Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101346
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$418,893.00
Summary
Cave microbial metabolism as a missing biogeochemical sink. The aim of this project is to unveil the microbial biodiversity, novel metabolic capabilities and chemosynthetic primary production of subsurface ecosystems, such as those found in caves. Leveraging a powerful blend of geospatial, molecular and biogeochemical approaches this project expects to identify the microbial basis of subsurface biogeochemical processes driving the earth’s major elementary cycles. Expected outcomes include a pred ....Cave microbial metabolism as a missing biogeochemical sink. The aim of this project is to unveil the microbial biodiversity, novel metabolic capabilities and chemosynthetic primary production of subsurface ecosystems, such as those found in caves. Leveraging a powerful blend of geospatial, molecular and biogeochemical approaches this project expects to identify the microbial basis of subsurface biogeochemical processes driving the earth’s major elementary cycles. Expected outcomes include a predictive framework to assess and upscale the impact of these microbial communities on the environment. Benefits include predicting and responding to climate risks, such as the desertification of agricultural soils, by uncovering how microorganisms respond to nutrient and carbon depletion.Read moreRead less
The mobilome of the anaerobic methanotrophic archaea Methanoperedenaceae. Microorganisms play a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate, but how they are affected by our rapidly changing environment is not well understood. This Discovery project will study a group of microorganisms found in freshwater sediment that can consume the potent greenhouse gas methane before it is released into the atmosphere. We have developed new methods to investigate how genetic material is exchanged between mic ....The mobilome of the anaerobic methanotrophic archaea Methanoperedenaceae. Microorganisms play a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate, but how they are affected by our rapidly changing environment is not well understood. This Discovery project will study a group of microorganisms found in freshwater sediment that can consume the potent greenhouse gas methane before it is released into the atmosphere. We have developed new methods to investigate how genetic material is exchanged between microorganisms, and how this helps them adapt to environmental changes. Together, this will ultimately help us develop better climate change prediction models and contribute to our understanding of microbial communities that are crucial for environmental health.Read moreRead less
Deciphering the coral minimal microbiome. This project aims to decipher the functions of coral-associated bacteria by taking advantage of low-diversity microbiomes that are naturally found in some coral species. A further aim is to unveil the importance of bacterial genome evolution in coral adaptation to climate change. Climate warming is the biggest threat to coral reefs with half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) corals dead due to recent summer heat waves. Expected outcomes are an incr ....Deciphering the coral minimal microbiome. This project aims to decipher the functions of coral-associated bacteria by taking advantage of low-diversity microbiomes that are naturally found in some coral species. A further aim is to unveil the importance of bacterial genome evolution in coral adaptation to climate change. Climate warming is the biggest threat to coral reefs with half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) corals dead due to recent summer heat waves. Expected outcomes are an increased understanding of how bacteria contribute to coral heat tolerance, and new knowledge to assist in the development of bacterial probiotics for enhancing coral thermal tolerance. This should provide significant benefits to the protection of the GBR and Australia’s economy.Read moreRead less
An evolutionary landscape to better predict our future climate. Soil microbial communities are the most complicated and difficult to study on Earth, but their effects on our climate are profound. This project will examine the evolution of microorganisms and their viruses in soil using novel methods. It will uncover how the evolution of one microbial species influences the evolution of other community members. It will also apply a new model of evolution to the viruses that infect these microorgan ....An evolutionary landscape to better predict our future climate. Soil microbial communities are the most complicated and difficult to study on Earth, but their effects on our climate are profound. This project will examine the evolution of microorganisms and their viruses in soil using novel methods. It will uncover how the evolution of one microbial species influences the evolution of other community members. It will also apply a new model of evolution to the viruses that infect these microorganisms, constructing a viral ‘tree of life’. This improved fundamental understanding of soil communities will be used to study climate feedback from permafrost wetlands, a key and poorly constrained input of global climate models, improving predictions of our future climate.Read moreRead less
