C-DEBI Newsletter – December 2, 2019

Publications & Press

Environmental Microbioliogy
Illuminating microbial species‐specific effects on organic matter remineralization in marine sediments – NEW!
Nagissa Mahmoudi*, Tim N. Enke, Steven R. Beaupré, Andreas P. Teske, Otto X. Cordero, Ann Pearson
*C-DEBI Contribution 500

Marine microorganisms play a fundamental role in the global carbon cycle by mediating the sequestration of organic matter in ocean waters and sediments. A better understanding of how biological factors, such as microbial community composition, influence the lability and fate of organic matter is needed. Here, we explored the extent to which organic matter remineralization is influenced by species‐specific metabolic capabilities. We carried out aerobic time‐series incubations of Guaymas Basin sediments to quantify the dynamics of carbon utilization by two different heterotrophic marine isolates (Vibrio splendidus 1A01; Pseudoalteromonas sp. 3D05). Continuous measurement of respiratory CO₂ production and its carbon isotopic compositions (¹³C and ¹⁴C) shows species‐specific differences in the rate, quantity, and type of organic matter remineralized. Each species was incubated with hydrothermally‐influenced vs. unimpacted sediments, resulting in a ~2‐fold difference in respiratory CO₂ yield across the experiments. Genomic analysis indicated that the observed carbon utilization patterns may be attributed in part to the number of gene copies encoding for extracellular hydrolytic enzymes. Our results demonstrate that the lability and remineralization of organic matter in marine environments is not only a function of chemical composition and/or environmental conditions, but also a function of the microorganisms that are present and active.

Frontiers in Environmental Science
Editorial: Environmental Bioenergetics – NEW!
Anke M. Herrmann, Douglas E. LaRowe*, Alain F. Plante
*C-DEBI Contribution 502

Energy is continuously transformed in the environment through the metabolic activities of organisms. Catabolic reactions generate energy (energy-yielding) which are used to fuel anabolic reactions for maintenance and growth (energy-requiring). These transformations of energy (i.e., bioenergetics) underpin most biogeochemical cycles on Earth and allow the delivery of a wide range of life-supporting ecosystem services. It has long been understood that the amount and types of energy available in an environment influence the rates of biological activity and the complexity of interactions in that system. Traditionally, energy fluxes and stocks have not been described in a quantitative manner, and it is not well-understood how physicochemical theorems such as thermodynamic principles are manifested in environmental systems. Theoretical ecological frameworks (Odum, 1969; Addiscott, 1995) have suggested that the more complex ecosystems become in terms of their food webs, the more efficient they are, i.e., relatively less energy is wasted when utilizing resources. However, this has not been rigorously tested experimentally, but in recent years, scientists in a number of fields have increasingly shown interest in quantifying how bioenergetics constrain and define ecosystem functioning. For example, organic matter in soils has distinct energetic signatures, e.g., energy densities and activation energies (Barré et al., 2016; Williams et al., 2018), and microbial bioenergetics provides empirical data for mechanistic models of carbon turnover in soils, work that is relevant to climate change (Sparling, 1983; Herrmann et al., 2014; Barros et al., 2016; Bölscher et al., 2017). Furthermore, geochemists have quantified the amount of chemolithotrophic energy available for microorganisms in a number of extreme environments to infer the dominant metabolic activities (e.g., McCollom and Shock, 1997; Shock et al., 2010; Osburn et al., 2014). These activities are challenging to monitor due to their inaccessibility and incredibly slow rates of energy processing. Although all of these efforts represent significant progress in the field of biogeochemistry, bioenergetics analysis of natural systems is still in its infancy. Nonetheless, there is increasing interest in using bioenergetics tools to better characterize biogeochemical cycling in water, soils, and sediments in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.

Have an upcoming manuscript about the deep subseafloor biosphere and want to increase your press coverage? NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs is looking to coordinate press releases between your home institution and the NSF to coincide with the date of publication. Please contact us as soon as your publication is accepted!

UCSC: Earth scientist Andrew Fisher elected 2019 AAAS Fellow – NEW!
Andrew Fisher, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz (and C-DEBI Co-I), has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Fisher was recognized for “distinguished scientific contributions to seafloor and groundwater hydrology, for service to academe and research organizations, and for innovations in freshwater management.”

