Climate, Energy and Carbon in Ancient Earth Systems

CERES将整合分析创新，现代环境中的地球化学和地质档案，以全面评估气候变化如何影响多个时间尺度的泥炭地碳循环。温室气体塑造了地球历史，影响了气候和生态系统;持续的人为排放也在做同样的事情。这些包括对微生物介导的过程的影响，这些过程控制着我们星球的化学状态，并作为气候反馈。例如，土壤微生物是最大的天然甲烷通量来源，但这些过程仍不为人所知，并受到多种环境因素的影响。我们可以从记录地球化学系统对环境扰动的时间尺度依赖性反应的地质档案中获得深刻见解。对泥炭和褐煤的研究为气候驱动的碳循环破坏提供了诱人的见解，但潜在的机制仍然没有得到解决。这一关键的知识差距源于我们无法确定大多数诊断生物标志物的同位素特征。因此，我们将：1）开发用于大细菌和古细菌生物分子的同位素测定的新仪器。随着我们的分析窗口从低诊断化合物扩展到高诊断化合物，这是我们生物标志物工具包的转型扩展。2）将这些新方法应用于现代泥炭地，检查现场以及实验中的生物标志物同位素组成，以应对pH值，温度和底物的操纵。3）将我们新的生物标志物方法和理解应用于地质过去。通过这些WP，CERES将探索微生物代谢，以及由此产生的地球化学循环如何在今天的地球上，在其历史上，以及在应对快速全球变暖的过程中运作。

CERES will integrate analytical innovation, biogeochemistry in modern contexts, and geological archives to holistically evaluate howclimate change affects peatland carbon cycling across multiple timescales. Greenhouse gases shaped Earth history, impacting bothclimate and ecosystems; ongoing anthropogenic emissions are doing the same. These include impacts on the microbially mediatedprocesses that govern the chemical state of our planet and act as climate feedbacks. Soil microorganisms, for example, account forthe largest natural methane flux, and yet these processes remain poorly understood, mediated by multiple environmental factors.Insight can be derived from geological archives that document the timescale-dependent responses of biogeochemical systems toenvironmental perturbations. Such studies on peat and lignites provide tantalising insights into climate-driven disruption of thecarbon cycle, but the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. This critical knowledge gap arises from our inability to determinethe isotopic signatures of the most diagnostic biomarkers. Therefore, we will:1) Develop new instrumentation for the isotopic determination of large bacterial and archaeal biomolecules. This is a transformativeexpansion of our biomarker toolkit as our analytical window expands from low to highly diagnostic compounds.2) Apply these new methods to modern peatlands, examining biomarker isotopic compositions in the field as well as in experimentsin response to manipulation of pH, temperature and substrate.3) Apply our new biomarker methods and understanding to the geological past. Working across decadal to multi-million yeartimescales, we will unlock the mechanistic controls underlying ancient reorganisations of wetland carbon cycling.Through these WPs, CERES will probe how microbial metabolism, and hence biogeochemical cycles, operate(d) on the Earth today,through its history, and in response to rapid global warming.