Probiotics for the ocean. This project aims to investigate how bacteria can improve the growth, health and environmental adaptation of marine seaweeds (macroalgae). By using new knowledge of microbial functions and innovative approaches in experimental ecology the project will develop bacterial consortia that benefit seaweeds. It is anticipated that these bacteria will constitute novel marine probiotics that can be used to enhance and protect the performance of macroalgae in their natural enviro ....Probiotics for the ocean. This project aims to investigate how bacteria can improve the growth, health and environmental adaptation of marine seaweeds (macroalgae). By using new knowledge of microbial functions and innovative approaches in experimental ecology the project will develop bacterial consortia that benefit seaweeds. It is anticipated that these bacteria will constitute novel marine probiotics that can be used to enhance and protect the performance of macroalgae in their natural environment or in aquaculture systems. Such outcomes may contribute to safeguarding marine ecosystems against anthropogenic stressors (such as pollutants) and provide opportunities for the development of a blue economy.Read moreRead less
Global integration of microbial community and climate data. Microbial communities in the environment control the cycling of carbon and nutrients on Earth, but climate models do not directly incorporate microbial inputs. This interdisciplinary project will link planetary-scale climate modelling data with novel large-scale microbial community analysis, using climate information to provide insight into the fantastic diversity of microbial processes on our planet. The interdisciplinary approach will ....Global integration of microbial community and climate data. Microbial communities in the environment control the cycling of carbon and nutrients on Earth, but climate models do not directly incorporate microbial inputs. This interdisciplinary project will link planetary-scale climate modelling data with novel large-scale microbial community analysis, using climate information to provide insight into the fantastic diversity of microbial processes on our planet. The interdisciplinary approach will inform the next generation of climate models and better predict our future climate’s feedbacks. Conversely, it will make progress on the grand challenge of understanding microbial community function by enabling microbial ecology to be treated as a data-intensive machine learning problem.Read moreRead less
Atmospheric carbon fixation: a novel microbial process in Antarctic soils. This project aims to challenge our global understanding of carbon fixation. In most ecosystems, phototrophy supports higher-trophic life, yet no genetic evidence for photosynthesis exists in Antarctic desert soils. The project will determine the significance of atmospheric chemotrophy, a microbial driven process based on the consumption of atmospheric gases that it is proposed supports energy maintenance and biomass assim ....Atmospheric carbon fixation: a novel microbial process in Antarctic soils. This project aims to challenge our global understanding of carbon fixation. In most ecosystems, phototrophy supports higher-trophic life, yet no genetic evidence for photosynthesis exists in Antarctic desert soils. The project will determine the significance of atmospheric chemotrophy, a microbial driven process based on the consumption of atmospheric gases that it is proposed supports energy maintenance and biomass assimilation in nutrient-starved Antarctic desert soils. Additionally, the project will establish if these processes are structuring soil microbial communities, particularly in response to climate change. The expected project outcome is knowledge of primary production at the nutritional limits of life. This should provide significant benefit, such as a shift in our knowledge of the biological sciences as a new minimalistic mode of primary production.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101310
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,582.00
Summary
A unique and overlooked microbial process scavenging two greenhouse gases. This project aims to perform the first-ever systematic investigation of a novel microbial process, in which two potent gases (methane and nitric oxide) responsible for the climate change are metabolized simultaneously. This process is suggested to be universal in early and modern Earth's aquatic systems, which is a potential but overlooked microbial sink for methane and nitric oxide. By identifying the responsible organis ....A unique and overlooked microbial process scavenging two greenhouse gases. This project aims to perform the first-ever systematic investigation of a novel microbial process, in which two potent gases (methane and nitric oxide) responsible for the climate change are metabolized simultaneously. This process is suggested to be universal in early and modern Earth's aquatic systems, which is a potential but overlooked microbial sink for methane and nitric oxide. By identifying the responsible organisms and their metabolic pathway, this project represents a critical step towards a full understanding of their roles in affecting the greenhouse gas emission. This understanding will also enable us to more reliably predict the global climate change, which is one of the most significant challenges in the 21st Century.Read moreRead less