Research Project Title: "Exploring Microbial Diversity in Region: Implications for Ecosystem Function"
Objective:
To map and study the microbial communities in the Region, assessing their ecological roles and how they are affected by changing environmental conditions due to climate change.
Challenge Addressed:
- Mapping Microbial Diversity and Ecological Roles: Understanding the diversity and function of microbial life in the Region and its contribution to marine ecosystems under the pressure of climate change.
Integrated Research Infrastructure:
- Role: Plan out a research vessel campaign to map microbial diversity in the Region. Campaign could also include the deployment of AUV missions to expand the spatial reach of the survey.
- Task: Select locations across the Region for collecting benthic grabs and CTD water samples at discrete ocean depths to build a map of the quantitative and qualitative distribution map of marine microbes.
- Role: Autonomous profiling of water column environmental data (e.g., temperature, salinity) across a range of depths and locations.
- Task: Plan out several AUV missions to increase the spatial research of this campaign. These missions will further map microbial habitats by profiling the water column across different layers of the Region and measuring environmental variables that may influence microbial communities.
Research Workflow:
Collection of water samples at discreet depths and profiling of the water column (to include temperature, salinity, and nutrient concentrations) with a CTD to map the ecological distribution of microbes in the Region.
- The AUV autonomously navigates through different depths of the water column, collecting microbial samples and environmental data across a wide area.
- The AUV samples from areas near the fixed observatories to cross-reference data, as well as in regions further from fixed infrastructure to cover a broader spatial area.
- The microbial samples collected by the AUV are analysed in laboratories to map microbial diversity and identify key microbial species contributing to ecosystem processes.
- The data from the fixed observatories provides long-term environmental trends, helping to link microbial changes to larger-scale processes, such as warming waters or melting ice.
Outcome:
The project maps microbial diversity in the Region, highlighting the ecological roles of microbes in nutrient cycling and their response to environmental changes. This helps researchers understand how climate change is impacting microbial communities and, by extension, broader marine ecosystems. The findings contribute to predictive models of ecosystem shifts in the Region and inform conservation strategies aimed at preserving microbial biodiversity.