MCA: Geosymbiotic interactions as innovation in Earth and environmental systems: Feedbacks between biological activity, chemical gradients and mineral phases at the pore scale

微生物-矿物相互作用控制污染物、碳和营养物的转化，因此对生态系统功能至关重要。此外，可以利用这些生物地球化学相互作用及其产物，为许多环境和技术挑战提供基于科学的解决方案。该项目的目标是通过开发新的分析和成像工具，提供金属-微生物-矿物系统中明确的空间和时间分辨的地球化学反应速率和机制。本计画将提供研究经验给社区学院转校生及未被充分代表的大学部学生，以供他们攻读研究生学位。PI将利用她的MCA研究促进的创造性进步来开发新的教育产品，包括新的实验室课程“微流体实验室”的材料。最后，该项目将通过在斯坦福大学同步辐射光源的X射线微探针光束线中增加光学荧光和红外显微镜以及开发新的图像分析工作流程来加强研究基础设施。该项目将发展分析和成像能力，改变研究密闭空间中地球化学变化的范式。目标是量化形成金属-微生物-矿物相互作用的化学和生物反馈。使用锰生物矿化作为一个案例研究，PI将提供空间和时间明确的测量生物活性（生物报告基因融合）和水环境条件（光电传感器膜）耦合到生物膜化学（FTIR）和金属形态和矿物沉淀（X射线荧光）。这种方法将为细胞直接环境中发生的化学转化提供无与伦比的洞察力。通过测量平均性质来确定反应速率和机制通常无法再现宏观行为或提供正确的机制;对细胞水平上发生的化学反应的关注使研究人员能够开发准确的机械速率。此外，微生物群落和化学转化中的表型异质性的可视化将加深对环境系统中的地共生相互作用的理解。该项目由地球生物学和低温地球化学计划和地球科学部联合资助，以支持各种机构类型的研究能力，能力和基础设施的项目，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Microbe-mineral interactions govern contaminant, carbon and nutrient transformation, and thus are critical to ecosystem function. Moreover, these biogeochemical interactions and their products can be harnessed to provide science-based solutions to many environmental and technological challenges. The goal of this project is to provide explicit spatially and temporally resolved rates and mechanisms of biogeochemical reactions in metal-microbe-mineral systems by developing new analytical and imaging tools. This project will provide research experiences to community college transfer students and underrepresented undergraduate students intending to pursue graduate degrees. The PI will leverage the creative advances facilitated by her MCA research to develop new educational products, including materials for a new laboratory-based course, “Microfluidics Labs”. Finally, this project will enhance research infrastructure through the addition of optical fluorescence and infrared microscopes to the X-ray microprobe beamline at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource as well as the development of new image analysis workflows. This project will develop analytical and imaging capabilities that shift the paradigm for studying biogeochemical transformations in confined spaces. The goal is to quantify the chemical and biological feedbacks that shape metal-microbe-mineral interactions. Using manganese biomineralization as a case study, the PI will provide spatially- and temporally-explicit measurements of biological activity (bioreporter gene fusions) and aqueous environmental conditions (optode sensor films) coupled to biofilm chemistry (FTIR) and metal speciation and mineral precipitation (X-ray fluorescence). This approach will provide unparalleled insight into chemical transformations that occur within a cell’s immediate environment. Determination of reaction rates and mechanisms through measurements of average properties often fail to reproduce macroscopic behavior or provide correct mechanisms; the focus on the chemistry occurring at the cellular level enable the researchers to develop accurate mechanistic rates. Additionally, the visualization of phenotypic heterogeneity within microbial communities and chemical transformations will deepen the understanding of geosymbiotic interactions in environmental systems.This project is jointly funded by the Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry Program and the Division of Earth Sciences to support projects that increase research capabilities, capacity and infrastructure at a wide variety of institution types, as outlined in the GEO EMBRACE DCL.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.