Quantum-enabled nano-scale rheology of the microbial seawater environment

微生物海水环境的量子纳米级流变学

• 批准号: EP/X035905/1
• 负责人: Daniele Faccio
• 金额: $ 40.72万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX035905%2F1
• 关键词: Quantum; enabled; nano; scale; rheology

Despite appearances, a single drop of seawater is teeming with life. Even more surprising perhaps, is that this microscopic life has a huge influence on both the oceans and our climate. Microorganisms such as phytoplankton and bacteria interact with each other in complex ways that ultimately determine both productivity (how much algae is available at the base of the food web, leading to differences in fish populations and fisheries) and carbon storage in the deep ocean (helping to mitigate climate change). Over the past few decades we have come to realise that these microorganisms live in a world that is patchy - that is their food sources and predators are not spread evenly, even at scales of around 100 micrometres (1/10 of a mm). This microscale patchiness is strongly determined by the way nutrients and other chemicals move at smaller, even nanometric scales.We have recently developed a novel quantum sensing scheme that, when combined with a specific class of fluorescent molecules, can sense nano-scale viscosity in water-environments, therefore outclassing previous classical techniques that can only operate at the micro-scale or at very high viscosities. We aim to further improve our recent demonstration of this technique by optimising the photon sources and also the sensors for the detection of photon pairs.Therefore, by using a range of cutting-edge quantum sensing techniques we will be able to obtain a clear idea of what the nanoscale and microscale environment looks like to a microbe. We will take advantage of new methods to measure viscosity at small scales, microfluidic devices that now allow us to study behavioural responses of individual microbes and of populations in the lab, and novel theory to demonstrate the existence of these processes in real life. Our aim is to consolidate a new field of quantum-enabled nanorheology and to then use this to reveal the 'hidden' impact of small-scale differences in viscosity on the interactions between marine microorganisms and ultimately ocean and climate dynamics. The results generated by this project will improve our understanding of marine microbial interactions in localised areas, but will also help inform global biogeochemical and climate models that rely on accurate estimates of microbial productivity.

尽管出现了，但一滴海水仍充满生命。也许更令人惊讶的是，这种微观生活对海洋和我们的气候都有巨大的影响。诸如浮游植物和细菌等微生物以复杂的方式相互相互作用，最终决定了生产力（在食物网的底部有多少藻类，导致鱼群种群和渔业的差异）和深海中的碳存储差异（有助于缓解气候变化）。在过去的几十年中，我们已经意识到，这些微生物生活在一个斑驳的世界中 - 即使在大约100微米（1/10毫米）的尺度上，他们的食物来源和捕食者也不会均匀散布。这种显微镜斑块是由营养和其他化学物质以较小甚至纳米尺度移动的方式来确定的。我们最近开发了一种新型的量子传感方案，当与特定类别的荧光分子结合使用时，它可以感觉到纳米规模的粘度，因此可以在先前的经典技术中高高地位或高较高的访问量来进行水平的速度。我们旨在通过优化光子源以及检测光子对的传感器来进一步改善我们对该技术的最新演示。因此，通过使用一系列尖端的量子传感技术，我们将能够清楚地了解纳米级和微观环境对微生物的外观。我们将利用新方法来测量小尺度，微流体设备的粘度，这些设备现在使我们能够研究实验室中单个微生物和人群的行为反应，以及新的理论以证明这些过程在现实生活中的存在。我们的目的是巩固一个新的支持量子的纳米干酪学领域，然后使用它来揭示小型粘度差异对海洋微生物以及最终海洋和气候动态之间相互作用的“隐藏”影响。该项目产生的结果将提高我们对本地区域中海洋微生物相互作用的理解，但还将有助于为全球生物地球化学和气候模型提供依赖于微生物生产力的准确估计的全球生物地球化学模型。