Collaborative Research: Teasing apart coexisting cyanobacteria in the Laurentian Great Lakes

合作研究：梳理劳伦森五大湖中共存的蓝藻

• 批准号: 1830002
• 负责人: Anne Thompson
• 金额: $ 6.29万
• 依托单位: Portland State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1830002&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Teasing; apart; coexisting

The Laurentian Great Lakes hold 20% of our planet's surface freshwater and 84% of US surface freshwater, comprising the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth. They provide critical ecosystem services such as fisheries and recreation, and serve as the drinking water source to 40 million people. In recent decades, the Great Lakes have experienced significant environmental changes, such as nutrient pollution and invasive species, that have altered water chemistry and food web structure. In particular, the base of the food web has changed dramatically. Annual spring phytoplankton blooms have largely disappeared in Lakes Michigan and Huron, while toxic cyanobacterial blooms have increased in Lake Erie. The microorganisms that make up the base of the food web in the Great Lakes are poorly understood and play critical roles in regulating water quality and ecosystem productivity. This project characterizes single-celled cyanobacteria across the Laurentian Great Lakes to understand their genetic diversity and ecology. The investigators are working with local high schools on Chicago's south side to develop teaching modules about the role of microorganisms in the health of the Great Lakes. Local high school teachers will be engaged to design lessons about aquatic microbial ecology, with the goal of increasing Great Lakes literacy and STEM participation in Chicago's impoverished and diverse south side communities. Picocyanobacteria contribute up to 50% of primary production in some portions of the Laurentian Great Lakes. However, little is known about their population structure and dynamics, or about factors shaping their abundance and activity. Understanding controls on picocyanobacterial diversity and function is crucial for developing predictive biogeochemical models for the Great Lakes in the face of rapid environmental change. Multiple phylogenetic groups of coexisting picocyanobacteria in the Great Lakes have recently been identified, and this project characterizes their genetic, physiological, and ecological diversity. Using a combination of flow cytometry and molecular sequencing approaches, distinct populations are being quantified across lakes, depths, and seasons, and comparative genomics is being used to reveal how pathways and genes are distributed across taxa and habitats. Quantitative transcriptomics and proteomics are being used to diagnose environmental controls on gene expression and to assess the relative activity of distinct populations. Ongoing time series data and archived samples are being combined with targeted sampling aboard the R/V Blue Heron. This project advances our knowledge of the Great Lakes microbial food web by generating the first systematic picture of picocyanobacterial diversity in this ecosystem.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

劳伦森五大湖拥有地球表面淡水的 20% 和美国地表淡水的 84%，构成了地球上最大的淡水生态系统。它们提供渔业和娱乐等重要的生态系统服务，并为 4000 万人提供饮用水源。近几十年来，五大湖经历了重大的环境变化，例如营养物污染和入侵物种，改变了水化学和食物网结构。特别是，食物网的基础发生了巨大变化。密歇根湖和休伦湖每年春季的浮游植物大量繁殖已经基本消失，而伊利湖的有毒蓝藻大量繁殖却有所增加。人们对构成五大湖食物网基础的微生物知之甚少，但它们在调节水质和生态系统生产力方面发挥着关键作用。该项目对劳伦森五大湖的单细胞蓝藻进行了表征，以了解其遗传多样性和生态。研究人员正在与芝加哥南区的当地高中合作，开发有关微生物在五大湖健康中的作用的教学模块。当地高中教师将参与设计有关水生微生物生态学的课程，目标是提高芝加哥贫困且多样化的南区社区的五大湖素养和 STEM 参与度。在劳伦五大湖的某些地区，微微蓝藻占初级生产力的 50%。然而，人们对它们的种群结构和动态，或影响其数量和活动的因素知之甚少。了解对微微蓝细菌多样性和功能的控制对于开发五大湖面临快速环境变化的预测生物地球化学模型至关重要。最近已鉴定出五大湖中共存的微微蓝细菌的多个系统发育群，该项目描述了它们的遗传、生理和生态多样性。结合流式细胞术和分子测序方法，可以对不同湖泊、深度和季节的不同种群进行量化，并使用比较基因组学来揭示途径和基因如何在类群和栖息地中分布。定量转录组学和蛋白质组学被用来诊断基因表达的环境控制并评估不同群体的相对活动。持续的时间序列数据和存档样本正在与 R/V Blue Heron 上的目标采样相结合。该项目通过生成第一张关于五大湖生态系统中微微蓝藻多样性的系统图景，增进了我们对五大湖微生物食物网的了解。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。