Project Details
Projekt
Deep biosphere quantification in various marine sediments
Applicant
Professor Dr. Axel Schippers
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2008 to 2013
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 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 Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
