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

PI申请资金用于设计、开发、测试和部署一种采样器，该采样器能够从各种深海海洋生态系统中采集微生物垫样本，空间采样分辨率为1厘米或更低。与目前的深海底栖采样工具相比，该仪器有可能收集更好的样本，更重要的是，扩大了研究微生物生态系统的研究人员提出的问题。微生物垫生态系统是至关重要的各种生物地球化学转化在更广泛的各种栖息地。这些生产性微生物群落高度结构化，形成不同的活动层，对提供它们的特定地球化学梯度作出反应。在深海中，热液系统周围以及冷甲烷渗漏或富含有机物的环境等其他地点都有大量的微生物垫。更广泛的影响：微生物垫取样器是一种非常需要的工具，将对研究深海微生物垫的每一位研究人员产生积极影响。与史密斯学院的皮卡工程项目的合作是创新的，似乎是激励科学界年轻女性的一种很好的方式。多么奇妙的想法：让年轻的大学生直接参与科学设备的真实的世界应用/设计。其中一名PI是一名早期职业科学家，在深海采样器的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.