From Dusk till Dawn: Integrating genomic and environmental data to elucidate metabolicand energetic fluxes in Arctic microbial ecosystems

MOSAiC是一个国际性的、大规模的北极气候和生态系统研究考察队，其中破冰船RV Polarstern在冰中漂流一年。在这次MOSAiC漂流考察中，我们将在极昼到极夜的过渡期内，每周在北冰洋中部五个不同深度采集环境样本，为期16周。这些样本将进行元条形码、元基因组和元转录组测序，以跟踪在这一快速变化时期群落结构、遗传潜力和活性功能的变化。此外，我们将全年每天从上层水层收集样品，进行16S和18S元条形码。这种独特的高分辨率样本将补充在MOSAiC总体考察中获得的基于每周样本的年度时间序列。作为MOSAiC的合作伙伴，我们将能够获得这次考察的所有数据，从而获得北极海洋微生物组在一整年内时间演变的前所未有的时间序列，在从夏季到冬季的关键过渡阶段具有特别高的分辨率。我们的目标是将遗传学数据、物种丰度和代谢潜力的信息与环境和物理化学数据相结合。这将使我们能够构建描述群落动态以及群落成员与环境之间代谢和营养通量的机械数学模型。这些模型是基于具有前所未有的时间分辨率的全面数据开发的，将有助于了解北极海洋微生物生态系统的功能，评估其对全球物质和能量循环的贡献，揭示稳定和不稳定因素，追求预测生态系统动态如何响应全球气候变化所预期的不断变化的环境参数的总体目标。

MOSAiC is an international, large-scale Arctic climate and ecosystemresearch expedition, in which the icebreaker RV Polarstern drifts oneyear across the Central Arctic Ocean, frozen in the ice. During thisMOSAiC drift expedition, we will collect environmental samples of theCentral Arctic Ocean at five different depths on a weekly basis for 16weeks during the transition period from polar day to polar night.These samples will be subjected to meta-barcoding, meta-genomic andmeta-transcriptomic sequencing to follow changes in communitystructure, genetic potential and active functions during this periodof rapid change. In addition, we will collect daily samples throughoutthe whole year from the upper pelagic zone for 16S and 18Smeta-barcoding. This unique, high-resolution samples will complementthe annual time-series based on weekly samples, which are obtained inthe context of the overall MOSAiC expedition. As partners of MOSAiC wewill have access to all data of the expedition, and thus to anunprecedented time series of the temporal evolution of the Arcticmarine microbiome over a complete year, with a particularly highresolution during the critical transition phase from summer towinter. Our objective is to integrate the information from geneticdata, species abundances and metabolic potential with environmentaland physico-chemical data. This will allow us to construct mechanisticmathematical models describing the community dynamics and themetabolic and nutrient fluxes between community members and theenvironment. These models, developed based on comprehensive data withunprecedented temporal resolution, will help understanding thefunctioning of the Arctic marine microbial ecosystem, allow assessingits contribution to global material and energy cycles, revealstabilising and destabilising factors, pursuing the overall aim topredict how ecosystem dynamics respond to changing environmentalparameters as are expected due to global climate change.