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

在这个项目中，研究者将实地研究和生物信息学相结合，描述和量化不同培养生态型和未培养种群的混合嗜绿原球藻，并将其纳入全球生态系统模型。为了理解和准确预测气候与碳循环之间的复杂关系，气候模型必须考虑微生物在海洋中调节重要碳库的关键作用。目前的模型不能反映海洋微生物群落重要的生态或功能丰富度。一个重要的海洋细菌，应该包括在这些模型是海洋光养蓝藻原绿球藻。它是世界上热带和亚热带少营养海洋中最丰富的富氧光养生物，在这些地区的海洋碳固定中占相当大的一部分。该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，这在光养细菌中通常被称为混合营养。尽管这一重要过程在某些海洋光养生物（尤其是原绿球藻）中普遍存在，但人们对其了解甚少，也没有纳入描述碳流的海洋生态系统和生物地球化学模型中。更广泛的影响包括本科生和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项目，研究者将开发编程和统计学课程，并在实验室作为这些学生的导师工作。通过Edgerton中心的K-12教育项目，调查员将向学生讲授海洋生态系统在维持健康气候方面的重要性，以及为更好地理解海洋生态系统所做的工作。此外，研究结果将有助于更好地了解未来的气候，通过提供一个海洋生态系统模型，其中包括一个重要的过程，以前没有被模拟，蓝藻混合营养。该项目由美国国家科学基金会海洋科学博士后研究奖学金（OCE PRF）计划支持，旨在支持早期职业科学家的新颖研究，并增加美国海洋科学工作人员和研究界的多样性。在海洋学研究基金的支持下，该项目将使有前途的早期职业研究人员能够在与海洋科学有关的独立研究事业中立足，并扩大代表性不足的群体参与海洋科学。

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.