A Preliminary Assessment of the Influence of Ice Cover on Microbial Carbon and Energy Acquisition during the Antarctic Winter-spring Seasonal Transition

这个渴望的项目将比较南极半岛沿海海湾形成的冰盖下浮游生物群落的基因表达模式。此前，研究人员利用2015年11月和12月独特的冰层条件进行了一项实验，以考察海冰覆盖在冬春季过渡期间对微生物碳和能量转移的作用。这项急切的努力将使研究人员能够对浮游植物进行“组学”分析，以确定在这些环境中获取和使用能量的主要方式。这项急切的努力将应用新的专业知识来填补西南极半岛生态观测方面的现有空白。拟议工作的主要产品将是一个新的数据集，由来自服务不足的社区(老兵)的早期职业研究人员进行分析。该数据集中包含的关键基线数据能够比较真核和原核基因表达模式，以确定在实验过程中化学自养、异质营养、混合营养和光营养的相对重要性。这些信息和数据将立即提供给更广泛的科学界，并将使人们能够进一步提出关于该区域海冰覆盖变化时生态系统变化的假设。目前关于南极海洋环境的基因表达数据非常少，在生态关键的冬季到春季的过渡期间也没有基因表达数据。此外，西南极半岛海湾的冰盖很常见，但在沿海海湾这样的冰层条件下研究隐芽浮游植物生理学的机会很少。

This EAGER project will compare gene expression patterns in the planktonic communities under ice covers that form in coastal embayment's in the Antarctic Peninsula. Previous efforts taking advantage of unique ice conditions in November and December of 2015 allowed researchers to conduct an experiment to examine the role of sea ice cover on microbial carbon and energy transfer during the winter-spring transition. The EAGER effort will enable the researchers to conduct the "omics" analyses of the phytoplankton to determine predominant means by which energy is acquired and used in these settings. This EAGER effort will apply new expertise to fill an existing gap in ecological observations along the West Antarctic Peninsula. The principle product of the proposed work will be a novel dataset to be analyzed and by an early career researcher from an underserved community (veteran). The critical baseline data contained in this dataset enable a comparison of eukaryotic and prokaryotic gene expression patterns to establish the relative importance of chemoautotrophy, heterotrophy, mixotrophy, and phototrophy during the experiments. this information and data will be made immediately available to the broader scientific community, and will enable the development of further hypotheses on ecosystem change as sea ice cover changes in the region. Very little gene expression data is currently available for the Antarctic marine environment, and no gene expression data is available during the ecologically critical winter to spring transition. Moreover, ice cover in bays is common along the West Antarctic Peninsula yet the opportunity to study cryptophyte phytoplankton physiology beneath such ice conditions in coastal embayments is rare.