 -84.33543)) | POINT(-156.55617 -84.4878585) | false | false | ||||||
EAGER: Elucidating the Antarctic Methane Cycle at the Cinder Cones Reducing Habitat.
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1642570 |
2019-05-24 | Thurber, Andrew |
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Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is naturally emitted into the oceans by geologic seeps and microbial production. Based on studies of persistent deep-sea seeps at mid- and northern latitudes, researchers have learned that bacteria and archaea can create a "sediment filter" that oxidizes methane prior to its release. Antarctica is thought to contain large reservoirs of organic carbon buried beneath its ice which could a quantity of methane equivalent to all of the permafrost in the Arctic and yet we know almost nothing about the methane oxidizing microbes in this region. How these microbial communities develop and potentially respond to fluctuations in methane levels is an under-explored avenue of research. A bacterial mat was recently discovered at 78 degrees south, suggesting the possible presence of a methane seep, and associated microbial communities. This project will explore this environment in detail to assess the levels and origin of methane, and the nature of the microbial ecosystem present. <br/> <br/>An expansive bacterial mat appeared and/or was discovered at 78 degrees south in 2011. This site, near McMurdo Station Antarctica, has been visited since the mid-1960s, but this mat was not observed until 2011. The finding of this site provides an unusual opportunity to study an Antarctic marine benthic habitat with active methane cycling and to examine the dynamics of recruitment and community succession of seep fauna including bacteria, archaea, protists and metazoans. This project will collect the necessary baseline data to facilitate further studies of Antarctic methane cycling. The concentration and source of methane will be determined at this site and at potentially analogous sites in McMurdo Sound. In addition to biogeochemical characterization of the sites, molecular analysis of the microbial community will quantify the time scales on which bacteria and archaea respond to methane input and provide information on rates of community development and succession in the Southern Ocean. Project activities will facilitate the training of at least one graduate student and results will be shared at both local and international levels. A female graduate student will be mentored as part of this project and data collected will form part of her dissertation. Lectures will be given in K-12 classrooms in Oregon to excite students about polar science. National and international audiences will be reached through blogs and presentations at a scientific conference. The PI's previous blogs have been used by K-12 classrooms as part of their lesson plans and followed in over 65 countries.<br/> | POINT(166.666 -77.8) | POINT(166.666 -77.8) | false | false | |||||
Methylmercury in Antarctic Krill Microbiomes
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1543412 |
2019-03-31 | Schaefer, Jeffra; Reinfelder, John; Barkar, T. |
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The goal of this project was to conduct a preliminary assessment of gut microbiomes in Antarctic krill (Euphasia superba) collected in coastal waters west of the Antarctic Peninsula and identify organisms potentially capable of catalyzing the production of methylmercury. DNA was extracted from composite krill digestive tracts and eukaryotic DNA removed. Prokaryotic microbial DNA extracted from krill digestive tracts was sequenced and gene libraries were constructed. Genera of anaerobic microorganisms which are known to support mercury methylation were identified. | None | POINT(-69.09295 -66.8017) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: MIDGE: Minimally Invasive Direct Glacial Exploration of Biogeochemistry, Hydrology and Glaciology of Blood Falls, McMurdo Dry Valleys
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1144192 1144176 1144177 1727387 |
2018-11-28 | Tulaczyk, Slawek; Pettit, Erin; Lyons, W. Berry; Mikucki, Jill | Recent discoveries of widespread liquid water and microbial ecosystems below the Antarctic ice sheets have generated considerable interest in studying Antarctic subglacial environments. Understanding subglacial hydrology, the persistence of life in extended isolation and the evolution and stability of subglacial habitats requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. The collaborative project, Minimally Invasive Direct Glacial Exploration (MIDGE) of the Biogeochemistry, Hydrology and Glaciology of Blood Falls, McMurdo Dry Valleys will integrate geophysical measurements, molecular microbial ecology and geochemical analyses to explore a unique Antarctic subglacial system known as Blood Falls. Blood Falls is a hypersaline, subglacial brine that supports an active microbial community. The subglacial brine is released from a crevasse at the surface of the Taylor Glacier providing an accessible portal into an Antarctic subglacial ecosystem. Recent geochemical and molecular analyses support a marine source for the salts and microorganisms in Blood Falls. The last time marine waters inundated this part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys was during the Late Tertiary, which suggests the brine is ancient. Still, no direct samples have been collected from the subglacial source to Blood Falls and little is known about the origin of this brine or the amount of time it has been sealed below Taylor Glacier. Radar profiles collected near Blood Falls delineate a possible fault in the subglacial substrate that may help explain the localized and episodic nature of brine release. However it remains unclear what triggers the episodic release of brine exclusively at the Blood Falls crevasse or the extent to which the brine is altered as it makes its way to the surface. <br/><br/>The MIDGE project aims to determine the mechanism of brine release at Blood Falls, evaluate changes in the geochemistry and the microbial community within the englacial conduit and assess if Blood Falls waters have a distinct impact on the thermal and stress state of Taylor Glacier, one of the most studied polar glaciers in Antarctica. The geophysical study of the glaciological structure and mechanism of brine release will use GPR, GPS, and a small passive seismic network. Together with international collaborators, the 'Ice Mole' team from FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany (funded by the German Aerospace Center, DLR), MIDGE will develop and deploy innovative, minimally invasive technologies for clean access and brine sample retrieval from deep within the Blood Falls drainage system. These technologies will allow for the collection of samples of the brine away from the surface (up to tens of meters) for geochemical analyses and microbial structure-function experiments. There is concern over the contamination of pristine subglacial environments from chemical and biological materials inherent in the drilling process; and MIDGE will provide data on the efficacy of thermoelectric probes for clean access and retrieval of representative subglacial samples. Antarctic subglacial environments provide an excellent opportunity for researching survivability and adaptability of microbial life and are potential terrestrial analogues for life habitats on icy planetary bodies. The MIDGE project offers a portable, versatile, clean alternative to hot water and mechanical drilling and will enable the exploration of subglacial hydrology and ecosystem function while making significant progress towards developing technologies for minimally invasive and clean sampling of icy systems. | POLYGON((161.8 -77.7,161.88 -77.7,161.96 -77.7,162.04000000000002 -77.7,162.12 -77.7,162.2 -77.7,162.28 -77.7,162.36 -77.7,162.44 -77.7,162.51999999999998 -77.7,162.6 -77.7,162.6 -77.70700000000001,162.6 -77.714,162.6 -77.721,162.6 -77.728,162.6 -77.735,162.6 -77.742,162.6 -77.749,162.6 -77.756,162.6 -77.76299999999999,162.6 -77.77,162.51999999999998 -77.77,162.44 -77.77,162.36 -77.77,162.28 -77.77,162.2 -77.77,162.12 -77.77,162.04000000000002 -77.77,161.96 -77.77,161.88 -77.77,161.8 -77.77,161.8 -77.76299999999999,161.8 -77.756,161.8 -77.749,161.8 -77.742,161.8 -77.735,161.8 -77.728,161.8 -77.721,161.8 -77.714,161.8 -77.70700000000001,161.8 -77.7)) | POINT(162.2 -77.735) | false | false |