From Dusk till Dawn: Integrating genomic and environmental data to elucidate metabolic and energetic fluxes in Arctic microbial ecosystems

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Oliver Ebenhöh; Dr. Katja Metfies
• Subject Area: Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology ; Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 433071321

MOSAiC is an international, large-scale Arctic climate and ecosystemresearch expedition, in which the icebreaker RV Polarstern drifts oneyear across the Central Arctic Ocean, frozen in the ice. During thisMOSAiC drift expedition, we will collect environmental samples of theCentral Arctic Ocean at five different depths on a weekly basis for 16weeks during the transition period from polar day to polar night.These samples will be subjected to meta-barcoding, meta-genomic andmeta-transcriptomic sequencing to follow changes in communitystructure, genetic potential and active functions during this periodof rapid change. In addition, we will collect daily samples throughoutthe whole year from the upper pelagic zone for 16S and 18Smeta-barcoding. This unique, high-resolution samples will complementthe annual time-series based on weekly samples, which are obtained inthe context of the overall MOSAiC expedition. As partners of MOSAiC wewill have access to all data of the expedition, and thus to anunprecedented time series of the temporal evolution of the Arcticmarine microbiome over a complete year, with a particularly highresolution during the critical transition phase from summer towinter. Our objective is to integrate the information from geneticdata, species abundances and metabolic potential with environmentaland physico-chemical data. This will allow us to construct mechanisticmathematical models describing the community dynamics and themetabolic and nutrient fluxes between community members and theenvironment. These models, developed based on comprehensive data withunprecedented temporal resolution, will help understanding thefunctioning of the Arctic marine microbial ecosystem, allow assessingits contribution to global material and energy cycles, revealstabilising and destabilising factors, pursuing the overall aim topredict how ecosystem dynamics respond to changing environmentalparameters as are expected due to global climate change.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants