Microorganisms in a Changing Climate: community response and effect on biogeochemical cycling

我的研究项目主要集中在极地环境中永久冻土的微生物生态学，研究微生物活动和休眠如何与地球上的多样性、进化和生物地球化学循环有关。我使用多种原位和实验室工具，将分子测序与微生物生理学和活性分析相结合。虽然只有不到1%的已知微生物可以在实验室中培养，因此我们只通过分子分析就知道了，但这种方法比单独的基因组分析更能全面地了解微生物生态学。面对气候变化，全面了解微生物多样性、活动、适应和休眠如何影响生物地球化学循环越来越重要，因为冻土融化中的微生物群落正在从休眠转向活动。永久冻土包含着世界上最大的碳(C)储存库，占世界海岸面积的34%。变暖会加速永久冻土C的微生物降解，导致温室气体（如二氧化碳）的释放。二氧化碳,甲烷)。这种释放可能导致反馈，导致气候变化加速，但温室气体排放的规模和时间及其对气候变化的影响仍然不确定。测量永久冻土C退化的数量和命运，以及在陆地和近岸环境中在什么时间尺度上进行处理，对于了解C通量（温室气体排放）将如何影响未来的气候变化至关重要。微生物是这种生物地球化学循环的驱动因素，因此微生物多样性、代谢活动和对气候变化的适应潜力是缺失的关键数据。我的研究计划的长期目标是对正在变化的极地环境中负责生化循环的微生物机制的知识做出贡献。为了实现这一愿景，我的短期目标是调查目前正在经历（或准备经历）快速变化条件的永久冻土系统：确定侵蚀沿海永久冻土中驱动温室气体通量的微生物活动和居民。2. 确定解冻的永久冻土中的微生物细胞状态，并评估这些状态是否会随着时间的推移而演变。3. 确定全球干燥的永久冻土是否禁止活跃的微生物生命，或者是否仅限于迄今为止研究的唯一干燥的永久冻土地区。该计划每年将培训3-5名HQP，包括极地微生物学、分子技术、生物信息学、温室气体测量、在北方进行实地工作以及单细胞基因组测序等尖端技术。通过国际合作伙伴，这一创新计划将促进HQP获得加拿大尚未提供的最先进的仪器(例如。单细胞分选（NanoSIMS）。HQP将在国内和国际上从事北方研究、微生物学和生物技术等方面的广泛职业。

My research program focuses on the microbial ecology of permafrost in polar environments, examining how microbial activity and dormancy relate to diversity, evolution and biogeochemical cycling on Earth. I employ a variety of in situ and laboratory tools, combining molecular sequencing with microbial physiology and activity assays. While less than 1% of known microorganisms can be cultivated in the lab and thus are known to us solely through molecular analyses, this approach results in a more holistic understanding of microbial ecology than genomic analyses alone. A comprehensive understanding of how microbial diversity, activity, adaptation, and dormancy affect biogeochemical cycling is increasingly relevant in the face of climate change, where microbial communities in thawing permafrost are making the shift from dormancy to activity. Permafrost contains the world's largest reservoir of carbon (C), and accounts for 34% of the world's coasts. Warming can accelerate the microbial degradation of stored permafrost C, resulting in the release of the GHGs (eg.CO2, CH4). This release can result in a feedback leading to accelerated climate change, but the magnitude and timing of GHG emissions and their impact on climate change remain uncertain. Measuring the quantities and fate of degrading permafrost C, and on what timescales it is processed terrestrially and in nearshore environments is crucial to understanding how C flux (GHG emissions) will impact climate change in the future. Microorganisms are the drivers of such biogeochemical cycling, and thus the microbial diversity, metabolic activity, and potential for adaptation in response to changing climate are a critical piece of missing data.  The long-term objectives of my research program are to contribute to knowledge of the microbial mechanisms responsible for biochemical cycling in polar environments undergoing change. Towards this vision, my short-term objectives investigate permafrost systems currently experiencing (or poised to experience) rapidly changing conditions:  1. Determine the microbial activity and inhabitants driving GHG flux in eroding coastal permafrost.  2. Determine microbial cell state in thawing permafrost and assess if these states may evolve over time.  3. Determine if dry permafrost globally is prohibitive to active microbial life, or if that is limited to the only dry permafrost region studied to date.  The proposed program will train 3-5 HQP per year in polar microbiology, molecular techniques, bioinformatics, GHG measurements, conducting field work in the North, and cutting-edge techniques such as single cell genomic sequencing. Through international collaborators, this innovative program will facilitate HQP access to state-of-the-art instrumentation not yet available in Canada (eg. single cell sorting, NanoSIMS).  HQP will be poised for a broad range of careers nationally and internationally in northern research, microbiology and biotechnology, among others.