Polar Microbial Ecology and Diversity

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My research program examines microbial biodiversity and ecology in polar ecosystems using both classical microbiology and novel genomics based molecular techniques for studying microbial communities. These habitats include unique cold saline springs, permafrost and ground ice, and more recently novel gypsum cryptoendoliths. These investigations explore the biodiversity, ecology, adaptations, and activity of microbial communities in cryoenvironments (subzero habitats) in an emerging field best described as cryomicrobiology. Recent evidence of microbial activity and bacterial growth at ultra-low temperatures (-5 to 15C) in permanently cold environments suggest that these habitats harbor active microbial ecosystems. This area is presently very poorly understood but crucial for determining if such communities are active in situ at subzero temperatures and determining the impact of such activity on global biogeochemical cycling. For example, permafrost represents ~20% of terrestrial soil ecosystems yet its biology, essentially microbiology, remains unexplored. The proposed research will help elucidate the effects of global warming on microbial ecosystems in warming permafrost, focusing on microbial populations involve in methane metabolism and their roles in methane fluxes. The proposed research will provide new insights into Arctic microbial biodiversity and ecology, especially in terms of identifying and characterizing microbes that are metabolically active in these cryoenvironments under ambient conditions. Novel “omic”, single cell microbiology, and an innovative culturing techniquewill be employed to discover and characterize novel microorganisms and genomic resources, some of which will have potential biotechnology applications. The polar sites that we will study, especially the unique cold saline springs on Axel Heiberg Island, are considered significant Mars analogues sites especially in terms of understanding life in very cold salty liquid water habitats, such as brine-bearing reoccurring slope linea (RSLs) recentlly discovered on Mars as well as the icy moons of Europa and Enceladus. Funding for this proposal will support arctic research training of 4 graduate students, one undergraduate student, and a PDF / year in polar microbiology, state-of-the-art environmental genomics, single cell microbiology, bioinformatics, astrobiology/planetary exploration, and Arctic climate change as well as provide training of a new generation of HQP required to maintain northern research in Canada.