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POLARPROG-Polarforskningsprogram

Microorganisms in the arctic: major drivers of biogeochemical cycles and climate change

Awarded: NOK 1.2 mill.

Arctic soils are currently the focus of intense research due to their recognized vulnerability to climate change, in particular with respect to the unknown consequences of warming on the enormous carbon reserves that are currently sequestered in permafros t. In order to understand how carbon processing by microorganisms occurs in the Arctic and how these processes are impacted by climate change we propose a combination of state-of-the-art sequencing technologies to reveal the identities and functions of th e key players in this ecosystem. Increasing our confidence in climate projections for Arctic regions will require a coordinated set of investigations that target improved process understanding and model representation of important ecosystem-climate feedba cks. This proposal focuses on understanding the role of microbial communities in cycling of carbon and regulation of greenhouse gas fluxes. Microbes are recognized as key players in these processes, yet their contribution is poorly incorporated into exist ing climate models. This deficiency is due to the difficulty in study of largely uncultivated and unknown permafrost microbes. The microbial data will be correlated to environmental data collected from the site. Throughout the project we plan to use a var iety of sequencing approaches to determine the phylogenetic and functional composition of the microbial community in permafrost soil. The project aims to strengthen our ongoing collaboration on Arctic research. Lise Øvreås was awarded the Fulbright Arctic Chair for 2012/2013 and have spent 7 months in Janet Janssons lab at LBNL (California). Due to the common research interests between our two labs it would be extremely valuable to continue this research collaboration focusing on Arctic microbiology. This proposal will highly benefit the NRC mission to understand the major biogeochemical cycles and how they correlate to cycling processes in the environment, which is critical to future global change scenarios.

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Funding scheme:

POLARPROG-Polarforskningsprogram