Pathogens can be conveyed to waterways from both human (e.g., wastewater treatment plants, septic systems) and non-human (livestock, wildlife) sources. Water quality degradation poses a significant threat to human health, coastal resources, and coastal economies. Sources of contamination to the Alabama coast are largely unknown, and source-specific data will inform management for community and ecosystem health.
We are using advanced microbial source tracking techniques (qPCR, environmental DNA) to quantify major sources and distinguish human from non-human contributions in Mobile Bay, Alabama. We have also created a publicly available MST metadata clearinghouse for existing microbial indicator and source tracking data. To view or contribute to the clearinghouse, visit the “Our Wastewater Footprint” webpage. |
|
The Mariana Trench is the deepest location on Earth, resulting from the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Philippine Plate. As the Pacific Plate subducts, it warms as it descends, allowing for the liberation of fluids that were once trapped in the pores and minerals of the Pacific Plate. These fluids react with rock in the overriding Philippine Plate to produce an alkaline slurry (with a pH up to 12.5; this is more alkaline than Clorox bleach), that is still able to support microbial life.
These ascending fluids discharge from scientific boreholes that were emplaced during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 366. Prior to sampling these fluids, we will deploy structures to enable sampling operations. This infrastructure will also provide for a range of potential experimentation and monitoring efforts that will aid our understanding of plate subduction processes, microbial metabolic activity, and the possible origins of life on Earth. |
|
Understanding Earth warming requires significant insight on geochemical and geobiological cycles in both polar regions and many environments in between. Methane is a major focus because of substantial sediment loading and high atmospheric heat absorption. While the Arctic has been primary Earth climate change focus, Antarctic Ross Sea, embedded with a vast ephemeral reservoir of carbon, has been recognized to have an extensive bottom ocean layer – sediment interface that is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth.
This project will determine the significance of a vast transitory gas hydrate carbon reservoir present in the Ross Sea and provide thorough assessment of Earth warming with a Southern Hemisphere focus. Data collection will include seismic profiling, light element isotope, and broad geochemical and geomicrobiology parameters. Data obtained will provide a new understanding of climate change and the effect on the ocean carbon budget. |
|
This project analyzes shifts between the total and active methanogenic and methanotrophic (both aerobic and anaerobic) microbial populations. Data will advance characterization of the spatial, temporal, and geochemical conditions under which microbial populations switch between active and inactive states.
Methanogenic and methanotrophic shifts will be analyzed via in situ metagenomes and metatranscriptomes across spatial and temporal scales within mangrove wetland sediment along the Texas coast. Diurnal fluctuations will be determined by collecting cores at midday and midnight to understand the contribution of photosynthesis/respiration to the carbon flux. Fluxes of greenhouse gases will also be analyzed. |
|
The effects of microgravity on living systems have been studied since the beginning of the Space Age, but only recently has technology been available to truly determine these effects on the molecular level. As a result, experiments designed to determine these effects are rapidly needed and should be the focus of a new wave of carefully designed projects with the goal of establishing long-term programs of study.
This project uses RNA-based transcriptomics and metabolomics to determine in unprecedented detail the metabolic impact of space flight on a biotechnologically important fungal species. Uniquely, we have studied changes in a novel antibiotic natural product following growth in microgravity. |
|
Reverse weathering (RW) affects many biogeochemical cycles in the ocean and is now recognized to represent ~40% of global oceanic silica burial (a term which is more than double the combined Southern Ocean and open ocean silica burial). RW sequestration of silica restricts movement of dissolved silicic acid back into the water column where it can fuel phytoplankton growth, through primary production, and pelagic carbon export via the biological pump. However, RW also is likely to be a major, but poorly understood, sink term in the oceanic biogeochemical cycles of Li, Al, K, Fe, Ge and may play a role in coastal ocean acidification due to the consumption of alkalinity.
A fundamental issue in studies examining RW stems from a reductionist approach on geochemical factors; this project will break this trend by examining the microbial effects on RW reactions. We seek to formally quantify the effect of sediment microbial activity in facilitating silica sequestration during early diagenesis by answering the general question: What factors determine whether microbes facilitate or impede formation of early diagenetic silica products within the process of RW? |
|