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

在该项目中，研究者结合实地研究和生物信息学，对不同培养生态型以及未培养种群中的原绿球藻混合营养进行描述和量化，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，气候模型必须考虑到微生物的关键作用，微生物是海洋中重要的碳库的媒介。目前的模型没有反映海洋微生物群落的重要生态或功能丰富性。一个重要的海洋细菌，应包括在这些模型是海洋光合蓝藻原绿球藻。它是世界上热带和亚热带贫营养海洋中最丰富的产氧光合生物，在这些地区的海洋固碳中占相当大的比例。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，这通常被称为光养细菌中的混合营养。这个重要的过程是知之甚少，并没有被纳入海洋生态系统和海洋地球化学模型，描述碳流，即使它已被证明是普遍存在于某些海洋光养生物，特别是原绿球藻。更广泛的影响包括本科生和K-12学生的教育活动。通过麻省理工学院的少数民族本科生暑期研究计划，研究员将开发编程和统计课程，并在实验室工作，作为这些学生的导师。通过埃杰顿中心的K-12教育计划，研究人员将向学生介绍海洋生态系统在维持健康气候方面的重要性，以及为更好地了解海洋生态系统而正在做的工作。此外，研究结果将有助于更好地了解未来的气候，提供一个海洋生态系统模型，其中包括一个重要的过程，以前没有模拟，蓝藻兼养。该项目得到了NSF海洋科学博士后研究奖学金（OCE PRF）计划的支持，其目标是支持早期职业科学家的新研究，并增加美国海洋科学劳动力和研究社区的多样性。在海洋环境组织-太平洋研究基金的支持下，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生涯中立足，并扩大代表性不足的群体对海洋科学的参与。

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.