Microbial Ecology explores the way microbes interact with their environment, and the greater impact it has on their ecosystems both local & global. Aquatic ecosystems are dependent on primary production by algae to fix carbon, which contributes to over 50% of CO2 fixation globally. This is especially the case for microbial communities found within Antarctic […]
B34-P: Chlamydomonas sp. ICE -MDV growth and photosynthetic ability under various stress conditions
Our field of research primarily includes Microbial Ecology, understanding microbial community structure and metabolic diversity in ecosystems based on the nutrients and environmental conditions that primarily drive the ecosystem functions. Antarctic lakes are a perfect resource for studying microorganisms, since the food web in the lake ecosystems consists of microorganisms that have acclimatized to extreme […]
C05-P: Metagenomic Analysis of Ammonia Oxidizer and Heterotrophic Bacteria Co-Cultures
Microbial ecology seeks to understand and characterize microbial community structure. Around 99% of microbes have yet to be cultured in the lab, as they require conditions we are unable to imitate. To circumvent this problem, researchers have developed a method to sequence all the genetic material of an environmental sample. This method, called metagenomic sequencing, […]
C28-P: Microbial Stress Resistance in Antarctic Lake Communities
The microbial communities of Antarctic lakes have evolved to thrive under the extreme conditions present in their niche habitats. Ranging from low temperatures to high salinity, a number of obstacles are present which these communities must overcome to survive. We exposed enrichment cultures isolated from two different Antarctic lakes, Lake Bonney, and Lake Fryxell, as […]
B28-P: Importance of Light for Growth and Productivity of Antarctic Microbial Samples
Antarctic lake microbes survive in environments with a myriad of extreme conditions. Understanding microbial community structure and metabolic diversity in these stressful conditions is an underexplored topic in microbial ecology. Notably, these communities are largely dependent on photosynthesis to form the base of their food webs, and thus light availability has major implications on community […]
B40: Acclimation of an Antarctic Alga to Environmental Stress
In studying the Antarctic psychrophile Chlamydomonas sp. UWO 241, one topic of particular interest has been the novel mechanisms it uses to deal with stress and maintain photosynthetic capability in its environment. Previous work established that UWO 241 uses constitutively upregulated photosystem-I driven cyclic electron flow to deal with high salinity stress. The goal of […]