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Projekt
Deep biosphere quantification in various marine sediments
Antragsteller
Professor Dr. Axel Schippers
Fachliche Zuordnung
Paläontologie
Förderung
Förderung von 2008 bis 2013
Projektkennung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 86504692
Considering the heterogeneity of the various deeply-buried marine sediments and the currently available limited data set on numbers of living microorganisms, reliable global estimates of the size of the deep biosphere can not be drawn yet. The overall goal of the project is therefore the comparative, quantitative microbial community analysis of different sediment sites (open ocean, continental margin, upwelling area) to gain knowledge for the marine deep biosphere in general and to enable an update of global estimates of the deep biosphere. The molecular quantification techniques real-time PCR (Q-PCR) and Catalyzed Reporter Deposition - Fluorescence In Situ Hybridisation (CARD - FISH) established within the previous projects shall be verified and if necessary improved and applied to deeply-buried sediment samples from the Expedition 313 New Jersey Shallow Shelf, from North Pond area in 7 Ma Western Flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge 23°N, and from the Benguela upwelling area off Namibia. In addition, the effect of heating on the microbial community will be studied in incubation experiments to clarify the present contradictions in the literature regarding which prokaryotes dominate sub-seafloor sediments.
DFG-Verfahren
Infrastruktur-Schwerpunktprogramme
