Life in Ice: Probing Microbial Englacial Activity through Time

冰中的生命：随时间探索微生物冰河活动

• 批准号: 2037963
• 负责人: Heidi Smith
• 金额: $ 48.13万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2037963&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Life; Ice; Probing; Microbial; Englacial

Glacial ice cores serve as a museum back in time, providing detailed records of past climatic conditions. In addition to chronological records such as temperature, chemistry and gas composition, ice provides a unique environment for preserving microbes and other biological materials through time. These microbes provide invaluable insight into the physiological capabilities necessary for survival in the Earth’s cryosphere and other icy planetary bodies, yet little is known about them. This award supports fundamental research into the activity of microbes in ice, and directly supports major research priorities regarding Antarctic biota identified in the 2015 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, A Strategic Vision for NSF Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. The broader impacts of this work are that it will be relevant to researchers across paleoclimate and biological fields. It will support two early career researchers, a graduate and an undergraduate student who will conduct laboratory analyses, participate in outreach activities, publish papers in scientific journals and present at conferences. This work will use previously collected ice cores to investigate englacial microbial activity from the Holocene back to the Last Glacial Maximum from the blue ice area of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. The proposal identified making significant contributions to 1) investing how Antarctic organisms evolve and adapt to changing environment, 2) understanding how microbes alter the preservation of paleorecord-relevant gas and trace element information in ice cores, and 3) identifying microbial life in cores and their activity in relation to dust depositional events. Two recently developed complementary techniques (bio-orthogonal noncanonical amino acid tagging and deuterium isotope probing) in combination with Raman Confocal Microspectroscopy will be used to assess and quantify microbial activity in ice. During phase one of the project, these methods will be optimized using deaccessioned ice cores available at the National Science Foundation’s Ice Core Facility. In phase two, ice cores in a time series from the Taylor Glacier will be analyzed for geochemistry and microbial activity. Research results will provide a comprehensive view of englacial microbial communities, including their metabolic diversity and activity, and the effect of geochemical parameters on microbial assemblages from different climate periods. Given the dearth of information available on englacial microbial communities, the results of this research will be of particular significance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

冰川冰芯作为一个博物馆回到过去，提供过去气候条件的详细记录。除了温度、化学成分和气体成分等年代记录外，冰还提供了一个独特的环境，用于保存微生物和其他生物材料。这些微生物提供了宝贵的洞察力，了解在地球的冰冻圈和其他冰冷的行星体中生存所必需的生理能力，但对它们知之甚少。该奖项支持对冰中微生物活动的基础研究，并直接支持2015年美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院报告《NSF在南极和南大洋研究投资的战略愿景》中确定的有关南极生物群的主要研究重点。这项工作的更广泛影响是，它将与古气候和生物领域的研究人员有关。它将支持两名早期职业研究人员，一名研究生和一名本科生，他们将进行实验室分析，参加外联活动，在科学期刊上发表论文并出席会议。这项工作将使用以前收集的冰芯，调查从全新世回到末次盛冰期的南极泰勒冰川蓝冰区的冰内微生物活动。该提案确定了对以下方面的重大贡献：1）研究南极生物如何进化和适应不断变化的环境，2）了解微生物如何改变冰芯中与古记录相关的气体和微量元素信息的保存，3）确定冰芯中的微生物生命及其与尘埃沉积事件有关的活动。两个最近开发的互补技术（生物正交非规范氨基酸标记和氘同位素探测）结合拉曼共聚焦显微光谱将用于评估和量化冰中的微生物活性。在该项目的第一阶段，这些方法将使用国家科学基金会冰芯设施提供的退役冰芯进行优化。 在第二阶段，将对泰勒冰川的冰芯进行地球化学和微生物活动分析。 研究结果将提供冰内微生物群落的全面视图，包括它们的代谢多样性和活性，以及地球化学参数对不同气候时期微生物组合的影响。由于缺乏有关冰内微生物群落的信息，这项研究的结果将具有特别重要的意义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

项目成果

The living record: Considerations for future biological studies of ice cores

活生生的记录：未来冰芯生物学研究的考虑因素

• DOI: 10.22498/pages.30.2.110
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Past Global Changes Magazine
• 作者: Willis, M.C.

Detection of Microbes in Ice Using Microfabricated Impedance Spectroscopy Sensors

使用微型阻抗光谱传感器检测冰中的微生物

• DOI: 10.1149/2754-2726/ad024d
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ECS Sensors Plus
• 作者: Kaiser-Jackson, Lauren B.;Dieser, Markus;McGlennen, Matthew;Parker, Albert E.;Foreman, Christine M.;Warnat, Stephan
• 通讯作者: Warnat, Stephan