Microbial Biogeochemistry and Functional Diversity across the Forest-Tundra Ecotone in the Rocky Mountains

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Drs. Steven K. Schmidt and Andrew P. Martin have been awarded a grant to establish a microbial observatory to study the distribution and functioning of microorganisms that live in soils of high-elevation tundra and forests of the Rocky Mountains. They will concentrate on microorganisms that are involved in environmentally important processes such as soil nitrogen transformations and methane (natural gas) exchange between soil and the atmosphere. These processes are important because they can contribute to global warming and pollution of drinking water down stream from high mountain areas. Emphasis will be placed on studying the microbes that carry out these functions during the winter under deep snow packs of the Rocky Mountain region. Their preliminary work shows that soils under deep snow are actually very biologically active and that important environmental transformations of nitrogen and methane take place under the snow. Almost nothing is known, however, about the identity of the cold-adapted organisms that carry out these processes under the snow pack. Drs. Schmidt and Martin will measure the production and consumption of various nitrogen compounds and methane across the landscape during summer and winter. They will simultaneously use DNA sequencing and probing methods to determine the identity of the dominant microorganisms that carry out these important biogeochemical processes.