From Dusk till Dawn: Integrating genomic and environmental data to elucidate metabolicand energetic fluxes in Arctic microbial ecosystems

MOSAIC是一项国际性的大规模北极气候和生态系统研究探险，其中RV Polarstein号破冰船漂流一年，穿越北冰洋中部，冻结在冰层中。在这次MOSAIC漂移考察中，我们将在从极地白天到极夜的过渡期内，每周在5个不同深度采集北冰洋中部的环境样本，为期16周。这些样本将进行元条码、元基因组和元转录测序，以跟踪这一快速变化期间群落结构、遗传潜力和活动功能的变化。此外，我们将从上层远洋带收集全年的每日样本，进行16S和18S的Meta条码编码。这一独特的高分辨率样本将补充以每周样本为基础的年度时间序列，这些样本是在整个马赛克探险的背景下获得的。作为MOSAIC的合作伙伴，我们将获得这次考察的所有数据，从而获得北极微生物群在一整年中前所未有的时间演化时间序列，在从夏季到冬季的关键过渡阶段具有特别高的分辨率。我们的目标是将来自遗传数据、物种丰度和代谢潜力的信息与环境和物理化学数据相结合。这将使我们能够构建描述群落动态以及群落成员与环境之间的新陈代谢和营养通量的机械性数学模型。这些模型以具有前所未有的时间分辨率的综合数据为基础开发，将有助于了解北极海洋微生物生态系统的功能，使其能够评估其对全球物质和能量循环的贡献，揭示稳定和不稳定因素，追求总体目标，以预测生态系统动态如何应对由于全球气候变化而预期的环境参数变化。

MOSAiC is an international, large-scale Arctic climate and ecosystemresearch expedition, in which the icebreaker RV Polarstern drifts oneyear across the Central Arctic Ocean, frozen in the ice. During thisMOSAiC drift expedition, we will collect environmental samples of theCentral Arctic Ocean at five different depths on a weekly basis for 16weeks during the transition period from polar day to polar night.These samples will be subjected to meta-barcoding, meta-genomic andmeta-transcriptomic sequencing to follow changes in communitystructure, genetic potential and active functions during this periodof rapid change. In addition, we will collect daily samples throughoutthe whole year from the upper pelagic zone for 16S and 18Smeta-barcoding. This unique, high-resolution samples will complementthe annual time-series based on weekly samples, which are obtained inthe context of the overall MOSAiC expedition. As partners of MOSAiC wewill have access to all data of the expedition, and thus to anunprecedented time series of the temporal evolution of the Arcticmarine microbiome over a complete year, with a particularly highresolution during the critical transition phase from summer towinter. Our objective is to integrate the information from geneticdata, species abundances and metabolic potential with environmentaland physico-chemical data. This will allow us to construct mechanisticmathematical models describing the community dynamics and themetabolic and nutrient fluxes between community members and theenvironment. These models, developed based on comprehensive data withunprecedented temporal resolution, will help understanding thefunctioning of the Arctic marine microbial ecosystem, allow assessingits contribution to global material and energy cycles, revealstabilising and destabilising factors, pursuing the overall aim topredict how ecosystem dynamics respond to changing environmentalparameters as are expected due to global climate change.