BIOCOMPLEXITY -- INCUBATION ACTIVITY: Origins of Biocomplexity: Colonization and Succession of Microbial Communities in a Dynamic Geochemical Environment

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One of the primary mandates of the Biocomplexity initiative is to understand how biocomplexity arises and changes in response to changing physical/chemical environments. Quantifying the influence of local geochemistry on the establishment and evolution of microbial systems is best achieved by studying environments where steep physical and chemical gradients exist over a small spatial scale. The primary goal of this Biocomplexity Incubation Activity is to establish a new collaboration among microbiologists from the University of Delaware and geochemists from Arizona State University. They will develop strategies for measuring and collecting physical, chemical, and microbiological data, and preliminary testing of novel devices for seafloor sampling. This interdisciplinary team of researchers brings with them expertise in high pressure/high temperature experiments, fluid/mineral geochemistry and spectroscopy, molecular microbiology, engineering, and seafloor vent studies. They will accomplish the research goals through real and virtual meetings, design of new sampling devices, and participation in a vent cruise. An investigation will be initiated of how microbial colonization is influenced by the dynamic thermochemical gradients and variable mineral/fluid chemistry of deep?sea hydrothermal vents and, in turn, how the presence of microorganisms influences the local geochemistry. Young seafloor hydrothermal chimneys will be examined because they represent one of the few environments on Earth that are known to evolve rapidly from strictly abiotic conditions to complex microbial communities in a short time period (days to weeks). These high?temperature systems offer access to intense thermochemical gradients that are characterized by rapid and predictable mineral precipitation and chimney growth. These sulfide structures can be manipulated in situ, providing reliable access to both the initial abiotic geochemical system and progressive stages of microbial colonization. Appropriate measurements of fluid chemistry, mineralogy, pore structure, and microbial communities in these environments provide the constraints for recreation of these systems in the laboratory for detailed and quantitative examination. Examining microbial colonization in these dynamic geochemical environments provides a unique opportunity to understand the diverse and complex interactions between microbes and fluid/mineral evolution.