Meetings & Activities

AGU: 2019 Fall Meeting Deep Biosphere-Related Sessions of Interest – UPDATED!
Attending the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, December 9-13, 2019? Be sure to check out these C-DEBI-related sessions of interest. See also the Deep Carbon Observatory's AGU Fall Meeting Guide and consider attending IODP's AGU Town Hall, ICDP's Town Hall, and OOIFB's Town Hall.

EGU General Assembly 2020: Submit your abstracts to session on scientific drilling – NEW!
SSP 1.4 Achievements and perspectives in scientific ocean and continental drilling: Scientific drilling through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) continues to provide unique opportunities to investigate the workings of the interior of our planet, Earth’s cycles, natural hazards and the distribution of subsurface microbial life. The past and current scientific drilling programs have brought major advances in many multidisciplinary fields of socio-economic relevance, such as climate and ecosystem evolution, palaeoceanography, the deep biosphere, deep crustal and tectonic processes, geodynamics and geohazards. This session invites contributions that present and/or review recent scientific results from deep Earth sampling and monitoring through ocean and continental drilling projects. Furthermore, we encourage contributions that outline perspectives and visions for future drilling projects, in particular projects using a multi-platform approach. The deadline for abstract submission is January 15, 2020.

Goldschmidt: Hawai'i 2020, June 21-26 – NEW!
Goldschmidt is the foremost annual, international conference on geochemistry and related subjects, organized by the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. Abstract submission deadline: February 14, 2020.

AGU: Nominate Your Peers for 2020 Honors
Nominations are now open for 2020 AGU honors, including the Asahiko Taira International Scientific Ocean Drilling Research Prize. Deadline: March 15, 2020.

GRC: Exploring Fluxes, Forms and Origins of Deep Carbon in Earth and Other Terrestrial Planets, June 28-July 3, 2020, Lewiston, ME, USA
Applications for this meeting must be submitted by May 31, 2020.

Serpentine Days: 5th Workshop, September 21-24, Sestri Levante (Genova, Italy) – NEW!
The workshop aims at gathering scientists interested in the geological, physical and (bio-) chemical processes of serpentinization and the life it sustains, its impact on development of mineral resources, of new energy sources and the environmental and societal impact of serpentine exploration and exploitation. Registration will close June 30, 2020.

Ongoing Activities:

Education & Outreach

UCLA: Ion Microprobe Student Workshop – NEW!
The The UCLA SIMS laboratory hosts a 5 day workshop on ion microprobe applications in Earth and planetary sciences, with emphases on microanalytical geochronology and stable isotope geochemistry by large radius magnetic sector SIMS. Arrival and departure dates are Sunday Feb. 24th and Friday Mar. 1st. NSF’s Instrumentation and Facilities program will sponsor costs for travel, accommodation, and course materials for domestic participants. Graduate students and advanced undergraduates (with recommendation letter from an academic supervisor) can apply; applications due December 31, 2019.

DOE: Scholars Program
Application deadline: January 3, 2020.

MARUM: ECORD Training Course, April 20-24, 2020, Bremen, Germany – NEW!
As host to one of only three IODP core repositories in the world – the only one in Europe – the MARUM in Bremen is an important hub for marine geoscientists. Taking advantage of this setting, the new ECORD Training Course will provide a “Virtual Drillship Experience” for scientists from academia and industry. This one-week course offers a basic training focusing on the IODP core flow procedures, preparing the participants for participating in an offshore drillship expedition, and instilling them with an appreciation for high standards in all kinds of coring projects. IODP-style lab exercises will form the foundation of the ECORD Training Course following the pattern of the unique “Virtual Ship” approach developed for the Bremen ECORD Summer Schools. The participants will be early career and established scientists from academia and industry from all over the world who have an interest in scientific drilling and development of professional skills in core analysis. The application deadline is January, 17 2020.

USC Wrigley Institute: Summer REU: Coastal Ocean Processes
Applications are due by February 14, 2020.

Proposal Calls

NSF: Research Traineeship (NRT) Program
Next letter of intent window: November 25, 2019 – December 6, 2019.

