C-DEBI Newsletter – July 15, 2014

C-DEBI Newsletter – July 15, 2014
This newsletter is also accessible via our website.
 

Meetings, Workshops and Activities


AGU: Submit your abstracts to deep biosphere-related Sessions, due August 6!
 
Conveners: Jennifer Biddle and Beth Orcutt
Dear colleagues,
 
Considering going to AGU this year to reveal your latest and greatest findings about the deep biosphere? We would like to bring your attention to a session dedicated to that theme – “Wanted, Dead or Alive: Microbes in the subsurface” (session 1941). The session will feature invited presentations by the following awesome early career scientists:
We encourage you to submit an abstract to our session! Abstracts are due by August 6. Please note, abstracts and presentations taking on our moderately irreverent session description musical theme are highly encouraged (but not required). We thought we would try to add a little humor to the mix this year 🙂

Description: Far removed from the surface world, a significant number of Earth’s microbes live in the subsurface. This environment may have limited energy and biomass may be preserved for geologic time periods. Yet, evidence of active biogeochemical cycles can be seen in the environment. So are these microbes in a blaze of glory, or just living on a prayer? This session will cover all aspects of marine and terrestrial subsurface microbial studies, from cultivation to genomics, thermodynamic modeling to in-situ investigations, preserved biomarker to enzymatic activity studies. Microbes in the subsurface are wanted, dead or alive.

-Jen and Beth

More deep biosphere-related sessions:

If you have a sessions you would like included in future announcements, please contact Matt at janicak@usc.edu.

EGU General Assembly 2015: Call for Sessions
The call for sessions for the next EGU general Assembly (Vienna, Apr 2015) has just been launched. As a Science Officer for the “BG7. Geomicrobiology and Extreme Environments”, Helge Niemann would like to ask you to suggest a session (perhaps about the deep biosphere?). Just go to http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/provisionalprogramme/BG#BG7 to make suggestions.

Publications


Hot Off the Press: Extracellular enzyme activity and microbial diversity measured on seafloor exposed basalts from Loihi Seamount indicate importance of basalts to global biogeochemical cycling (C-DEBI Contribution 206) in Applied and Environmental Biology
Seafloor basalts are widely distributed and host diverse prokaryotic communities, but no data exists constraining the metabolic rates of the resident microbial communities. Meyers, C-DEBI research grantee Sylvan and researcher Edwards present here potential extracellular enzyme activities of leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and alkaline phosphatase (AP) measured on basalt samples from different locations on Loihi Seamount, Hawaii, coupled with analysis of prokaryotic biomass and pyrosequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Community maximum potential enzyme activity (Vmax) of LAP ranged 0.47-0.90 nmol (g rock)−1 hr−1; Vmax for AP was 28-60 nmol (g rock)−1 hr−1. Km of LAP ranged 26-33 μM, while Km for AP was 2-7 μM. Bacterial communities on Loihi basalts were comprised primarily by Alpha-, Delta- and Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Planctomycetes. The putative ability to produce LAP is evenly distributed across the most commonly detected bacterial orders, but the ability to produce AP is likely dominated by the bacteria in the orders Xanthomonadales, Flavobacteriales and Planctomycetales. Enzyme activities on Loihi basalts were compared to other marine environments studied and found to be similar in magnitude to those from continental shelf sediments and orders of magnitude higher than any measured in the water column, demonstrating that the potential for exposed basalts to transform organic matter is substantial. We propose that basaltic rock plays a significant, quantifiable role in benthic biogeochemical processes.

Outreach


JOIDES Resolution: Onboard Education Officer/Teacher at Sea
DEADLINE to apply: July 23, 2014.

Ocean Leadership: Share Your Ocean Story with the BBC
Ocean Leadership has built a website to help BBC solicit ideas/content/contacts for their upcoming seven-part series follow-up to Blue Planet entitled Ocean: New Frontiers.

Proposal Calls


National Academies Research Associateships for Graduate, Postdoctoral and Senior Researchers
There are four annual review cycles and the next closes August 1.

IODP-USSSP: Proposals for Pre-Drilling Activities and Workshops
The U.S. Science Support Program (USSSP) accepts proposals on a rolling basis for pre-drilling activities and semi-annually for workshops, next submission deadline November 15, 2014, related to the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP).

 
Employment

University of Oldenburg Institute for Chemistry of the Marine Environment: PhD Graduate Student
The Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, seeks a PhD graduate student (job advertisement). Deep-biosphere research is central to the Paleomicrobiology group at our interdisciplinary institute and has focused on the role of phages in the deep subsurface over the last years. For more information on our previous work on viruses, visit our website www.pmbio.icbm.de or watch the talk by our former PhD student Tim Engelhardt in the C-DEBI Networked Speaker Series. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation and will investigate the deep viriosphere in Baltic Sea sediments recovered during IODP Exp. 347. Review of applications will begin August 1st, 2014; applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled. Expected appointment is fall 2014. Questions may be directed to Dr. Bert Engelen at engelen@icbm.de.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: Associate Director for Microbiology
See the flyer for more details.

University of Minnesota, Department of Earth Sciences: Assistant Professor in Geomicrobiology and Bioremediation  
Review of applications will begin September 8, 2014; applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled. Expected appointment is Fall 2015.

LUBEM, University of Brest (UBO), France: 12-month Postdoctoral Position
Interested candidates are encouraged to send a curriculum vitae, a cover letter outlining previous experience and support letters from 2 colleagues with first-hand knowledge of their work experience as soon as possible by e-mail to Gaëtan Burgaud (gaetan.burgaud@univ-brest.fr). See the flyer for more information.

Texas A&M, College of Geosciences: 4 Faculty Positions
The search committee will commence review of applications starting 1 May and will continue until the positions are filled.

Don’t forget to email me with any items you’d like to share in future newsletters! 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
3616 Trousdale Pkwy, AHF 209, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0371
Phone: 708-691-9563, Fax: 213-740-2437
Exploring life beneath the seafloor and making transformative discoveries that advance science, benefit society, and inspire people of all ages and origins.

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