Agency: NSF
Collaborators: M. A. Voytek, USGS; G. A. Jackson, TAMU; P. Glibert, T. Kana, J. Cornwell, HPL; J. Collier, SUNY Stony Brook; J. Zehr, UCSC
Ward Lab participants: Chris Francis, Josh Nelson, Greg O'Mullan

Microbial biogeochemical cycling of the elements regulates a dynamic environment in which the cycles of different elements are linked through the physiology of microorganisms. Physical/chemical approaches to measurement and modeling of the net transformation rates have informed our understanding of microbial biogeochemistry, but these approaches necessarily rely on gross simplifications about the role and regulation of the various functional groups (guilds) involved. Recent advances in molecular microbial ecology have shown the microbial world to contain immense diversity and complexity at every level: redundancy and duplication of functional genes within a single organism; molecular diversity among functional genes that encode the same process in different organisms; large genetic diversity among different organisms apparently engaged in the same biogeochemical function within single communities; great variability in the species composition of different communities that apparently perform equally well.

The goal of this project is to investigate the functional relationship between complexity in microbial communities and the physical/chemical environment at a range of biological and ecological scales. Previously, such analysis was technologically limited by the inability to assay large numbers of samples simultaneously for a large number of genes and phylotypes. Using gene array technology, we will be able to detect the distribution and differential expression of functional genes in natural systems. The results of this study will constitute the first step towards application of DNA chip technology for gene expression of "exotic" (i.e., not of biomedical importance) processes and organisms in the environment. The gene arrays, along with a full suite of ecosystem process measurements, will be deployed along a transect that spans the eutrophic - oligotrophic gradient from the inland waters of the Chesapeake Bay out to the Sargasso Sea. Experiments and functional gene studies focus on key transformations in the carbon and nitrogen cycles (C fixation, N fixation, nitrification, denitrification, urea assimilation). The diversity of guilds will be interpreted in terms of ecosystem function, assessed using geochemical data and tracer experiments. In addition to field studies designed to investigate and dissect the natural system, we will also perform perturbation experiments using mesocosms. The goal of these experiments is to determine how microbial species diversity affects the major energy and nutrient flows within ecosystems, and to assess the degree of stability or instability associated with changes in redundancy within guilds of microorganisms responsible for major nitrogen and carbon pathways.

The project and the contributions of the major collaborators are described in more detail at the project web page.