OCE-PRF: The contribution of Prochlorococcus mixotrophy to global ocean carbon cycling

在这个项目中，研究人员结合了实地研究和生物信息学，描述和量化了不同养殖生态型和未种植种群中的原氯球菌混合营养，并将其纳入全球生态系统模型。为了理解和准确预测气候和碳循环之间的复杂关系，气候模型必须考虑到调节海洋中重要碳库的微生物的关键作用。目前的模型没有反映海洋微生物群落重要的生态或功能丰富度。一种重要的海洋细菌应该包括在这些模型中是海洋光养蓝藻原氯球菌。它是世界上热带和亚热带少营养海洋中最丰富的富氧光生生物，对这些地区相当大一部分海洋碳固定负有责任。这个项目将详细研究这种生物如何通过有机碳吸收促进碳循环的一个方面，有机碳吸收通常被称为光养细菌的混合营养。这一重要的过程知之甚少，还没有被纳入描述碳流的海洋生态系统和生物地球化学模型中，尽管它已被证明在某些海洋光养生物中普遍存在，特别是原氯球菌。更广泛的影响包括针对本科生和K-12学生的教育活动。通过麻省理工学院针对少数族裔本科生的暑期研究计划，调查员将开发编程和统计课程，并在实验室担任这些学生的导师。通过埃杰顿中心的K-12教育计划，研究人员将向学生传授海洋生态系统在维持健康气候方面的重要性，以及正在采取哪些措施来更好地了解它。此外，研究成果将有助于更好地了解未来的气候，因为它提供了一个海洋生态系统模型，其中包括一个以前没有被模拟过的重要过程--蓝藻混合营养。该项目得到美国国家科学基金会海洋科学博士后研究奖学金(OCE PRF)计划的支持，旨在支持早期职业科学家的创新研究，并增加美国海洋科学劳动力和研究社区的多样性。在海洋科学和可持续发展基金的支持下，该项目将使有前途的早期职业研究人员能够从事与海洋科学有关的独立研究事业，并扩大未被充分代表的群体在海洋科学领域的参与。

In this project, the investigator combines field research and bioinformatics to describe and quantify Prochlorococcus mixotrophy in different cultured ecotypes as well as uncultivated populations and incorporate this into a global ecosystem model.In order to understand and accurately predict the complex relationships between climate and the carbon cycle, climate models must account for the critical role of the microbes that mediate significant carbon reservoirs in the ocean. Current models do not reflect the important ecological or functional richness of marine microbial communities. One important marine bacterium that should be included in these models is the marine phototrophic cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus. It is the most abundant oxygenic phototroph in the world's tropical and subtropical oligotrophic oceans and is responsible for a sizable fraction of marine carbon fixation in these areas. This project will examine in detail one aspect of how this organism contributes to carbon cycling, through organic carbon uptake, which is more generally referred to as mixotrophy in phototrophic bacteria. This important process is poorly understood, and has not been incorporated into marine ecosystem and biogeochemistry models that describe carbon flow, even though it has been shown to be prevalent among certain marine phototrophs, especially Prochlorococcus. The broader impacts include educational activities for undergraduates and K-12 students. Through the MIT summer research program for minority undergraduates, the investigator will develop programming and statistics curricula and work in the laboratory as a mentor to these students. Through the Edgerton Center's programs for K-12 education, the investigator will teach students about the importance of marine ecosystems in maintaining a healthy climate and what is being done to understand it better. In addition, research results will contribute to a better understanding of the future climate by providing an oceanic ecosystem model that includes an important process that has not previously been modeled, cyanobacterial mixotrophy. This project is supported under the NSF Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (OCE PRF) program, with goals to support novel research by early career scientists and increase the diversity of the U.S. ocean sciences workforce and research community. With OCE-PRF support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to ocean sciences and broaden participation of under-represented groups in the ocean sciences.