EAGER: The relationship between microbial biogeography and ocean chemistry across a persistent oceanographic "hot spot" in the NE Pacific Ocean

海洋正在经历巨大的变化。目前，两个基本上独立运作的研究团体——地球化学家和分子生态学家——正在研究海洋化学和物理变化对生物的潜在影响。地球化学家主要关注大规模的合成化学特征，对潜在的生物驱动因素了解有限。分子生态学家主要关注微生物生态系统的生物多样性，很少与过程速率有直接联系。在“早期概念探索研究基金”（EAGER）的资助下，华盛顿大学的一位海洋分子生物学家、南加州大学的一位海洋无机生物化学家和老道明大学的一位海洋微量金属地球化学家将进行一次多参数探索性调查巡航，收集和分析共享的地球化学和分子数据，以确定海洋中不同生物地球化学省的化学和物理驱动因素。他们的目标是东北太平洋生物地球化学性质的一个明确的梯度，在那里，高营养、低叶绿素受铁限制的水域与低营养、富含铁的水域相遇，长期目标是了解省边界对气候变化的敏感性。过渡带是地球化学省界的代用物，具有生物活性高、化学参数梯度强的特点。该团队假设，物理/化学前沿创造了一个独特的生物群落，对该地区的生物地球化学产生了不成比例的影响，这一属性可能是省边界的基本特征。因此，他们将对该区域的多个生物和化学参数进行详细的地面到海底分区调查。生物学参数包括在精心选择的站点上从表面到海底微生物群落的宏基因组和亚转录组，以及在分布更广泛的站点上进行以基因为重点的调查。所有站点的化学参数包括营养物质和Fe、Cu、Zn、Cd、Mn、Co和Ni的溶解浓度，这是GEOTRACES程序中的关键参数。船上的工作将包括短期（12-24小时）的甲板孵化，以检查费率过程与社区组成变化之间的关系。这个项目非常适合EAGER资助。将这两个研究团体聚集在一起以有意义的方式合成结果数据的高风险，被学习如何以全新的方式开展海洋学工作所带来的高回报所减轻，超越了生物和化学之间的因果关系。更广泛的影响：这项研究的动机来自于一个由nsf赞助的社区研讨会的结果，该研讨会强调了将这两个社区结合起来解决地球化学省的潜在驱动因素的变革潜力。该团队将邀请两个社区的广泛代表参与，其核心条件是所有参与者都是广泛的思想者，能够及时分享数据。美国海洋碳和生物地球化学（OCB）科学指导委员会成员鼓励提交一份提案，以便在巡航后会议上分享成功经验和“经验教训”。该EAGER项目的结果将允许在CLIVAR和GEOTRACES等项目的规模上评估联合分子/地球化学剖面调查的可行性

The oceans are undergoing dramatic changes. Currently, two largely independently operating research communities -- geochemists and molecular ecologists -- examine potential biological repercussions of changes in ocean chemistry and physics. Geochemists focus primarily on large-scale resultant chemical features, with limited knowledge of underlying biological drivers. Molecular ecologists focus primarily on biodiversity of microbial ecosystems, with few direct linkages to process rates.With funding from this Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER), a marine molecular biologist from the University of Washington, a marine inorganic biochemist from the University of Southern California, and a marine trace metal geochemist from Old Dominion University will conduct a multi-parameter exploratory survey cruise to collect and analyze shared geochemical and molecular data to identify chemical and physical drivers of distinct biogeochemical provinces in the sea. They have targeted a well-defined gradient in biogeochemical properties in the northeast Pacific where high nutrient, low chlorophyll waters limited by iron meet low nutrient, iron-replete waters with the long-term goal of understanding the sensitivity of province boundaries to climate change. The transition zone is a surrogate for a geochemical province boundary and is characterized by high biological activity and strong gradients in chemical parameters. The team hypothesizes that the physical/chemical front creates a distinctive biome with a disproportionate impact on the biogeochemistry of the region, an attribute that may be a fundamental feature of province boundaries. Accordingly, they will characterize multiple biological and chemical parameters on a detailed surface to seafloor zonal survey across this zone. Biological parameters include metagenomes and metatranscriptomes of the microbial community from surface to seafloor at carefully selected stations and gene-focused surveys at more broadly distributed stations. Chemical parameters at all stations include nutrients and dissolved concentrations of Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd, Mn, Co and Ni, key parameters in the GEOTRACES program. Shipboard work will include short-term (12-24 hr) on-deck incubations to examine relationships between rate processes and changes in community composition.This project is well suited to EAGER funding. The high risk associated with bringing these two research communities together to synthesize resulting data in meaningful ways is mitigated by the high reward associated with learning how to conduct oceanographic work in entirely new ways, moving beyond correlations to causations between biology and chemistry.Broader impacts: This study is motivated by the results from an NSF-sponsored community workshop that highlighted the transformative potential of bringing these two communities together to address underlying drivers of geochemical provinces. The team will invite cruise participation by a broad representation of the two communities, with a central requisite that all participants are broad thinkers that will readily share data in a timely fashion. Member of the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Scientific Steering Committee have encouraged submission of a proposal for a post-cruise meeting to share successes and "lessons learned". The results of this EAGER project will allow evaluation of the feasibility of joint molecular/geochemical sectional surveys on the scale of programs such as CLIVAR and GEOTRACES