RAPID: Water quality impacts of hurricane Harvey: Distribution of metals and diversity of microbial communities in greater Houston

4级飓风哈维是我国历史上最极端的降雨事件，仅在大休斯顿地区就造成了大约12万亿加仑的降水。人类、其他动物和整个生态系统都暴露在洪水和径流中存在的无数污染物中。飓风样本将被表征，以确定不同的微生物群落，以了解它们在水文循环中的作用。推动这项工作的假设是，雨水径流调动了金属和微生物，这有助于洪水和径流的毒性。50种代表性元素、过渡金属和稀土元素将被量化。微生物特性将用于确定由于飓风哈维在广阔的城市环境中微生物群落的任何差异。主要目标是根据大休斯顿地区哈维飓风洪水中的微生物组成和流行情况，提供金属浓度和微生物多样性的综合概况。为此，已经从30个不同的地点收集了36个样本，代表了各种城市和郊区的土地使用模式，包括住宅、工业、商业和教育活动。由于飓风哈维是一场500-800年的风暴，这为描述细菌群落多样性的元素组成和动态提供了难得的机会。此外，大多数以前的洪水和径流测量只考虑了一小部分金属，而pi的目标是50个主要族元素，过渡金属和稀土。此外，这是针对高通量下一代测序的第一次努力，以了解飓风对微生物群落结构多样性的影响（如果有的话）。与传统的微生物学方法不同，下一代测序可以在采样后很长时间内进行，以精确表征各种病原体或其菌株。通过微生物学家和环境工程师的共同努力，将创建一个独特的数据集。这些数据将提供污染物进入生态敏感和经济重要的加尔维斯顿湾的信息。对洪水和径流的微生物和化学成分的了解有助于了解其毒性。这些信息还可以潜在地改进管理大型流域雨水的策略。博士生将获得一个独特的视角，并获得宝贵的跨学科经验，与领先的微生物学家工作。投票结果将与《休斯顿纪事报》和公共广播电台等新闻媒体共享。

Proposal: 1759709PI: Shankar ChellamThe category 4 hurricane named Harvey is the most extreme rain event in our country's history precipitating an estimated 12 trillion gallons of water over greater Houston alone. Humans, other animals, and the entire ecosystem have been exposed to myriad contaminants present in its floodwater and runoff. Hurricane samples will be characterized to identify different microbial communities to understand their role in the hydrological cycle. The hypothesis driving the work is that stormwater runoff mobilizes metals and microorganisms, which contribute to floodwater and runoff toxicity. Fifty representative elements, transition metals, and rare earth elements will be quantified. Microbial characterization will be used to determine any differences in microbial communities due to hurricane Harvey in an expansive urban environment. The primary objective is to present a comprehensive snapshot of metals concentrations and microorganism diversity with reference to microbial composition and prevalence in hurricane Harvey floodwaters in greater Houston. To this end, 36 samples have already been collected from 30 different locations representing a variety of urban and suburban land use patterns including residential, industrial, commercial, and educational activities.Since hurricane Harvey is a 500-800 year storm, this represents a rare opportunity to characterize the elemental composition and dynamics of bacterial community diversity. Also, most previous floodwater and runoff measurements only considered a small subset of metals, whereas the PIs are targeting 50 main group elements, transition metals, and rare earths. Further, this is the first effort towards targeting high-throughput next generation sequencing to understand hurricane effects (if any) on the diversity of microbial community structures. Next Generation Sequencing can be performed long after sampling unlike traditional microbiological methods to precisely characterize various pathogens or their strains. Through integrated efforts between a microbiologist and an environmental engineer, a unique dataset will be created. The data will provide information on contaminant loading into the ecologically sensitive and economically important Galveston Bay. Knowledge of microbiological and chemical composition of floodwater and runoff provides insights into its toxicity. This information can also potentially improve strategies to manage stormwater in large watersheds. The doctoral student will obtain a unique perspective and gain valuable interdisciplinary experience working with a leading microbiologist. The results will be shared with news outlets including the Houston Chronicle and Public Broadcasting Stations.