U.S.-Germany Cooperative Research: Carbon Cycling in Marine Sediments

该合作研究奖支持Carol Arnosti和北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的一名研究生与德国不来梅马克斯普朗克海洋微生物研究所生物地球化学系的B.B. Jorgensen合作。这项研究的重点是负责转化大分子有机物并最终将其还原为二氧化碳的复杂细菌群落。由于美方在研究有机质再矿化的最初步骤方面有经验，而德国团队在研究最后阶段方面有经验，因此此次合作可以实现独特的互补专业知识的融合。海洋沉积物中碳再矿化的速率和途径深刻地影响着局部和全球尺度上的碳循环。然而，负责有机碳再矿化的不同微生物群的组成和动力学在很大程度上是未知的，再矿化过程中的速率控制步骤也知之甚少。通过关注再矿化的初始和最终步骤之间的联系，该合作项目将使人们对碳循环的这些关键步骤有更深入的了解。

9813991ArnostiThis cooperative research award supports Carol Arnosti and a graduate student from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to collaborate with B.B. Jorgensen of the Department of Biogeochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. The focus of the research is the complex community of bacteria responsible for transforming macromolecular organic matter, ultimately reducing it to CO2. The collaboration allows a unique blend of complementary expertise, since the U.S. side has experience in the study of the initial steps of organic matter remineralization and the German group has experience studying the final stages. The rates and pathways of carbon remineralization in marine sediments profoundly affect carbon cycling on local as well as global scales. The composition and dynamics of the diverse group of microbes responsible for remineralization of organic carbon, however, are largely unknown, and the rate-controlling steps in the remineralization process only poorly understood. By focusing on the links between the initial and terminal steps in remineralization, the collaborative project should lead to greater insight into these key steps of the carbon cycle.