IODP: Apply to sail: Expedition 392 Agulhas Plateau Cretaceous Climate
The deadline to apply is December 2, 2019.

IODP-USSSP: Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowships
The deadline for submission is December 6, 2019.

NSF: Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics – NEW!
The purpose of the Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics (URoL:Epigenetics) program is to enable innovative research and to promote multidisciplinary education and workforce training in the broad area of epigenetics. The URoL:Epigenetics program is a wide collaboration across Directorates/Offices within the National Science Foundation with a focus on understanding the relationship between epigenetic mechanisms associated with environmental change, organismal phenotype, and resultant robustness and adaptability of organisms and populations. Successful projects of the URoL:Epigenetics Program are expected to use complementary, interdisciplinary approaches to investigate how epigenetic phenomena lead to emergent properties that explain the fundamental behavior of living systems. Ultimately, successful projects should identify general principles (“rules”) that underlie biological phenomena within or across scales of size, complexity (e.g., molecular, cellular, organismal, population) and time (from sub-second to geologic) in taxa from anywhere within the tree of life, including humans. URoL:Epigenetics projects must integrate perspectives and research approaches from more than one research discipline (e.g., biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics, physics, social and behavioral sciences).The interdisciplinary scope of URoL:Epigenetics projects also provides unique training and outreach possibilities to train the next generation of scientists in a diversity of approaches and to engage society more generally. Letter of Intent Deadline: December 20, 2019.

NSF: Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Pathways into the Earth, Ocean, Polar and Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences (IUSE:GEOPAths) – NEW!
The Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) contributes to the IUSE initiative through the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Pathways into the Geosciences – Earth, Ocean, Polar and Atmospheric Sciences (IUSE:GEOPAths) funding opportunity. IUSE:GEOPAths invites proposals that specifically address the current needs and opportunities related to education within the geosciences community through the formation of STEM Learning Ecosystems that engage students in the study of the Earth, its oceans, polar regions and atmosphere. The primary goal of the IUSE:GEOPAths funding opportunity is to increase the number of students pursuing undergraduate and/or postgraduate degrees through the design and testing of novel approaches that engage students in authentic, career-relevant experiences in geoscience. In order to broaden participation in the geosciences, engaging students from historically excluded groups or from non-geoscience degree programs is a priority. While maintaining elements from the legacy tracks of GEOPATHS, this solicitation features three new funding tracks that focus on Geoscience Learning Ecosystems (GLEs): 1) GEOPAths: Informal Networks (IN). Collaborative projects in this track will support geoscience learning and experiences in informal settings for teachers, pre-college (e.g., upper level high school) students, and early undergraduates in the geosciences. 2) GEOPAths: Undergraduate Preparation (UP). Projects in this track will engage pre-college and undergraduate students in extra-curricular experiences and training in the geosciences with a focus on service learning [Reference 3 in the Program Description section] and workplace skill building. 3) GEOPAths: Graduate Opportunities (GO). Projects in this track will improve research and career-related pathways into the geosciences for undergraduate and graduate students through institutional collaborations with a focus on service learning and workplace skill building. Letter of Intent Due Dates: December 20, 2019 and November 17, 2020.

NSF: Understanding the Rules of Life: Microbiome Theory and Mechanisms (URoL:MTM)
Letter of Intent due date: January 17, 2020.

NSF: Frontier Research in Earth Sciences (FRES)
Full proposal deadline: February 5, 2020.

