RAPID: Bacterial Population Dynamics and Community Composition during the US Synoptic Arctic Survey

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As the Arctic continues to experience rapid environmental change, including increasing water temperatures and declining sea ice extent, researchers have observed ecosystem and biological population shifts in the Pacific Arctic shelves and deeper Arctic Ocean basins. However, the microbial component in the marine ecosystem remains understudied. This project is taking advantage of the 2022 US Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) cruise on the USCGC icebreaker Healy, which is studying the current status of the physics, biology, and chemistry across much of the Arctic Ocean. The overall SAS project is establishing a baseline so that future studies of the Arctic will have a basis to understand how the Arctic is changing in the coming decades. This microbial project is evaluating the population distributions of Arctic prokaryotic microbes, their function in the Arctic ecosystem, and their roles in the cycle of carbon in the Arctic. The project is also providing access to genomic sequencing data and isolate collections for undergraduate students in Iceland and Maryland to carry out additional research. The team is participating in a “Science for Citizens” lecture series at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Strait Science lecture series that is supported by the Northwest Campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Nome, both of which are available globally online. Both of these science communication forums promote better public understanding of Arctic change. This project will undertake field collections and post-cruise genetic analyses of sediment and macrofauna-associated prokaryotes from the shelf to the Arctic Basin as part of larger SAS efforts. Prokaryotes are an essential biological component for the breakdown of complex biopolymers; cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur; and for making nutrients available to higher trophic levels in the marine ecosystem. The vulnerability of sediment-associated prokaryote populations to shifts in temperature is crucial for mapping future changes in prokaryote population dynamics, carbon cycling, and changes in nutrient cycling at the sediment-water interface that influences the marine carbon cycle. This sediment prokaryote analytical work fills a gap in the US contribution to the SAS effort and complements other components, including investigations of sediment and macrofaunal respiration, nutrient exchange at the sediment-water interface as well as meiobenthic characterizations. The microbial component is a US contribution to the international SAS program and allows for pan-Arctic comparisons with other microbial studies planned as part of the international SAS program.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.