Collaborative Research: Microbial Observatory in the Cariaco Basin - Dynamics of Protistan Diversity Across Time, Space, and Chemical Gradients

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The long term goal of this project is to build a biosphere-wide record of protistan life in time and space and elucidate their roles in global ecology and biogeochemistry. The project is obtaining an exhaustive record of protistan diversity and its dynamics in the largest marine anoxic system, the Cariaco Basin. The project is: conducting a comprehensive survey of protistan 18S rDNA diversity in suboxic and anoxic habitats in the Cariaco Basin 1) by sampling several ecological guilds in the water column and sediments, by systematic recovery of the protistan 18S rDNA sequences, by extensive coverage of the clone libraries and by analysis of the phylogenetic positions of the detected protists; 2) by recovering numerically and phylogenetically significant species for direct SEM examination and characterization of their properties by using new methodology including FISH and light and SEM ultrastructural characterization; efforts are being made to enrich for and cultivate unique species for physiological, biochemical and morphological investigations; 3) by assessing the ecological importance of recovered protistan species by using FISH on representative sets of environmental samples and quantitatively describing the species dynamics over time and space and across environmental gradients and 4) by disseminating information resulting from the project via a Knowledge Center of Protistan Diversity by integrating the traditional taxonomy with the molecular data and compiling the information on species identification, occurrence and distribution. The internet-based Knowledge Center is working in concert with other data sets, principally micro*scope (http://www.mbl.edu/microscope), created by one of the co-PIs. Broader impacts of the project include the integration of data into modern knowledge network technologies and training a large number of graduate students and undergraduates, including students of Venezuelan collaborators. This project is working closely with the Chistoserdov project in the Cariaco Basin, where the focus is on the investigation of prokaryotic diversity in the redox zone of the basin.