NSF: EarthCube – NEW!
This Solicitation supports two funding opportunities to advance geosciences research: 1) Science-Enabling Capabilities and Pilots: This opportunity builds capabilities to improve geosciences data use and reuse for observational, experimental, and computational research that is interoperable with emerging standards and resources. It also solicits pilot efforts to integrate different datasets and tools from multiple GEO disciplines. 2) EarthCube Research Coordination Networks (RCNs): This opportunity supports the formation of RCNs closely tied to the science and data needs of core geosciences programs and domains supported by GEO. In addition to these solicited opportunities, the EarthCube program will accept requests for supplements to support adoption of emerging EarthCube open web standards and existing cyberinfrastructure by science projects and data resources. Supplements must abide by the guidelines for supplements in the PAPPG. Prospective PIs should contact an EarthCube program director to discuss a potential supplement. The EarthCube program will accept requests for supplements of the following types: 1) Science adoption: Target broadening or enhancing existing geoscience projects to achieve new research and education outcomes through adoption of existing data and software tools (including, but not limited to, products from EarthCube projects). Possible projects include the adoption of data standards to support the science goals of a project. 2) Data resource adoption: Support data facilities and data resources to adopt robust standards and/or implementation of pilot tools/activities to improve discovery, interoperability and access to data and cyberinfrastructure services. In conjunction with EarthCube/Council of Data Facilities developments, these awards would facilitate adoption of new semantic web standards and machine-readable publishing patterns, such as for the EarthCube data repository and resource registries. These awards are meant for an initial implementation of these standards and are not meant to sustain existing core functions of data facilities. Full proposal deadline: March 12, 2020.

Rolling Calls:

Employment

Princeton: Hess Postdoctoral Research Associate – NEW!
The Department of Geosciences at Princeton University announces competition for the 2020-2021 Harry Hess Fellows Program. This honorific postdoctoral fellowship program provides opportunities for outstanding geoscientists to work in the field of their choice. Research may be carried out independently or in collaboration with members of the Geosciences Department. One or more Hess Fellows may be appointed. Applicants must expect to have earned a Ph.D. at the time of the start of the fellowship, but not more than five years before. Current areas of research include: Biogeochemical Cycles, Paleoclimatology, Environmental Chemistry, Paleontology, Isotope Geochemistry, Petrology, Glaciology, Seismology, Geomicrobiology, Tectonics, Mineral Physics, Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, Planetary Science, Geochronology, Earth History. Applications are due on December 15, 2019 but evaluation of applications and interviews of candidates will begin immediately.

Dalhousie U: 2020 Killam Postdoctoral Program
The application deadline is December 16, 2019.

WHOI: Tenure Track Scientist – Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry
Review of applications will begin on December 16, 2019.

Oxford: Associate Professor (or Professorship) of Geobiology – NEW!
We seek to appoint an Associate Professor (or Professorship) of Geobiology to start no later than 31 July 2020, or as soon as possible thereafter. The successful candidate will work at the Department of Earth Sciences and will hold a Fellowship at Wolfson College. The appointment will be initially for 5 years at which point, upon completion of a successful review, the postholder will be eligible for reappointment to the retiring age. We welcome applications from scientists working in all aspects of Geobiology. We encourage applicants with expertise on the influence of life on the Earth system, including but not limited to study of biological revolutions and innovation in Earth history, remote characterisation of biosphere function, the deep biosphere, life in extreme environments, and molecular palaeobiology. We are particularly interested in candidates with a strong track record in using or developing tools such as those presented by the ‘omic’ revolution (e.g. bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) and/or sedimentary geochemistry/mineralogy to develop our understanding of these biological systems in their geological context. This expertise plays into cutting edge research on the coevolution of the Earth and life in both terrestrial and marine systems either today or in the past, and in understanding the conditions for life on other planets. The closing date for application is December 20, 2019.

SIO: Fisheries Oceanographer/Protistan Biologist/Sea-Going Benthic Ecologist – Assistant Professor
For full consideration, please apply by December 20, 2019.

U of Georgia: Assistant or Associate Professor – Biological Oceanography

U Akron: Post-Doctoral Position in Geochemistry/Astrobiology

Oklahoma State U: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor – Hydrogeochemistry/Low Temperature Geochemistry

WWU: Assistant Professor in Marine Molecular Biology

MBL: Computational Postdoctoral Scientist

UH Manoa: Assistant Researcher (Theoretical Ecologist)

Don’t forget to email me with any items you'd like to share in future newsletters! We will also broadcast this information on our social media outlets, Twitter and Facebook. You are what makes our deep biosphere community!

Best,

Matt

—

Matthew Janicak

Data Manager

Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI)

University of Southern California
janicak@usc.edu

3616 Trousdale Pkwy, AHF 209, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0371

Phone: 708-691-9563, Fax: 213-740-2437

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