NSF2026: EAGER: Groundwater Microbial Communities as Sentinels of Environmental Change

在美国国家科学基金会地球科学局和综合活动办公室2026基金项目的支持下，密歇根州立大学的马修·施伦克教授进行了一项研究，利用环境DNA测序方法比较定义明确的地下水流动路径上的地下水微生物群落。这项工作旨在更好地了解地下微生物种群如何移动和适应，以及它们可能如何影响环境健康。这项研究很重要，因为随着环境的变化，水的可获得性和质量已经成为全球许多人面临的紧迫问题。全球淡水资源的很大一部分存在于地下含水层的裂隙和孔隙中，可能受到自然和人为干扰的影响。在地下地下水栖息地内，微生物群落催化关键的生物地球化学变化，并对地表和地表以下的环境变化做出反应。然而，关于微生物群落如何沿着地下流动路径变化的知之甚少，从陆地上的水到渗入地下的微生物，从陆地表面到排放到河流、湖泊和海洋中的微生物群落。这项研究涉及对地下微生物生物圈进行系统的多学科评估，这些知识对于准确预测微生物对土地利用变化、污染物引入、水过度开采的影响和气候变化的反应至关重要。这项工作还为国内外正在进行的大规模水质调查提供了一个模板。该项目的更广泛影响包括参与、指导和培训一批学生，这些学生将通过密歇根州立大学的项目招募，这些项目的重点是增加未被充分代表的群体参与STEM研究。此外，通过这项研究产生的生物地球化学数据集将用于为校园博物馆的外展活动开发探索性的三维预测。还将通过密歇根推广服务向当地社区提供这些信息，这些社区正在进行研究。地下含水层占据了全球生物圈的很大一部分，并发挥着维持人类文明和宜居地球环境的重要功能。尽管它们发挥了重要的作用，但对地下的大多数微生物学研究都很稀少，已完成的研究只依赖于少数几个样本，没有一个考虑到它们的水文背景。因此，我们对环境变化(包括人类干预)与地下水中微生物的反应之间的关系缺乏明确的了解。这项研究的重点是通过描述地下流动路径上微生物群落的组成和活动来促进我们对地下微生物群及其情况和影响的了解，这些微生物群落已经在几年到几千年的时间尺度上与陆地表面脱钩。这项工作的目标是更好地了解这些微生物群落如何应对地表和地表以下的变化，以及对人类和环境健康的相应影响。拟议的工作将在密歇根下半岛3个含水层内明确界定的地下流体循环途径的背景下，直接研究微生物群落的组成和活动。具体目标是审查原地环境因素(例如氧化剂、营养物质、盐度)以及陆地表面遗留因素(例如城市化、农业)在塑造微生物群落结构方面的影响。它将使用这些信息来跟踪微生物信号如何在地下传播。扩增子测序将被用来产生单个水井内微生物群落的分类‘指纹’。这些数据将与水文和地球化学数据相结合，研究地下水库和流动路径中生物、物理和化学因素之间的耦合。将使用元基因组学方法创建含水层内微生物基因组组成和功能潜力的详细清单，而元蛋白质组学将提供可纳入生物地球化学模型的地下生境内关键功能的量化指标。这些数据将被用来开发生态模拟方法，以检查流体循环路径内的连通性，并研究关键过程的环境强迫因素。这项地区性的研究涉及地质学和微生物学，将被用作一个外展努力的平台，旨在突出地下水资源的特征及其对环境变化的敏感性。该项目响应了NSF2026 IDEA Machine 2026获奖作品“不断变化的世界中的全球微生物群”。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Directorate for Geosciences and the 2026 Fund Program in the Office of Integrated Activities, Professor Matthew Schrenk at Michigan State University conducts research that employs environmental DNA sequencing approaches to compare groundwater microbial communities along well-defined groundwater flow pathways. The work is designed to better understand how subsurface microbial populations move and adapt, and how they may impact environmental health. This research is important because, as the environment changes, water availability and quality has become a pressing issue for many populations across the globe. An enormous proportion of global freshwater resources resides in the fractures and pore spaces of groundwater aquifers and can be impacted by natural and anthropogenic perturbations. Within the subsurface groundwater habitat, microbial communities catalyze key biogeochemical transformations and respond to environmental changes, both at and below the land surface. However, little is known about how microbial communities vary along subterranean flow pathways from water on land to that which percolates down to the subsurface and from the land surface to its discharge into rivers, lakes, and oceans. The research involves a systematic, multi-disciplinary assessment of the subsurface microbial biosphere, knowledge critical for making accurate predictions of microbial response to land use change, to the introduction of contaminants, to the impact of water over-extraction, and to variations in climate. The work also provides a template for ongoing, large-scale, water quality surveys, domestically and abroad. Broader impacts of the project include engagement, mentoring, and training of a cohort of students who will be recruited through programs at Michigan State University that are focused on increasing the involvement of underrepresented groups in STEM research. In addition, the biogeochemical datasets generated through this study will be used to develop exploratory, 3-dimensional projections for outreach events at a campus-based museum. They will also be made accessible to local communities where the research is being conducted through Michigan Extension Services. Subsurface aquifers harbor a substantial portion of the global biosphere and carry out critical functions that sustain both human civilizations and a habitable planetary environment. Despite their important role, most microbiology studies of the subsurface are sparse and those that have been done have relied upon only a few samples and none have considered their hydrological context. As a result, we lack a clear understanding of the relationship between environmental changes (including human interventions) and the response of microorganisms in groundwater. This research focuses on advancing our knowledge of the subsurface microbiome and its complexion and impacts by characterizing the composition and activities of microbial communities along subterranean flow pathways that have been decoupled from the land surface over time scales ranging from years to millennia. The goal of the work is to better understand how these microbial communities respond to changes at and below the land surface and corresponding implications for human and environmental health. The proposed work will directly address microbial community composition and activities within the context of well-defined subsurface fluid circulation pathways within 3 aquifers in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Specific goals are to examine the impact of in situ environmental factors (e.g. oxidants, nutrients, salinity) as well as legacy factors at the land surface (e.g. urbanization, agriculture) in shaping microbial community structure. It will use this information to track how microbial signals propagate in the subsurface. Amplicon sequencing will be used to generate a taxonomic ‘fingerprint’ of microbial communities within individual water wells. These data will be combined with hydrological and geochemical data to study the coupling between biological, physical and chemical factors in subsurface groundwater reservoirs and along flow paths. Metagenomic approaches will be used to create a detailed inventory of microbial genome composition and functional potential within the aquifers, whereas metaproteomics will provide a quantitative metric of key functions within the subsurface habitat that can be integrated into biogeochemical models. These data will be used to develop ecological modeling approaches to examine the connectivity within fluid circulation pathways and to study environmental forcing factors for key processes. This regional-scale study, involving both geology and microbiology, will be used as a platform for outreach efforts aimed at highlighting the characteristics of groundwater resources and their susceptibility to environmental change.This project responds to the NSF2026 Idea Machine 2026 winning entry of “Global Microbiome in a Changing World”.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.