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

这个EAGER项目将比较南极半岛沿海海湾冰盖下浮游生物群落的基因表达模式。之前的研究利用了2015年11月和12月独特的冰情，使研究人员能够进行一项实验，研究海冰覆盖在冬春过渡期间对微生物碳和能量转移的作用。EAGER项目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EAGER计划将应用新的专业知识来填补南极半岛西部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，由来自服务不足社区（退伍军人）的早期职业研究员进行分析。该数据集中包含的关键基线数据能够比较真核生物和原核生物的基因表达模式，以确定实验过程中趋化自养、异养、混合养和光养的相对重要性。这些资料和数据将立即提供给更广泛的科学界，并将使人们能够就随着该区域海冰覆盖变化而发生的生态系统变化提出进一步的假设。目前关于南极海洋环境的基因表达数据非常少，在生态关键的冬春过渡期间没有基因表达数据。此外，在南极半岛西部的海湾中，冰覆盖是很常见的，但在这种冰条件下研究沿海海湾中隐生浮游植物生理的机会很少。

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.