BIOCOMPLEXITY -- INCUBATION ACTIVITY: Origins of Biocomplexity: Colonization and Succession of Microbial Communities in a Dynamic Geochemical Environment

生物复杂性倡议的主要任务之一是了解生物复杂性是如何产生的，以及如何随着物理/化学环境的变化而变化。量化当地地球化学对微生物系统的建立和演变的影响，最好是通过研究在小的空间尺度上存在陡峭的物理和化学梯度的环境来实现。该生物复杂性孵化活动的主要目标是在来自特拉华州大学的微生物学家和来自亚利桑那州州立大学的地球化学家之间建立新的合作。他们将制定测量和收集物理、化学和微生物数据的战略，并对海底取样的新设备进行初步测试。这个跨学科的研究团队带来了他们在高压/高温实验，流体/矿物地球化学和光谱学，分子微生物学，工程和海底喷口研究的专业知识。他们将通过真实的和虚拟会议、设计新的取样装置和参加喷口巡航来实现研究目标。 调查将开始如何微生物定植的影响，动态热化学梯度和变量矿物/流体化学的深？海洋热液喷口，反过来，微生物的存在如何影响当地的地球化学。将对年轻的海底热液烟囱进行检查，因为它们是地球上已知在短时间内（数天至数周）从严格的非生物条件迅速演变为复杂微生物群落的少数环境之一。这么高吗温度系统提供了强烈的热化学梯度，其特征是快速和可预测的矿物沉淀和烟囱生长。这些硫化物结构可以在原位操作，提供可靠的访问初始非生物地球化学系统和微生物定植的渐进阶段。在这些环境中的流体化学，矿物学，孔隙结构和微生物群落的适当测量提供了这些系统在实验室中进行详细和定量检查重建的限制。研究这些动态地球化学环境中的微生物定植提供了一个独特的机会，了解微生物和流体/矿物演化之间的多样性和复杂的相互作用。

One of the primary mandates of the Biocomplexity initiative is to understand how biocomplexity arises and changes in response to changing physical/chemical environments. Quantifying the influence of local geochemistry on the establishment and evolution of microbial systems is best achieved by studying environments where steep physical and chemical gradients exist over a small spatial scale. The primary goal of this Biocomplexity Incubation Activity is to establish a new collaboration among microbiologists from the University of Delaware and geochemists from Arizona State University. They will develop strategies for measuring and collecting physical, chemical, and microbiological data, and preliminary testing of novel devices for seafloor sampling. This interdisciplinary team of researchers brings with them expertise in high pressure/high temperature experiments, fluid/mineral geochemistry and spectroscopy, molecular microbiology, engineering, and seafloor vent studies. They will accomplish the research goals through real and virtual meetings, design of new sampling devices, and participation in a vent cruise. An investigation will be initiated of how microbial colonization is influenced by the dynamic thermochemical gradients and variable mineral/fluid chemistry of deep?sea hydrothermal vents and, in turn, how the presence of microorganisms influences the local geochemistry. Young seafloor hydrothermal chimneys will be examined because they represent one of the few environments on Earth that are known to evolve rapidly from strictly abiotic conditions to complex microbial communities in a short time period (days to weeks). These high?temperature systems offer access to intense thermochemical gradients that are characterized by rapid and predictable mineral precipitation and chimney growth. These sulfide structures can be manipulated in situ, providing reliable access to both the initial abiotic geochemical system and progressive stages of microbial colonization. Appropriate measurements of fluid chemistry, mineralogy, pore structure, and microbial communities in these environments provide the constraints for recreation of these systems in the laboratory for detailed and quantitative examination. Examining microbial colonization in these dynamic geochemical environments provides a unique opportunity to understand the diverse and complex interactions between microbes and fluid/mineral evolution.