Collaborative Research: Drilling Site Survey - Life in Subseafloor Sediments of the South Pacific Gyre

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This 2-year project focuses on characterizing the seafloor and subseafloor in the South Pacific Gyre as part of site survey activities for an IODP proposal to drill for deep biosphere objectives. The project will collect sediment cores and conduct bathymetric and geophysical surveys in the South Pacific Gyre, an oceanographic phenomenon that includes a range of geologic settings (e.g., East Pacific Rise; South Pacific abyssal plane) and that is associated with low rates of organic carbon burial and slow sediment accumulation. Core samples will be used to study prokaryotic communities having very low total activity and to determine the extent to which water radiolysis plays a role in supplying electron donors for microbial processes in these carbon-poor sediments. The researchers will closely collaborate with German scientists on many of the project's deep biosphere objectives. The project directly serves IODP priorities in the area of the deep biosphere and subseafloor ocean and has the potential to expand the research community's capacity to analyze and interpret deep biosphere samples. The project will contribute to the development of human resources in science through the training of both undergraduate and graduate students. Results will also be documented on an established University of Rhode Island website on "Subsurface Life."