Microorganisms in a Changing Climate: community response and effect on biogeochemical cycling

我的研究项目侧重于极地环境中永久冻土的微生物生态学，研究微生物活动和休眠如何与地球上的多样性，进化和地球化学循环相关。我采用各种原位和实验室工具，结合分子测序与微生物生理学和活性测定。虽然只有不到1%的已知微生物可以在实验室中培养，因此我们只能通过分子分析来了解，但这种方法比单独的基因组分析更全面地了解微生物生态学。全面了解微生物多样性，活动，适应和休眠如何影响生物地球化学循环在气候变化面前越来越重要，其中解冻永冻土中的微生物群落正在从休眠转变为活动。永久冻土层是世界上最大的碳（C）储存库，占世界海岸的34%。气候变暖会加速冻土C的微生物降解，导致温室气体（如CO2、CH 4）的释放。这种释放可能会导致一种反馈，导致加速气候变化，但温室气体排放的规模和时间及其对气候变化的影响仍然不确定。 测量退化的永冻层碳的数量和命运，以及在陆地和近岸环境中处理的时间尺度，对于了解碳通量（温室气体排放）如何影响未来的气候变化至关重要。微生物是这种生物地球化学循环的驱动力，因此微生物多样性、代谢活动和适应气候变化的潜力是缺失数据的关键部分。 我的研究计划的长期目标是有助于了解微生物的机制，负责在极地环境发生变化的生化循环。为了实现这一愿景，我的短期目标是调查目前正在经历（或准备经历）快速变化的条件的永久冻土系统：1。确定微生物活动和居民驱动的温室气体通量侵蚀沿海永久冻土。 2.确定微生物细胞在融化的冻土状态，并评估这些状态是否会随着时间的推移而演变。 3.确定全球干燥的永久冻土是否对活跃的微生物生命具有抑制作用，或者是否仅限于迄今为止研究的唯一干燥永久冻土地区。 该计划每年将培训3-5名HQP，涉及极地微生物学，分子技术，生物信息学，温室气体测量，在北方进行实地工作以及单细胞基因组测序等尖端技术。通过国际合作者，这一创新计划将促进HQP获得加拿大尚未提供的最先进的仪器（例如：单细胞分选，NanoSIMS）。 HQP将在北方研究、微生物学和生物技术等领域为国内和国际广泛的职业生涯做好准备。

My research program focuses on the microbial ecology of permafrost in polar environments, examining how microbial activity and dormancy relate to diversity, evolution and biogeochemical cycling on Earth. I employ a variety of in situ and laboratory tools, combining molecular sequencing with microbial physiology and activity assays. While less than 1% of known microorganisms can be cultivated in the lab and thus are known to us solely through molecular analyses, this approach results in a more holistic understanding of microbial ecology than genomic analyses alone. A comprehensive understanding of how microbial diversity, activity, adaptation, and dormancy affect biogeochemical cycling is increasingly relevant in the face of climate change, where microbial communities in thawing permafrost are making the shift from dormancy to activity. Permafrost contains the world's largest reservoir of carbon (C), and accounts for 34% of the world's coasts. Warming can accelerate the microbial degradation of stored permafrost C, resulting in the release of the GHGs (eg.CO2, CH4). This release can result in a feedback leading to accelerated climate change, but the magnitude and timing of GHG emissions and their impact on climate change remain uncertain. Measuring the quantities and fate of degrading permafrost C, and on what timescales it is processed terrestrially and in nearshore environments is crucial to understanding how C flux (GHG emissions) will impact climate change in the future. Microorganisms are the drivers of such biogeochemical cycling, and thus the microbial diversity, metabolic activity, and potential for adaptation in response to changing climate are a critical piece of missing data.  The long-term objectives of my research program are to contribute to knowledge of the microbial mechanisms responsible for biochemical cycling in polar environments undergoing change. Towards this vision, my short-term objectives investigate permafrost systems currently experiencing (or poised to experience) rapidly changing conditions:  1. Determine the microbial activity and inhabitants driving GHG flux in eroding coastal permafrost.  2. Determine microbial cell state in thawing permafrost and assess if these states may evolve over time.  3. Determine if dry permafrost globally is prohibitive to active microbial life, or if that is limited to the only dry permafrost region studied to date.  The proposed program will train 3-5 HQP per year in polar microbiology, molecular techniques, bioinformatics, GHG measurements, conducting field work in the North, and cutting-edge techniques such as single cell genomic sequencing. Through international collaborators, this innovative program will facilitate HQP access to state-of-the-art instrumentation not yet available in Canada (eg. single cell sorting, NanoSIMS).  HQP will be poised for a broad range of careers nationally and internationally in northern research, microbiology and biotechnology, among others.