Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change

CERC的研究项目将重点关注北极海冰和沉积物中发生的地质微生物转化，包括初级生产者所需的营养物质的再生，以及北极海洋系统中所有其他居民的健康。最近的证据表明，海冰内的微生物活动和化学转化极大地影响了无机碳酸盐的化学性质，在调节北极海洋对二氧化碳的吸收方面发挥的作用比以前预期的要重要得多。该计划的目标是调查和量化这些基本微生物活动的重要性，使用最先进的评估技术，在冰槽，原位和建模研究的综合三管齐下的方法。结合实验冰槽和实地研究将为这些过程的调节、它们的季节和地理分布以及它们如何在表层海洋和海底之间耦合提供重要的新见解。模拟活动的范围将从海冰和沉积物隔间内的小规模研究到具有战略重要性的当地沿海区域以及北冰洋和邻近海域的大规模系统。这项全面的努力将显著提高当前对微生物活动和生物地球化学过程在其物理/化学环境背景下的幅度和调节的认识。该研究具有广泛的经济和环境影响，因为增加对初级生产中微生物介导的营养调节的了解是了解北极海洋生态系统中高等生物的未来和海冰环境变化影响的先决条件。所产生的知识将适用于北极资源开发的环境评估及其对北极土著人民的影响。最后，海冰介导的二氧化碳吸收将直接影响大气中的二氧化碳浓度，从而影响地球上的温度状况

The CERC research program will focus on geomicrobial transformations as they occur in Arctic sea ice and sediments, including the regeneration of nutrients required by primary producers and thus the health of all other inhabitants of the Arctic marine system. Recent evidence suggests that microbial activity and chemical transformations within sea ice greatly influence inorganic carbonate chemistry, playing a far more important role in regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake by Arctic seas than previously anticipated. The objective of the program is to investigate and quantify the importance of these fundamental microbial activities using state-of-the-art assessment techniques in a comprehensive three-pronged approach of ice tank, in situ, and modelling studies. Combining experimental ice tank and in situ studies will provide important new insight into the regulation of these processes, their seasonal and geographical distribution, and how they are coupled between surface ocean and seafloor. Modelling activities will range from small-scale studies within the sea ice and sediment compartments to local coastal regions of strategic importance and the large-scale systems of the Arctic Ocean and neighbouring seas. This comprehensive effort will markedly improve current knowledge of the magnitude and regulation of microbial activity and biogeochemical processes within the context of their physical/chemical environments. The research has broad economic and environmental impacts as an increased understanding of the microbially mediated nutrient regulation of primary production is a prerequisite to understanding the future for higher organisms in Arctic marine ecosystems and the effects of a changing sea ice environment. The knowledge generated will be applicable to environmental assessment of resource development in the Arctic and the attendant implications for the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Finally, the sea ice mediated uptake of CO2 will have direct implications on the atmospheric CO2 concentration and thus, temperature conditions on the planet