Collaborative Research: High Resolution Bacterial Mat Sampler for Operation with Deep Submergence Vehicles

PIs要求资金用于设计、开发、测试和部署采样器，该采样器能够从各种深海生态系统中回收微生物垫样本，其空间采样分辨率为1厘米或更小。与目前的深海底栖生物采样工具相比，该仪器有可能收集到更好的样本，更重要的是，它扩展了研究微生物生态系统的研究人员提出的问题。微生物席生态系统对于在更广泛的生境中进行各种生物地球化学转化至关重要。这些多产的微生物群落是高度结构化的活动层，它们对供应它们的特定地球化学梯度做出反应。在深海中，热液系统周围以及低温甲烷渗漏或富含有机物的环境周围到处都是微生物席。更广泛的影响：微生物垫取样器是一个非常需要的工具，将对每一个研究深海微生物垫的研究人员产生积极的影响。与史密斯学院皮克工程项目的合作具有创新性，似乎是激励年轻女性从事科学研究的绝佳方式。这是一个多么奇妙的想法：让年轻的大学生直接参与到科学设备的实际应用/设计中来。其中一名pi是一名早期职业科学家，在深海采样器设计方面具有丰富的专业知识。

The PIs request funding to design, develop, test, and deploy a sampler capable of recovering microbial mat samples from a variety of deep-sea ocean ecosystems with a spatial sampling resolution on the order of a centimeter or less. Compared to current deep-sea benthic sampling tools, this instrument has the potential to collect better samples, and, more significantly, expand the questions asked by researchers investigating microbial ecosystems. Microbial mat ecosystems are critically important for a wide variety of biogeochemical transformations in an even wider variety of habitats. These productive microbial communities are highly structured into layers of activity that respond to the particular geochemical gradients that are supplying them. In the deep ocean, microbial mats abound around hydrothermal systems, as well as other sites such as cold methane seeps or organic-rich environments. Broader Impacts:The microbial mat sampler is a tool that is greatly needed and will have a positive impact on every researcher studying microbial mats in the deep-sea. The collaboration with the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College is innovative and seems like an excellent way of inspiring young women in the sciences. What a fantastic idea: to get young college students directly involved in the real world application/design of scientific equipment. One of the PIs is an early-career scientist with substantial expertise in the design of deep-sea samplers.